Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Amp

I am not necessarily cheap. I just think it would be kind of ridiculous and overkill to power $100 speakers with a $2,000 amp. I don't mind the cost of the Onkyo or the Audiosource, if they will do the job. Tom, you and I discussed this in the Multi-zone thread. I took your advice on getting a seperate amp and running it from the Preouts of my Denon 2805. Thought I would like the flexibility instead of running them off the front B speaker terminals. Now I just need to settle on an amp at a reasonable price.

Scott

I just thought of something else I wanted to ask the collective.

What about a pro-sound amp for this kind of thing? I seem to remember seeing Alesis and Crown amps for less money than hi-fi gear. I understand that some of these units may be unsightly and/or include noisy fans - are there other downsides?

Scott, I meant no offense and certainly did not mean to imply that YOU were cheap - I readily admit I've used up my financial and political hi-fi capital for a while. If I had $200-300 to spend on this problem, I'd probably buy the Onkyo Mark linked to. I think that unit would be an asset in lots of ways for many years, and I have no doubt it would do a great job.

I apologize if I rubbed you the wrong way. Please keep me posted on your new installation.

im running into the same problem and "i am cheap" i was looking at cheap integrated recievers (2 channel) but none have optical in so i will probably have to go with a home theater receiver to get optical in but then im probaly over the $150 - $200 i want to spend. btw i need optical in because my sound card already has optical out and im ripping all my music to my pc for the outdoor system. i also am going to be using the rockets though i have not ordered yet i await your review.
Jake

Tom,

I am sorry. I did not mean it the way you took it. I did not think you were calling me cheap. I was just stating that I really don't mind spending money on what I want or need, I just thought it would be a bit excessive to buy a high dollar amp to run $100 speakers.

Again I apologize. Sometimes written words don't exactly convey what was intended. I have seen many of your posts and I know that you would not make derogatory statements toward anyone.

I appreciate your help as well as everyone elses on this board. I don't post alot, but I read this forum 3 or 4 times every day. I have learned alot from the knowledgable people that frequent here.

Thanks again,

Scott

If you decide to go "vintage" check out the Sansui AU 517 & 717 they are both nice amps. Dual mono design. The 517 is rated at 65 wpc and i believ the 717 is 85 wpc. If i were you though i would get one that has been recently serviced because there are parts that go bad on these amps over time. But they are very solid amps and you can get them quite reasonably.

An Audiosource Amp 100(50x2), or an Onkyo M-282(100x2) would fit your needs very well. Audiosource seems to rate more conservatively going by the weight of their amps(over 22 lbs for 80x2), but the onkyo seems like a much better deal. However, zone 2 speakers wouldn't require that much of an amp to begin with, which makes me think the audiosource would be enough.

One of the vendors at amazon sells the onkyo for $219, so I recommend avoiding crutchfield's $300 price tag.

No worries, Scott.

Thasp, thanks for the link. The M-282 for $219 does seem like a good value.

I thought about the T-Amp because I was also looking into the the same outdoor speakers. The website doesn't list sensitivity, so when I wrote them they responded that the OD-100s are rated at 86db.

I got the impression that 86dB would make them difficult to drive with the T Amp. Has anyone tried them? Was I assuming too much? I'd love to be wrong!

Regards,
Rich

I've just spent an hour reading reviews on the web about the T-Amp, mostly because I still cannot believe how good it sounds, and the one constant (besides how good everyone thinks it sounds) is the recommendation to use high efficiency speakers. 92 or 93 is where all of the reviewers seem to end up as a starting point.
But, given all that, I have been using it out back while building a deck with an old pair of Polk M3II's that are only rated at 89db sensativity, and it sounds absolutely fine.