Amplification help. Trying to add an amp, please help.

[3pt8 turbo]

so im looking to increase the performance of my speakers, specifically for two channel listening. I currently have a yamaha v2700 attached to dynaudio speakers for 5.1 surround sound. for two channel audio, it is definitely not enough, so i was thinkin about adding a 2 channel amp, something to thelikes of a parasound halo a23. but im thinking, would this affect my 5.1 home theater experience. with the parasound powering th fronts, the center and rears would be lacking and would i end up having a weird 5.1 experience? am i better off getting a 5 channel amp instead? any input is helpful. thanks.

[pierreb]

that scary. the most important thing you have to do is level your speakers so the same volume can be heard from each speaker at your ideal listening position. adding amps may affect this result, in which case you compensate with your receiver's built-in level adjustments.

typically, your frontstage (lf, rf and center) does the most work so it makes sense to add amps just for that. 2-channel and often 3-channel amps are quite common for this exact purpose.

[myfirstimport]

after i ran mine setup, i sat and listend to my set up. A tweek here and there over the nest week or so, and i have been rock solid.

Your 2700 should be plenty ballsy to run those 2 speakers in 2 channel mode.

[BeeRock::Riding Red]

[Rubberduckie]

I know many Yamaha owners here aren't going to want to read this, but Dynaudio speakers deserve something with a lot more speaker driving ability. Yamaha receivers (except the RXZ-11) have a bad enough time with 6 Ohm loads, let alone 4 Ohm loads (and you'll hear a lot of people saying "My speakers are 6 ohm and I have a Yamaha receiver and I couldn't be happier." but until a comparo is done with a similarly priced stereo integrated amplifier they aren't going to know any better).

Most bookshelf Dynaudio speakers are 4 Ohm loads. That's only part of the problem too. Yamaha receivers work well enough for movies, but when used with quality speakers, they show their weaknesses when playing music.
If you have tower Dynaudios it's likely they are 6 Ohm. Still well worth giving them a new lease of life with an integrated amplifier.

If you mostly listen to music you may want to consider a different approach.

You could go with an integrated stereo amplifier with a Home Theater by-pass feature (Cambridge 'Azure 840', Prima Luna 'Dialog' for example) and therefore have the pre-out front L&R of your Yamaha fed into the stereo amplifier. The HT by-pass allows the stereo amp to work purely as a power amp when this input is selected so the volume on the Yamaha is consistent with all channels out. Your HT components (DVD, cable or satellite etc) will hook into the Yamaha still, but your music sources go straight into the integrated amplifer and straight out to your Dynaudios.

I've set-up a number of systems where two channel using a stereo integrated amplifier combined with a surround receiver with good results. I had a similar set-up myself until I dropped surround sound altogether (my listening is 95% music, 5% movies).

I even had a Yamaha receiver (RXV-2400) in the mix. I compared to the Musical Fidelity A300 I had at the time driving my then PMC LB1 speakers (which in fact use Dynaudio drivers) and the RXV2400 struggled woefully where as the A300 made them sound glorious. The LB1's are a 6 Ohm load (89db sensitivity). The Yamaha's sound was gritting and unrefined compared with the A300's effortless delivery.

Corners are cut in many places to manufacture a feature-packed $1300 receiver and the first areas of economy are the sonics as most receivers these days are bought on (relatively) meanless specs such as wattage and compatibility with HD sources.

Adding a power amp to the Yamaha is another way of getting better results, but the problem with this way of doing things is you still feed your stereo/music sources through the Yamaha first, which isn't anywhere near as effective as going straight into a stereo integrated amplifier (with HT by-pass) first. With HT by-pass, your music sources don't go near the receiver if you don't want them to.

[HIS4]

Even the car audio drivers have been known to open up with about 200W per driver.

[2.7T_RT(toofast)]

@660WPC driving JBL 250Ti's.

:-)

Leaves the surround duties to the internal amps, which is good enough for HT. When I can make room for it, I'll be adding another vintage 80's Yamaha amp to drive the center channel.

[BeeRock::Riding Red]

[Steve K - AVDG]

Depends on a few things...

1) How loud do you want to listen?

2) How much money do you want to spend?

3) What's your priority, 2-channel or Multi-channel?

4) What model[s] of Dyn's do you have?

Dynaudio speakers range from relatively easy to drive [for a 4ohm speaker at least], to requiring something on the order of an arc-welder to make music [the old C5's come to mind here...*amazing* sound with the right amp, no sound without lots of very stable power]. Brings back some good memories...I want to own a pair of those things someday [Mmmm...Isobarik bass!].

I've had a few Dynaudio speakers over the years [Contour 1.3, Special 25, currently C1's]. The Contour 1.3's were driven most of their time with me with a Hovland Sapphire hybrid tube amp with ~40wpc, and performed quite well. Even though they're 4ohm speakers, and not terribly efficient, the smaller, more modern Dynaudio's have a very flat impedance curve that rarely [if ever?] dips below 3.5ohms, so while they may require a bit of power to play loud [the low efficiency thing], they don't put an unusually weird load on the amp like some of the models in generations past. In fact, there are more than a few "8ohm" speakers on the market that have much less stable impedance curves and are therefore much more difficult to drive.

Ideally, a nice 5-channel amp would give you a better and likely more balanced multi-channel experience, but a nice 2-channel amp would defiantly up the game for stereo listening and potentially save a few $$$ [or let you buy a better amp for the same outlay]. The Parasound stuff is nice, though I'd also take a look at Bryston...it's some of my favorite solid-state gear that doesn't require a 2nd mortgage. Sim Audio is another good option...they often demo with Dynaudio speakers at trade shows, and the results are typically quite musical...good synergy.

[Rubberduckie]