okay - so i have established that i would like to keep my current receiver since i cannot think of any feature that a newer one would actually provide to my personal circumstances BUT the receiver in question does not provide a shed-load of power to my speakers and i for one believe in the concept of headroom ie given loads of power i do not necessarily need to translate that into extra volume or SPL but it can surely increase control over the speakers and make them sound less strained as i increase volume when i want, hence giving me some kind of improvement ..... so even though i dont need it louder or stronger i just want the facility to go effortlessly loud when i am so inclined with less distortion and speaker breakup caused by clipping my amplifiers when they run out of breath
so in order to do this i want to experiment a bit with stuff that is not so expensive before i finally decide on what i would like to really have as my permanent finalized amplification and i know that some members here have experimented with what i propose as well hence i would like some thoughts and advice from these people
what i intend to do is to use a power amp hooked up to my receiver for just the front channels for now - and hence because it is relatively cheap to use pro amplification i want to try a crown XLS 1000 drivecore unit so here goes the questions
1) is using a pro amp wise or otherwise, no matter how good/bad it is regarded
2) the signal to noise ratio on this particular model is lower than the figures obtained by other models in the same range - if the price difference is around R500 to R600 would i be better off instead in trying out those models instead ie this one has a figure of 97db while the xls 1500 and above all boast a figure of 102db
3) would more power be better .... ie will a speaker that requires 200 watts maximum enjoy exactly 200 watts or in terms of the concept of headroom will it enjoy 300 watts with less volume applied via the volume control (i do have my own thoughts on this but i would enjoy hearing other peoples opinions/arguments for or against this idea
4) is this a foolish idea and possibly spending a little extra on maybe something like an emotiva XPA3 even though it is more than twice the price be a far better idea or is the fact that my speakers are not entirely up the food chain a factor where the extra power benefits them more than a perceived gain in fidelity from an amplifier that is considered higher fidelity ..... in terms of this it would cost me around R10k to get the emotiva (which means i would have to wait a few months to do the experiment) or right now i can get the crown amps for a lot cheaper ie with retail prices being R5400 (excl) and R6200 (excl) for the XLS 1000 and 1500 respectively ...... note though i will be able to get them substantially cheaper than that through dealer buddies of mine
..... so do those prices justify the experimentation
worst that can happen is that the amp does not work out giving me the sound quality together with the effortless volume and control that im after ..... in which case i can still use it for a DIY subwoofer build where im pretty confident that it could possibly work out easier than using a plate amp (cos that also needs to be imported - whereas here i will already have this amp and i can possibly add a velodyne SMS 1 to add some extra processing to assist in low frequency processing duties)
BUT, and this is a big but if it does work out i can purchase a few more to create a pretty decent surround setup with substantial headroom that is capable of some oomph even if i dont use that oomph all the time (besides for when i want to live up to my forum nickname ) ..... the obvious benefit of doing this is that i would have 3 units with 6 channels of amp power for almost the price of one emotiva amp which will only give me two channels of amplification power hence if it does work decently im imagining a rack of a couple of these amps which can possibly be configured something like this
1) 2 x XLS 1500 to bi-amp the fronts
2) 2 x XLS 1000 for rears and rear surround
3) 1 x XLS 1500 for centre (using one channel only)
4) 1 x XLS 2500 for subwoofer duties with a pair of DIY subs and the afore-mentioned velodyne sms1 for processing
5) for now use the denon 2808 as a pre-processor and when that becomes obsolete and i need additional features (possibly things like 3D which does not need glasses etc then i get a new receiver which is all i would need to update each time to add extra features so no need for having large powerful receivers - any modern unit with pre-outs will do the job i require done so this will eventually decrease my upgrade costs
all of this is definitely dependent on how well this initial experiment turns out using one amp and obviously i can purchase the additional stuff as i need to instead of doing it all in one go but at least i will have an idea of the direction to go in - though if the experiment fails and the amp does not sound good i will be back to square one since i dont want to spend a fortune on amplification (totting up the cost of the 6 amplifiers i list above is around R28k .... if prices dont change and at prices i will pay but spread out over purchasing these one at a time over a long period as i can save up for them)
so will appreciate any thoughts, complaints, criticisms, idea's etc from anyone who has read all the way to this point ..... especially the guys who have tried out pro amplification with mid-fi speakers
so in order to do this i want to experiment a bit with stuff that is not so expensive before i finally decide on what i would like to really have as my permanent finalized amplification and i know that some members here have experimented with what i propose as well hence i would like some thoughts and advice from these people
what i intend to do is to use a power amp hooked up to my receiver for just the front channels for now - and hence because it is relatively cheap to use pro amplification i want to try a crown XLS 1000 drivecore unit so here goes the questions
1) is using a pro amp wise or otherwise, no matter how good/bad it is regarded
2) the signal to noise ratio on this particular model is lower than the figures obtained by other models in the same range - if the price difference is around R500 to R600 would i be better off instead in trying out those models instead ie this one has a figure of 97db while the xls 1500 and above all boast a figure of 102db
3) would more power be better .... ie will a speaker that requires 200 watts maximum enjoy exactly 200 watts or in terms of the concept of headroom will it enjoy 300 watts with less volume applied via the volume control (i do have my own thoughts on this but i would enjoy hearing other peoples opinions/arguments for or against this idea
4) is this a foolish idea and possibly spending a little extra on maybe something like an emotiva XPA3 even though it is more than twice the price be a far better idea or is the fact that my speakers are not entirely up the food chain a factor where the extra power benefits them more than a perceived gain in fidelity from an amplifier that is considered higher fidelity ..... in terms of this it would cost me around R10k to get the emotiva (which means i would have to wait a few months to do the experiment) or right now i can get the crown amps for a lot cheaper ie with retail prices being R5400 (excl) and R6200 (excl) for the XLS 1000 and 1500 respectively ...... note though i will be able to get them substantially cheaper than that through dealer buddies of mine
..... so do those prices justify the experimentation worst that can happen is that the amp does not work out giving me the sound quality together with the effortless volume and control that im after ..... in which case i can still use it for a DIY subwoofer build where im pretty confident that it could possibly work out easier than using a plate amp (cos that also needs to be imported - whereas here i will already have this amp and i can possibly add a velodyne SMS 1 to add some extra processing to assist in low frequency processing duties)
BUT, and this is a big but if it does work out i can purchase a few more to create a pretty decent surround setup with substantial headroom that is capable of some oomph even if i dont use that oomph all the time (besides for when i want to live up to my forum nickname
) ..... the obvious benefit of doing this is that i would have 3 units with 6 channels of amp power for almost the price of one emotiva amp which will only give me two channels of amplification power hence if it does work decently im imagining a rack of a couple of these amps which can possibly be configured something like this 1) 2 x XLS 1500 to bi-amp the fronts
2) 2 x XLS 1000 for rears and rear surround
3) 1 x XLS 1500 for centre (using one channel only)
4) 1 x XLS 2500 for subwoofer duties with a pair of DIY subs and the afore-mentioned velodyne sms1 for processing
5) for now use the denon 2808 as a pre-processor and when that becomes obsolete and i need additional features (possibly things like 3D which does not need glasses etc then i get a new receiver which is all i would need to update each time to add extra features so no need for having large powerful receivers - any modern unit with pre-outs will do the job i require done so this will eventually decrease my upgrade costs
all of this is definitely dependent on how well this initial experiment turns out using one amp and obviously i can purchase the additional stuff as i need to instead of doing it all in one go but at least i will have an idea of the direction to go in - though if the experiment fails and the amp does not sound good i will be back to square one since i dont want to spend a fortune on amplification (totting up the cost of the 6 amplifiers i list above is around R28k .... if prices dont change and at prices i will pay but spread out over purchasing these one at a time over a long period as i can save up for them)
so will appreciate any thoughts, complaints, criticisms, idea's etc from anyone who has read all the way to this point
..... especially the guys who have tried out pro amplification with mid-fi speakers
