How do you control the volume? I just did some experiments and the only way to control the volume with the TV speakers off is through the headphone jack...I am thinking I will use a a 3.5mm to R/L RCA to the amp...but that might suck with such detailed speakers as the M80s...

Also, I have the HD-A20 HD DVD, you said you plugged your R/L audio out right into the amp, again, how do you control the volume? with your player?

-Hutz

Looks like I misspoke, my Rotel amp is actually an integrated preamp/power amplifier so it has a volume control.

In contrast the Emo amps are power amps only and the rep stated that the volume is controlled by the pre/processor so I believe you are right, sorry for the misinformation, and thanks for the clarification. The audio line out from all of the components other than the pre/pro is just set at a more or less standard "line level" (dvd is often less than hd dvr), which is not going to work.

I guess what I would need to do is run through the Rotel as a preamp and then route the signal to the Emo amp until processor arrives? Not sure but that might be a workable workaround for me, let me know if you find a solution.

The EMO MPS-1 I owned for 3 months kept shutting down when trying to drive 80's, hopefully, they have beefed up their protective circuitry in these new models.

Any reason your not looking at a regular AVR? If I recall, your room is not that large.

Just for clarity of sound, my room is around 7200 cu ft, I know a lot of people have good results with receivers so I would not go wrong with that approach, however, those with amps do seem to enjoy them. There are a lot of opinions but I guess with resident Axiom expert Alan Lofft recommending 250 wpc or more for my size room, I will feel better pursuing this approach, rather than always wondering and then trying it out later anyways, i.e., I believe it will actually cost less in the long run.

My room is 8,100 cu ft and I have monoblocks driving my 80's, however, my Denon 2805 by itself has plenty of power. Your only going to use a few watts most of the time, with brief peaks of maybe 100 watts.

I assume you are talking to me.

Well I went with a used LPA-1 since one of the peters on this board has M80s and an LPA-1 and he said he has not had any issues even when driving them extremely loud.

I sold all my old stuff when I moved to LA, so I am buying all brand new, for around $1100 I can have the LPA-1 and the new emo pre/pro. That's as much as the denon 3808, I would rather have separates than an AVR for the same price...makes sense I think?

Cgolf, what front speakers do you have, are you using the XPA-5 to drive the M80s? Sirquack states that the MPS-1 had trouble driving the M80s, so I was wondering if you could possibly speak to that comparison.

Why do you use the monoblocks then? Does the setup sound better with the monoblocks in the mix? What are the monoblocks rated at in terms of power?

No Hut, why would you assume that, I was in conversation with SK

I have custom built Odyssey Khartago Extreme monoblocks just because of upgradeitis hit me. Amps amplify sound, they don't sound different. You will be able to play at much louder levels with no distress and have more headroom, however, most people don't listen that loud anyway, so AVR's are more than adequate for most people.

Rated power is not all that is important, people seem to get hung up on that, but I believe they are rated at 200watts each. Memory (capacitance), current delivery, damping factor, DC offset, toroid size, etc. to name a few are every bit as important.