Has anyone heard or is currently using a Anthem MCA 20? I'm considering buying one after I get my hands on a set of M80's. It's either the Anthem or Emotiva RPA-1. I prefer the Anthem over the Emotiva, solely because I have a local dealer.
Thanks
What are you going to use as a Prepro?
I can't help you with the Anthem/M80's compatiblity. I know Chesseroo has m60's, but the m80's are a different animal.
Most likely you will be fine. I had to exchange my Emotiva MPS-1 back in and I now own Odyssey monoblocks, could not be more happy.
What did you pay for a set of Odyssey Mono blocks? They are pricey amps direct from Odyssey audio. What is the wattage rating with a 4 ohm load? What do you think about the 2200 Outlaw Mono block?
Thanks
I had Klaus build me some Khartago Extreme Mono's custom. It is not all about watts, current and capacitance is important as well. Basically they are Stratos Extremes in Khartago cases. For the quality of amp your receiving, they are very affordable. They are basically the same thing as the German Symphonic Line, and my same amps would cost US$4-5,000 in Germany.
I really don't want to disclose the price I received from Klaus, but it was a great deal for what I received. Can't help you with Outlaw, I looked at them once, but never purchased them once I found Odyssey.
I've got the Outlaw monoblocks powering my M80's and I'm happy with them. No issues with shutdowns. I HAVE driven them to clipping while testing their limits, but no shutdowns to date.
I listen to music virtually all day in the background at very loud levels, although I don't think I've strained my Denon which is currently driving Paradigm Monitor 9's (until I get my hands on a set of M80s). It's never shut down anyway. Did your amp's start clipping at an insane level? Do you listen to music for extended periods of time? Sorry for all the questions, but the help is very much appreciated. So much to consider and available when making an investment.
Thanks
Hi Wheelz. I don't listen for 'extended' periods of time. Mostly in the evenings when I'm home, cranking it up only occasionally. When I was testing the clipping occured at approx. 120db at 10ft., with the speakers set to large (full range), and no sub. Mind you, that's a very uncomfortable level at that distance. The clipping was in the form of 'popping' from the woofers on bass drum hits.
I was able to eliminate the 'popping' by setting the mains to 'small', crossing at 80hz. Again, those are crazy levels for my particular listening area.
And everyone thought I was crazy listening to various music with 110dB dynamic peaks from 13ft away in my 8,000 cu ft room causing my Emotiva MPS-1 to keep shutting down, just should not happen when driving 80's. Anyway, my Odyssey monoblocks just keep going and going and going, wait, that is a battery commercial.
Just because someone else is insane doesn't prove that you aren't.
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And everyone thought I was crazy listening to various music with 110dB dynamic peaks from 13ft away in my 8,000 cu ft room causing my Emotiva MPS-1 to keep shutting down, just should not happen when driving 80's. Anyway, my Odyssey monoblocks just keep going and going and going, wait, that is a battery commercial.
My pockets aren't as deep as yours :-)
The higher the SPL, the greater the hearing damage, resulting in a need for a more powerful amp and larger speakers, resulting in more SPL and more hearing damage...well, I think you all get the drift.
yes, but no distortion or clipping at higher levels is far less hard on your hearing than the opposite. I have found that I can listen to music at higher levels for hours now with no fatigue, where before good seperates this was not true.
Randy, very true but you are nevertheless a candidate for
this. Just turn it down to a half watt and you'll be fine
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Randy, actually no, that isn't true at all, and can be a dangerous misconception. Hearing damage is caused by the dB level and isn't any less harmful if it happens to be with low distortion. Whatever "fatigue" is(I've never experienced it)it involves a separate question from hearing damage.
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yes, but no distortion or clipping at higher levels is far less hard on your hearing than the opposite. I have found that I can listen to music at higher levels for hours now with no fatigue, where before good seperates this was not true.
Ok, but remember that I was testing those levels ONCE, shortly after I got the amps. Listening for hours....nope.
90db to 100db for a while maybe...
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I can't help you with the Anthem/M80's compatiblity. I know Chesseroo has m60's, but the m80's are a different animal. Most likely you will be fine.
And indeed you will.
Anthem makes excellent amps and the MCA line is spec'ed for 4 ohm speakers.
http://www.anthemav.com/newsitev2.0/AnthemProduct/MCASeries/MCASpecs/MCASeriesSpecs.html
However, keep in mind that the louder the speakers go, the more power required to keep them out of distortion ranges. KNOW THE LIMIT OF YOUR AMP AND SPEAKER COMBO.
Once you know that limit, never exceed it.
If you want to exceed it, you have to pony up more cash for much larger or more expensive amps. Even the new Axiom amps coming out that tout tons of power will be far more expensive than the Anthem MCA20 which can be found used for $400-600.
You can see my thoughts on choosing between a Parasound Halo and the Anthem MCA amps in this personal review.
To be fair to Parasound, I suspect that those issues have been worked out; I did not hear a hum on either of the sets of Parasound Halos that I have heard (Dennis's or Sunil's).
And they're pretty...
Did they have the A23 though or the larger units?
I figured it was noise coming from within the small A23 enclosure. The Halo line actually had similar noise issues with one of their other components which was actually mentioned by Paul over at the Hometheatrespot when he first reviewed the new Halos.
Parasound commented on applying a fix for the noise by adding some internal reflective material but again, this was not for their A23 amp.
I really like the Halo amp and may buy one used at some point so i can do components tests more easily with their line adjustable gains on the rear, something i haven't seen in any other amp yet.
It was truly feature packed for a good price.
Ah, I think they have the larger units.
A square wave contains twice the energy of a sinewave with the equivalent peak. So Randy is correct in saying that a square wave is harder on the ears.
I do agree with Johnk though that listening to "loud" levels with or without distortion is good for all of the audiologists out there
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With twice the energy, wouldn't a square wave sound -- and actually be -- louder than a sine wave of equivalent amplitude? We are talking about average SPL here, aren't we?
Yes. Since a square wave contains twice the energy, of course it's louder.