power amp upgrade

[hoojtune73]

hello there

looking for some help on the subject of upgrading my 2 rotel rb971 power amps

could it be worth spending over a grand on something like a densen or more powerful rotel and reaping any benifits without changing the rc 850 pre amp?

got a great sound now really but cant help sounding like the 15 year old amps are running out of puff a bit when the going gets a bit louder and rockier!

does a power amp actually influence the sound that much or does it just do what the pre tells it to?

thanks in advance for any help

matt

 

[toyota man]

The Musical Fidelity M6PRX power amp is a real power house 260W per channel .it will dig up bags of realy deep bass you will here things when listening that you havent noticed before I would go listen . enjoy your journey

 

[hoojtune73]

sounds good but would it be wasted with a cheap pre amp?

 

[bluedroog]

I'm very happy with my Quad 909, the newer Elite range is very similar.

 

[newtohifijkt]

i had the following experience when i was buying my pmc speakers.

we tested it with the following amp configurations:

1. Rotel integrated RA 06

2. Rotel separate pre-power combo 15 series (forgot the exact model)

3. Rotel integrated RA 06 as pre-amp, connected to Rotel power amp (same in no 2 above).

The result of (1) vs (2) was crystal clear. There was absolutely a different sonic quality. The separate system is in different league. (and so did the price, which is 4x of the integrated)

But when we tested (3), I hope that the sound wil be somewhat in between. Nope. The sound was even closer / similar to (1). Even if there was sound difference between (1) and (3), i think it was little anyway that I didn't feel immediate difference.

Even the slam of the bass in (3) was similar to (1), which is a much downgrade from (2). Although I was testing it with the same 200 wattts power amp in configuration (2).......clearly the pre-amp also controls how good the bass sound is

be careful then. you may not get meaningful sound upgrade by just changing the power amp.

 

[bluedroog]

Aside from the room after speakers I think the pre-amp section has the next biggest influence on the sound assuming the amp is capable of driving the speakers. Considering many budget integrated amps have a poor pre stage when I upgraded my Alpha 8 (integrated) with a Quad 909 (power) and didn’t have a proper pre in some respects the sound took a backwards step as I was using a DAC with cheap variable volume pot as a pre. When I later added a proper pre (in my case one with a tube stage) it trounced my previous set-up.

Without a good pre the sound is in danger of feeling flat and lacking dynamics, once I the pre was in place bass was much improved, the sound had depth and just sounded more lifelike and enjoyable. My toes started tapping again.

 

[hoojtune73]

ah cool thanks for that,maybe finding a dealer that will let me try my rotel pre against a more upmarket model would be a start

im with you on the cheap pot thing bluedroog,i tried my diy alps blue 20k pot in line a few times and although the sound is crystal clear it lacks something that an active gives (prob dynamics or something!)

anyway theese issues only started scince living in a detatched gaff and asking more of my budget gear :doh: