Originally Posted By: bridgman
Even in cases where the center channel carries as much or more signal than the mains, offloading the mains still frees up some power supply capacity for the center channel. It's like the difference between "one channel driven" and "all channels driven" power ratings.

This won't help in cases where there isn't enough "one channel driven" power for the center channel to keep up, but in cases where there is lots of power going into both mains and center (ie when the power supply voltage in the receiver is likely to droop under load) off loading the mains can make a difference.

The point about having bottomless power for music reproduction is also valid.

Finally, stereo amps often have nice analog power meters, which IMO always improve the perceived sound quality



I was just going to ask about the lighter load on the PS. Glad you confirmed that thought. All the above makes sense now. Makes me lean harder towards the 3808 with a slight edge over the 2809 in power and with a larger power supply I am sure, as it weighs 11 lbs (39%) more. Then I f I feel the need to unweight the fronts from the 3808, I'll feel the surrounds will have plenty of power (maybe I am not as power hungry as some). \:D

I have read it here (JD? JohnK?) that if you bother to add an amp, it should be double the AVR's rated power. Is this just a common sense thought of not to bother with the expense for just an incremental increase, or is there more to it? This is just to edumacate myself. I don't see the need for my situation. But hey, when the term discretionary income comes back into my vocabulary, nice to have options. I am trusting we are under 'forum/ client privilege'. None of this gets back to the wife!
\:D

Last edited by davekro; 03/16/09 08:50 PM. Reason: spellin'
Dave

"In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice they're not."