# High End Home Theater Amplifier Recomendation



## bassfeen (Dec 16, 2013)

Hi All,

Wanted to post on here to get peoples opinions on Home Theatre Amplifiers. I have been contemplating allot past few months on amplification required for Home Theatre Environments. Especially when we are building High End Home Theatre Systems.

After using the ATI 3007 Amplifier and running all 7 Channels driving Danley Speakers I realised the amplification would run out of steam during explosive scenes. The dynamics would sounded more constrained causing some audible level of distortion. The Danleys are 100 DB speakers yet the amplifier would still struggle. This has lead me to start moving into Mono Blocks for the front LCR where all the action takes place. Leaving the rest of the channels being driven by a Multichannel Amplifier. The balance of power needed for the front LCR would not matter anymore as each amp has its own power.

At the moment im running the Following:

Datasat RS20i
ATI 3007
Danley SH50 (Front Two)
Danley SH69 (Centre Channel)
SH100 for all 4 Surrounds.
Seaton Subs X 4.

I would like some opinions and recommendation on Front LCR Amplifiers.

I have considered the following so far:
ATI 6007 Amplifier
Crown (Which Crown series is the best)
ADA Amplifiers PF2500 & there 7 channel amplifiers.
Moon Audio Titan
MC2 Amplifiers S Series (Designed for Studios)


If I am looking into Mono Blocks, I have look at some Class A Amplifier Such as the Pass Labs or the MSB Amplifiers 203. However Class A will run hot in the room and not sure if anyone actually uses Class Amplifiers for home Theatres and even high end??? Or am I being silly about this all.

Can Pro Audio Amplifiers give high level of Sonics with enough clean power? If So which are one of the best available today with low SNR? Low Distortion and good clean power?


My Sound taste is slightly Warmer tipping close to neutral. I may be interested in a Monoblock setup for the front LCR


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

How far away to you sit from those Danley? 

The ADA looks to be capable as do the Crown DriveCore series. Another recommendation is the QSC ISA series.

Depending on what you are looking for price wise there is also Emotiva

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/amplifiers/products/xpr1


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## 86eldel68-deactivated (Nov 30, 2010)

+1 to Emotiva. Another option is Outlaw Audio.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I agree, Emotiva is a great option and you dont need to break the bank with them.
I have two Samson amps in my rack that have been trouble free as well.


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## bassfeen (Dec 16, 2013)

Emotiva Amps are out of the questions, they do not suit well with High Sensitivity Speakers. I was looking for more a High End or Pro Studio Amplifiers which have low Noise floor. I had the UP1 over a year go drove me nuts with the hiss noise. The amplifiers are too noisy for anything above 93db.


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## Master Mind (May 28, 2013)

This information is new and interesting for me.


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## jbrown15 (Dec 7, 2011)

bassfeen said:


> Emotiva Amps are out of the questions, they do not suit well with High Sensitivity Speakers. I was looking for more a High End or Pro Studio Amplifiers which have low Noise floor. I had the UP1 over a year go drove me nuts with the hiss noise. The amplifiers are too noisy for anything above 93db.


Hmmm I'm surprised you think that. The XPR series from Emotiva has a lower amp gain. I have JTR speakers which have a very high sensitivity and I know from other threads that there's quite a few owners of JTR speakers that have used Emotiva amps with no complaints.


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## jbrown15 (Dec 7, 2011)

eljay said:


> +1 to Emotiva. Another option is Outlaw Audio.


Please correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't ATI make Outlaw Audio's amp for them? 

I wonder how the two compare as far as the pricing goes.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

You can look at the Bryston 9BSTT pro, but its expensive. I fits in my lottery win HT 

The Brystons gain requirement decreases depending on the input voltage of the preamp. At 4 volts its only 17


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## cubiclecrusher (May 21, 2013)

No Parasound Halo recommendations here? I'd love to get my hands on the A51.

I have a Crown XLS 1500 Drive Core. It's pretty good, but I'm not 100% happy with the noise floor - though I haven't ruled out dirty-power issues yet.


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## knecht (Dec 27, 2013)

bassfeen said:


> Emotiva Amps are out of the questions, they do not suit well with High Sensitivity Speakers. I was looking for more a High End or Pro Studio Amplifiers which have low Noise floor. I had the UP1 over a year go drove me nuts with the hiss noise. The amplifiers are too noisy for anything above 93db.


FWIW, I own an Emotiva XPR-5 and had it temporarily connected to a pair of Klipsch with 96db sensitivity and the noise floor was dead silent. I now have it connected to a pair of James Loudspeaker's with 95db sensitivity and still dead silent. You may want to take another look at them.


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## BamaDave (Dec 28, 2013)

cubiclecrusher said:


> No Parasound Halo recommendations here? I'd love to get my hands on the A51.
> 
> I have a Crown XLS 1500 Drive Core. It's pretty good, but I'm not 100% happy with the noise floor - though I haven't ruled out dirty-power issues yet.


I have a Parasound Halo A31 driving my fronts and it performs flawlessly. Certainly worth a look!


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## antoninus9 (Nov 25, 2013)

I used to own all McIntosh gear but several years ago a friend loaned me two Bryston 4BSTs. I liked them so well that I replaced the whole rack with Brystons. They've worked well with any speakers I've hooked up to them. 

I'm curious about the Emotiva amps but have never had one to compare with anything else. They offer a 30 day trial. Might be worth trying. I bought one of the processors and am very pleased with it.


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## prerich (Mar 26, 2008)

antoninus9 said:


> I used to own all McIntosh gear but several years ago a friend loaned me two Bryston 4BSTs. I liked them so well that I replaced the whole rack with Brystons. They've worked well with any speakers I've hooked up to them. I'm curious about the Emotiva amps but have never had one to compare with anything else. They offer a 30 day trial. Might be worth trying. I bought one of the processors and am very pleased with it.


The Emo is nice ...and not just for the money value! Heard an xpa2 I believe driving a pair of very tall Maggie's, beautiful!!!!

Sent from my iPad using HTShack


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## Pilot B (Aug 25, 2014)

Did you come to a decision? Datasat is a nice processor.



bassfeen said:


> Hi All,
> 
> Wanted to post on here to get peoples opinions on Home Theatre Amplifiers. I have been contemplating allot past few months on amplification required for Home Theatre Environments. Especially when we are building High End Home Theatre Systems.
> 
> ...


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I used to run the Classe amps... nice warm to neutral sound, but they are out of my league now. Now I will be running the Yamaha P2500s amps, and T chip amps (I am not sure if the T chip amps would be high end or not, but I think the Yamaha Pxxxs amps are very nice, built like a tank, and have no fan noise problems like other Pro amps. :T


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## Audiofan1 (Aug 16, 2013)

Parasound Halo A21 and A51 gets my vote and with good reason, do a little research and see why


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## Insearchof (Oct 21, 2014)

I'm running a Crown XLi series for my fronts and the only problem I have had is an annoying ground loop which I'm still trying to resolve. 
The Xli series have the selectable input voltage. You can set the amp's sensitivity to .755 or 1.4 volts.


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