Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Good amp to go with an Epic 80 sys?

Looking to get an Epic 80 for a dedicated room. Whats a good amp to drive these guys? Going to use a anthem d2 as a pre/pro, but don't want to spend 6-8k on amps. Any suggestions?

Emotiva baaaaby

I have the mps-1 chassis with 2 epm300 monoblocks for now driving my m80's and my Denon is still driving the surrounds and center for now. I plan to add additional mono's in the future, and then get an Emotiva prepro when they introduce some new models later this year.

How are the sherwoods? It would be nice to get one big 7.1 amp. Or should I just not even bother with the pre/pro and go with a really high end receiver?

I would hang on to the Anthem, and add an amp. Easier path to upgrade later on, if need be. You'd probably end up spending more on a high end receiver than a capable amp.

Randy's suggestion of the Emotiva is a strong price/performance candidate.

Can't help you on Sherwood, never owned their products. Emotiva makes a lot of 7.1 amps at very affordable prices, and they only use the best guts on the inside.

Thx guys I will take a look into them, crazy price diff between these and the anthem amps. Wonder what the sound differences would be.

In theary an amp does not sound like anything, it just amplifies the signal. Now, if you start to introduce any special DSP features, or adjust the EQ stuff, that will affect the sound, not the electronics when adjusted to a flat response.

So what is the real diff between amps? Stablity, power, and the quality of components used to build it? If thats the case I really don't need 10,000 worth of amps to drive 6,000 worth of speakers, its prob over kill esp in a small to mid sized room.

It looks like Rotel amps will fit the bill for you.

One of the big differences seems to be the size of the power supply and heatsinks relative to the power of the amplifier, ie the degree of "design overkill".

In other words, a "high end" amplifier can loaf along at the same levels which an equally rated "cheaper" amplifier can only sustain for a little while without overheating. The bigger power supply also seems to help with stability and keeping distortion #s low at high outputs.

There is also a whole debate about output impedence (aka damping factor) and its effect on the "tightness" of the sound. Big amplifiers tend to have a higher damping factor and, if you buy into the story, can give a tighter sound at low frequencies and high output levels.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the effect of damping factor has been disproven but I remain unconvinced.