Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners m80v3 and harman hk3700/3770

When i was at age of 4 to ten years old,
my father had a random 120w per channel integrated amp, and cheap sealed speackers you could find easily everywhere.

Soundstage was good, accuracy i can't tell yet.

It's difficult to argue for or against todays and old components.

Just to say you have people buying on ebay amps used at recording studios, and the same people say they have problem to find the same sound than when they was younger.

Again i was young, i had no experience so far with audio.
I was pleased by old setup at house and i had good hears

Hi
I own the M80v3 and the HK 3490
Honestly, look at another two channel amp. Not really overly impressed. Think it maybe closer to 80w per channel. not much volumn at all, if I need to play a bit loud occassionally I am at +10db of a possible +15
When I had my Denon 3808 for comparison I was maybe -5bd to 0db
Anthem 225 is a better choice.

Hard to conclude such a thing when this statement is limited to one metric of these amps. Likely the issue between these amps is that one has much less capacitance than the other such that during music transients there is a greater voltage drop. This doesn't change the fact that both amps are likely appropriately rated as 50W each.

Two things.
First, the HK 3490 is an audio/video receiver which has an amplifier section. It is not an "amp" which is typically a term used when referring to a stand-alone component that does nothing but amplify the signal.

Second, if you are turning your receiver up that high (and yes, on that HK scale, a +10db with a max of +15db is probably about 90%-95% of its maximum volume), you are likely driving this receiver into clipping with the M80s.
If you feel the need to turn the volume up that much, you should absolutely be using a separate amp. I would be shocked if you are not hearing distortion at that level, or perhaps are just not recognizing it.

I would tend to agree with Matt about the state of amp channels in mass market current AVRs- notably the pioneer elites (used to own a 9130thx and just demoed an SC-85.)

I think the power ratings increasing year after year and weight decresing year after year is not a good thing at all. Class D switching or no, the power supplies in newer gear are definitely "good enough" solutions. My opinion anyway.

Matt we agree on something!

I will reiterate, wattage is only one metric to denote the potential of an amp. Also cannot judge an amp by weight especially without knowing its class; unless that person also judges speakers by wrapping knuckles on the side of them, or checks out used car quality by kicking its tires.

Hello again.


i saw few pro amps show only this specs:
THD+N in % at 1 kHz

consummer add this spec often:
THD+N in % at 20 kHz (100 W into 8 1)


Both of consummer and pro amps, if i turn down the volume it will lower THD+n by a good to hudge ammount.

Maximum average power in watts at 0.5% THD, 1 kHz for a class D amp of my choice:

2 ohm 1,200 watts
4 ohm 775 watts
8 ohm 440 watts

If i lower volume to 80 -95% it should be fine no ?



This time reading about harmonic distorsion.
I discovered:
Human hear is the most sensitive at: 2,000-5,000 Hz

So if i understand less than 1% of thd+n (100 W into 8 1)
if a distorsion happen between 2000-5000 hz

I will dislike the sound.

1% distorsion outside the human hearing range is nothing, right ?

By the way i found something irittating:
Shops i visited when they put integrated amps specs,
They put the préamp specs like if it was the amplifier part.
It's confusing, it force you to visit the brand website to find infos.

I'm really thinking about to switch to a class D analog pro power amp.

Ah ok now i need a preamp.

If try to use search function.

Pro shops sells principally Pre amp for : Guitar , Mics.

I need to find a pre amp with multiple xlr , or and unbalanced input.
off course a Volume control, and finally balanced output (xlr) to feed the pro power amp .

Right now i only found pre amps at hifi shops.

Now what is the proper name for a preamp in pro audio world ?

Mixer table with preamp + mic output ?
Am i missing something ?

Thanks for the answers to this silly question

ps:

If needed i can buy a direct box to convert my emu 0404 -10dbv mono 6,5mm jack outputs to xlr output.

It's not a problem.

I did some search, and preamp if i understand is a set of one or multiples devices that do:


Apply gain,
level every inputs to desired output level consummer or commercial,
Mix multi entry together into one master mix
used as a switch for each input, (a bitlike a integratedamp)

Volume control aka pot
Loop , inserts inputs...
Pre amp for phono, phantom devices,
Pre amp for line instruments,
and more

So what i'm looking at is a sort of a Line Mixer but with integrated switch, and maybe possibility to use a control device like a external volume pot ?

Yes?

We are still talking about a 2ch setup, no?