2. amps-preamps
  3. 985704116

Which Amp Where?

I have the Paradigm (11skm)? towers for mains and the CC-300 for the center and ADP-450 for surrounds. I use the Yamaha DSP-3090 with DTS upgrade for Preamp. I have the following Yamaha 2 channel amps....M-60(150wpc) running the highs and mids on main speakers, the MX-830(150wpc) running the low end on the mains, the M-70(200wpc) "L" channel running the high on the center channel and the "R" channel running the lows on the center channel. I use the M-4(125wpc) for the rear surrounds. QUESTION: Is there a better amp set-up I could be using? The M-60 has that class "A" thing so I thought that it would be good for highs and mids on the mains, also, the MX-830 has never even hinted at the protection lights no matter how hard I drive the mains, whereas the M-70 has those peak meters and they are "pegged" when I drive the mains. It seems that is not good for the amp, I don't know. ALL opinions welcome. Some of the members here are more familiar with these amps than I am, so feel free to let me know. Thanks Jack
jflood
7 responses Add your response
jflood OP
6 posts
 
Clarification: I don't want to replace amps just configure them to best suite the system.
jkphoto
167 posts
 
When is this happening? On what kind of material? What kindHow is your surround processor set up with respect to the Center Channel? Large? Is the signal balanced (Radio Shack db meter) etc?
sean
6,231 posts
 
Jack, i ran a Yamaha M-80 for a short period of time and found the meters to be extremely "loose". According to them, i was constantly hitting 500+ watt peaks at very reasonable listening levels. I would disregard the meters completely and go by what your ears tell you. For the record, i found this to be a very solid amp for the money. It actually embarrased a Bryston 4B that i had just gotten back from their U.S. service facility. Sean
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jflood OP
6 posts
 
JKphoto, I think Sean answered the question about the yamaha meters. Should I necassarily have the most powerful amp running the lows on my main speakers? or should I run the most powerful amp to the highs and midrange. Or should I try to use the best quality amp for highs and midrange and forget the power thing all together?
If it were your system, which amp would you put where?
jflood OP
6 posts
 
Sorry JKPHOTO, mains set large, center set large, rears set to large. I have two subs sunfire mkII and a Advent 15'down firing with the bob carver 250watt amp
jkphoto
167 posts
 
JFlood - sounds like the issue(s) may be with the meters and not the setup as I began to query about. To answer the other questions, in general, larger power to the bottom, better sounding to the top. Sounds like that is what you have done. Other issue that raises is how do you balance the output from both amps - they may have different input sensitivities and have to be equalized. Also I am not familiar with the speakers ... do you need some sort of external crossover to accomplish the bi-amping?
jflood OP
6 posts
 
no, I guess it is not really bi-amping. I just take out the jumper connects on the speakers and the low end gets a channel from one amp and the high and mid-range get a channel from a different amp. Do they call this biwiring or bi amping. I am still using the internal crossovers in the speakers.
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