Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners ATI 2000 series amp for M80?

I was afraid you were going to ask that. I don't want to turn this into a flame war but the last product I had from Outlaw was the 990 and It was just ok. I had it for a few weeks and ditched it. I also tried the 7125 and thought it was very under powered.

But that is me. There are lots of folks around here who run the stuff and love it.

Yes, I think I need the Earthquake Cinenova to drive my four 4-ohm M80ti speakers. 600wpc@4ohms! Yahoo!

never: thanks for the comment, and, I don't want a flame war either.

As you know, I have been in the audio market for a new receiver, pre/pro and/ or seperate amps for over a year. I finally decided to get a receiver as a pre/ pro and get some seperate amps. I expect the receiver tomorrow. So, now to look at amps.

I understand how a linear amp is suppoed to opperate so I thought that I would look at the THD and spectrum parameters. I did and everyones metrics look good. So, now, I am left with the question of how to determine what to select? What is the basis of my selection?

For the lack of anything better, I am looking at why folks DID NOT like an amp.

If anyone has any other selection metrics that they would like to share, I am listening.

Serious or otherwise!

None within human knowledge, Bernard. As both technology and experience(confirmed by blind listening)indicate, flat frequency response from 20-20KHz, and inaudibly low noise and distortion levels result in transparent amplification and all this is available these days at quite low cost. Factors such as long-term durability can be guessed at, but there're no guarantees. Maybe "look at", as you said, is the right terminology; pick the most attractive appearance, since nothing else may be apparent.

If I were in the market for an amp, I would look at the power-> noise ratio.. try to get something with .005 or less THD, are you fimilar with transistor theory? If you are you should have no problem chosing an amp if you can look at the shcematics, I have found some manufactures that have the actual schematics online..personaly I would stay away from the 7 channel amps that are powered from a single power supply, as the only amp that I have see that I would consider would be the earthequake product, sense each channel has its own power supply. Rat, I would say get a 3 channel amp, and a 2 channel amp. Maybe bryston. Or ATI.. depending on your budget.. get a 2-300watt 3 channel, and a 150-200watt 2 channel for your QS8’s..

John: yes, I sometimes wonder if it might come down to what just looks best.

Thanks.

dakkon: you raise some interesting points. Yes, I am familiar with transistor theory. As for theory, a "properly" designed power supply should not allow pertibations from one channel to effect another. That's theory, and we know that is sometimes (most times in "cheap" amp?) not the case. It has been over 20 years since I was involved in power supplies. I sure that I am not current in their specific schematic design. The problem that I have found with modern schematics is that as soon as they show an integrated circuit (IC) you are blown out of the water. Many of the ICs are custom made and the information on them is difficult to obtain.

Thanks for your input. Your key points are definitely something for me think about.

<<Power Output: 200 watts @ 8 ohms, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, <0.05% THD; 300 watts @ 4 ohms, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, <0.05%>>

Outlaw monoblocks are <.05% THD. Some don't like the A/B/G design but it works for me.

It also says this:

<<For output devices there are a total of six: four bipolar transistors rated at 15 amps each, and two robust power Mosfets rated at 40 amps each. Dynamically into 8 ohms the 200 will put out 300 watts! In addition it has at its disposal 20,0000 microfarads of capacitance.>>

But I'm not sure what it means!!!!

bug: what that means is that you don't want to short the output terminals. LOL!!! You'll get a big spark.

The Onkyo came this afternoon. I unboxed it and examined it because the wife said that the UPS man dropped it with a thud. Looks like it was tripple boxed and no obvious damage. It will be Saturday before I get a chance to hook it up and try it out. I don't like to rush when I hook up electronic gear and I have several things to do tonight and tomorrow night.