Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Well on my way to the M80s club.. (#2000)

Jason,

you're actually right, I think Calgary is getting more unsafe than it was in past years.

On another note, I switched my order to Rosewood Natural stain High Gloss...I feel much...much, better. phew. My LPA-1 arrived today...MUCH heavier than I thought it was going to be...I think its around 70lbs...

I only have 1" clearance on my bottom rack, but its open on all sides, I think heat will not be an issue...now I have to stare at this LPA-1 for 6 weeks with no speakers...

Now that is a very sad place to be. I will crank mine up for you over the next few weeks.

So here's a naive question, in terms of power supplied and the resulting noticeable effects on audio, what does the 70lb LPA-1 have that a wimpy 40lb AVR like the Denon 3808 does not?

The 3808 is spec'd at 130x7 into 8 ohms (they don't list the specs into 4 ohms though... anyone know?)

The LPA-1 is 125x5 and 50x2 into 8 ohms or 210x5 + 95x2 into 4 ohms.

I'm guessing measured distortion in a dedicated amp has lower ratings... is it so much to be noticeable by the average ear? Are there other differences? (other than a noticeably hotter A/V closet?!)

I'm not trying to start a firestorm here... I've recently started looking more into dedicated amps and am truly curious about the question above.

Thanks,

Jason

One thing that differentiates dedicated power amps from AVR's and is mentioned regularly is the REAL power ratings when ALL channels are driven at the same time. Power amps give you all the rated power but most AVR's list power per channel usually with only ONE channel driven. When all are driven at the same time the actual levels can drop significantly. I am currently running a Yamaha receiver (pre-out) into two Outlaw multi-channel power amps with the eventual desire to buy a pre-pro from Outlaw, Emotiva or even Axiom should they eventually decide to offer one. I can't honestly say that the separate amps were significantly better than the internal amps in the Yamaha but separate power amps never go obsolete and they are much more flexible when it comes to handling speakers of varying ohm ratings.

It is often said that the electronics in seperates are of higher quality and offer better performance, ie faster attack and quicker response, other than that there isn't much difference as anything below 1% THD is unaudible, which most avr's and seperates are rated at. So far as most avrs not rated with all channels driven, well that is wrong, I agree some are rated this way, but most of the ones mentioned on this forum are measured with all channels driven at least as far I can tell from independent tests you can find on the internet. Some even exceed their ratings.

Jason - agreed on the 3808, I've read a few reviews that confirmed they provide full power to all channels independently.

Has anyone seen measured power output ratings for the 3808 at 4 ohms? (or is it a standard math equation that turns 8 ohm output into 4 ohm output?)

Thanks,

Jason

In a perfect world the power would double. We all know that is not the case, it should be around a 50% increase.

All I know is that I got an LPA-1 for $470, and I am going to get an RX-V663 for $360 for a total of $830, which is CHEAPER than a 3808, so why the heck not??

LPA-1 rates 125 watts into 8 ohms, and 225 watts (I think, I know its over 200 watts) into 4 ohms.

Rebel!

Interesting... in that case, the Denon is feeding close to 200 wpc into my M80s... (even at 50% more power at 4ohms)

I'd have to spend some serious coin on an amplifier to do considerably better than that. I'll dig around and see if I can find tested ratings on the 3808 at 4 ohms.