AVR Fatigue in Music - Multi Channel Power Amp or Stereo / Integrated Power Amp

WishTree

Well-known member
May 18, 2010
107
1
18,595
Visit site
I love the convenience of AVR with single cable HDMI connectivity,easy switching, room calibration and a lot valuable center Channel convenience - All this is great for Movie watching and I would not trade my AVR for anything else when comes to movies (Home Cinema is NOT dead;) )

But of late, I am sensing a lot of fatigue with extended sessions of music listening (more than 30-60 min of music listening). Apparently none / most of the recent receivers reviews that I have read talk about the fatigue factor where as when I read the reviews from older times (late 90's / early 2000), mostly Stereo Amps reviews, they have some mention of fatigue factor.

Is Fatigue addressed effectively by modern AVR and so no one talks about them any more? Though I want to know answer for this purely academic reasons, I am actually looking for a solution for Some unfortunate souls like me, who might still be having challenges with fatigue.

Can this be solved by adding a Power Amplifier to AVR and if yes what factors should be considered? I have been reading a little more about the Power Amps (Both Multichannel and Stereo Power Amps) and I am trying to get a realistic understanding about

1) Wattage Output - I kind of remember reading at many places that a 200WPC stereo Power Amp will beat a 100WPC stereo Power Amp in terms of SQ even at lower volumes and give more full base. I am actually considering Rotel RB990BX. Please advice if this will help in reducing the fatigue (as the distortion might be very low due to a dedicated stereo Power Amp)

2) Damping Factor - These number are tough to decrypt for me. Some are in 100s and for some amps it is more than a 1000 and it feels like a mssive jump. Does this mean anything for a modern day loudspeaker (like CM7 that I have) and if I don't intend to change my speakers in near to medium future?

3) MultiChannel vs Stereo Power Amps - Here comes the monetary part. It looks like a well maintained 200WPC stereo power amp could be obtained for 500 Pounds where as even for 140-160WPC 7 channel Power amp (NAD 25M or T975) would cost upward 1500 Pounds used. I am sure that Per watt price of a Multichannel power amp is cheaper but given the fact that this trigger is primarily to reduce the fatigue, would a multichannel power amp makes sense? The other argument could be I could take the path of separates in AV and the Multichannel Power Amp would serve almost for eternity.

4) Integrated vs Power Stereo Amp - I tried integrated before but they are too expensive when I looked at Per Watt pricing and SQ was not hugely enhanced (With Maratnz PM7003) but if some one strongly believes that this is a good alternatively please make specific suggestions

I am fine to spend up to 2000 Pounds (primarily from the used market but the lesser the better) on the power amps only if some one else also believes that I am going to benefit for sure.

Also please recommend any other Power Amps which I should consider from 500 to 2000 Pound price range. I know it is wide but I am like rest of us (if we believe that a 1000 pound more spending today will seal the SQ for sure in a lot better way why not?!)

I primarily listen to my music through Mac Mini and for sure I want to retain AVR or some other separate which accepts HDMI.

Looking forward to read from you.
 

pwiles1968

New member
Mar 22, 2009
153
0
0
Visit site
Which AV amp are you running, I run a AV Power amp combo with just the front Stereo pair Bi-Wired and dont suffer excessively with fatigue, I would have thought that Fatigue was more about the sound presentation of the pre-amp/DAC in the AV, I would say a brighter more forward sounding system being worse that a Warm sounding system, music type, And Volume. unless you are getting distortion I am not sure a power amp would change the situation, you may be better off looking for an AV amp that is more Musical than your current Unit.

Having said that Marantz have just released 5ch and 2ch power amplifiers the 2ch is around £800 I think, they are also releasing a new AV Amp that is supposed to be very good in 2ch, SR7006 I think.
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts