Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater dazed and confused

Short answer :

No. Don't go there. Step away from the amplifiers.

Normally when you get a power amp you DO lose the power from the receiver, ie you are essentially replacing the power amp built into your receiver with a bigger and better one.

This is why you don't see anyone buying a 100 watt amp if they have a 100 watt receiver. More common is something like a 65 watt receiver with a 250 watt amp.

One other point -- it's pretty common to just use a big power amp on the mains, since they are the most likely to be used full range and/or to cross over at a lower frequency and hence need more power.

One of the hidden benefits of amping a few channels is that you now have relatively more power supply available for the remaining amp channels in the receiver which ARE being used, so they are generally able to put out a bit more power while still sounding clean.