Need stereo amp recommendations

[yh125d]

So I'm buying a house and want to invest in a good 2.1 setup for my home office. My original plan was to go for 2x Energy RC-10s, an Energy ESW-C10 sub, and an HK-3490 for about $1100. But now, due to a huge sale on Newegg, I can get 2x Energy CF70s and that sub for only $550. Yeah, check out promo codes EMCNFND54 and EMCNFND56, $250 and $300 off each

So anyhow, now I have a lot more budget for my amp now. And a lot hungrier speakers (300w rms vs 175w). I can go back up to $1100 or even a couple hundred more if theres a really really good one that'd be worth the cost.

But I don't really know where to look. HK doesn't have any amps above the 3490 (which is only 120w, 150 at 4 ohms), I know denon is pretty good, but they don't seem to be offering them anymore.


All I really need feature wise is one or more of both digital inputs. Halp?

 

[heymrdj]

Did you mean for this to be in Audio/Video & Home Theater? You'll probably get a lot more bites there. This is Mobile Devices and Gadgets .

 

[alkemyst]

Emotiva is good bang for buck...you will probably do better just getting a 5.1 or better receiver and running it in stereo.

 

[Anubis]

you don't really need to toss more power at them than that HK can provide, but if you want you you will need a receiver with preouts and an external amp, Emotiva as alke mentioned is a great bang for buck amp maker. and pretty much everyone makes a AVR with preouts, however they are not always the cheapest models. and unfortunately pure stereo receivers are not always cheaper vs their 5.1 counterparts


also you should ask a mod to move this to the home audio forum

 

[yh125d]

Hrmm, yes I did.

Halp, mods?

 

[glen]

Spend all your money on speakers, and as little as possile on the amp.

 

[TheStu]

Per OP's request, this has been moved to the Audio/Video & Home Theater subforum
Moderator TheStu

 

[kornphlake]

I'm not saying you should buy this, but from a dollars per watt standpoint it's about as good a deal as you're going to find.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-748

For home use I honestly think the HK3490 will be plenty of power, if you've got extra money to spend put it into better speakers. BTW the HK3490 doesn't have any crossover controls for integrating a sub, if you're set on running a sub an A/V receiver will make the integration a bit easier.

 

[yh125d]

I'm not saying you should buy this, but from a dollars per watt standpoint it's about as good a deal as you're going to find.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=248-748

For home use I honestly think the HK3490 will be plenty of power, if you've got extra money to spend put it into better speakers. BTW the HK3490 doesn't have any crossover controls for integrating a sub, if you're set on running a sub an A/V receiver will make the integration a bit easier.

Ok then, what speaker combo would you recommend then? I would like to spend around $1200, but could do a good bit more if its going to be worth it. I only expect it ever to be used with digital inputs (or if it would be better I could buy a sound card or DAC to process from digital). Tower preferred, will be used in an open home office mostly but might be relegated to HT use in the future

Listening will be 80% music 20% movies, wide range from bass heavy dubstep and hip hop to very fast and technical hardcore. I prefer a balanced sound with plenty of bass available throughout when needed


Thanks for the move Stu

 

[GTaudiophile]

I just bought an HK 3490 + Dynaudio X16 combo for a 2.0 setup costing around $2k.

Let me know if you have any questions.

The X16 are 6 Ohm rated and the 3490 has no problem driving them to loud volumes.

 

[kornphlake]

Ok then, what speaker combo would you recommend then? I would like to spend around $1200, but could do a good bit more if its going to be worth it. I only expect it ever to be used with digital inputs (or if it would be better I could buy a sound card or DAC to process from digital). Tower preferred, will be used in an open home office mostly but might be relegated to HT use in the future

Listening will be 80% music 20% movies, wide range from bass heavy dubstep and hip hop to very fast and technical hardcore. I prefer a balanced sound with plenty of bass available throughout when needed


Thanks for the move Stu

You mention movies, are you going to be passing video through the receiver or sound only? IIRC the HK3490 only has a single digital input, if your pc is connected as a digital source you're going to have to manually disconnect the PC and connect your DVD or Blue Ray player to watch a movie, the HK3490 will only accept a 2ch PCM input, it can't decode multichannel dolby digital or DTS, as long as your video source can output 2ch PCM that's not a problem but I expect your video source won't be able to output 2ch PCM if the disc is encoded in dolby digital.

A modern HT receiver makes sense if you're going to be using video sources or even multiple digital audio sources, but your specific needs will determine how many features you'd benefit from and what those features will cost.

It's kind of hard to suggest speakers, what you consider plenty of bass I might call boomy, what I might call boomy in my home or at a local audio shop may sound balanced in your home depending on the acoustics of the room. The best thing to do is try and audition some speakers and decide for yourself what you think you'll like.

 

[yh125d]

I'm about 99% of the time having my audio input (digital opt or over hdmi) and video input from my computer, where it will be played on the 2.1 and monitor in that room. I will occasionally have local analog input from a phone (where just a 3.5mm to analog adaptor will work fine) and now that I think of it will actually in the future have a different A/V input and output over HDMI to/from my living room (with another 2.1 setup in there probably).

Now I'm thinking a good receiver really will be best. I got to looking and found the Onkyo TX-NR609. 7.2 networked receiver. I think no matter what I get, I'm going to be very happy with, considering I've listened only to my Ultimate Ears Triplefi 10s for a whole year in my apartment, and my setup before that is a $100 logitech 2.1 "200w" setup that I was actually surprisingly happy with. I'm sure even an entry level polk bookshelf and a cheap yamaha receiver and sub would be awesome considering this is all going into a fairly small bedroom (maybe 10x12, haven't measured yet). A nice $300 Onkyo receiver, a pair of big nice $500 tower speakers for only $200 each, when I was going to be paying $250ea for a much smaller RC-10 bookshelf set, and getting the nice big $400 subwoofer I was already looking at for only $150, so I get the whole setup that I wanted but with better speakers and a lot more receiver functionality for only $920? I was gonna be spending $1200 on the amp only setup with the much smaller bookshelfs.



And I do get a lot of functionality with this receiver that I didn't think about. I could run my 2.1 setup in my office the way I want, and since I'm running 2.1 on a 5.1, can't I use the rear channels running parallel to the front speakers to get double the power? That would get 200w at 8ohms and 250 at 6ohms, which would be awesomely awesome (the towers recommend up to 300w). Then I could use the extra hdmi inputs and outputs along with the zone 2 and the 2nd sub pre-out to run a 2.1 system in my living room (I highly doubt I would ever want 5.1, and would love to be able to run everything through one receiver).

Also, since it's a networked receiver, I can hook it up wired or wireless and then use the Onkyo android remote app to use on my phone all throughout my house to control about everything, and I can combine that with my use of the subsonic media streamer, where I can remotely control what music my computer plays remotely through wifi or cell, which will be a really cool level of nerd synergy throughout my home. I'm thinking I'll go this way now.

 

[weez82]

you need to stop looking at watts. They mean very little. Most receivers at 100% power will blow speakers. You need to look at the quality of those watts. Receivers are just like PC power supplies. Some are ratted at high output but crap out on heavy loads, while others are ratted at a lower output but still do well on heavy loads. Quality watts is what you need to look for. Denon, HK, Onkyo, Marantz, and a few others are good. Just find the features you need in your price range and go for it. A 50watt denon will be more then enough power for a large room

EDIT:
And those speakers dont recommend 300watts, thats just their operating range. No higher then 300watts. But with that said, you hook those up to a quality 100watts system and crank them up to 100%, I guaranty you those speakers will blow. Most of the time (ok, all the time) watts are just part of the marketing. Dont buy into it

 

[yh125d]

you need to stop looking at watts. They mean very little. Most receivers at 100% power will blow speakers. You need to look at the quality of those watts. Receivers are just like PC power supplies. Some are ratted at high output but crap out on heavy loads, while others are ratted at a lower output but still do well on heavy loads. Quality watts is what you need to look for. Denon, HK, Onkyo, Marantz, and a few others are good. Just find the features you need in your price range and go for it. A 50watt denon will be more then enough power for a large room

EDIT:
And those speakers dont recommend 300watts, thats just their operating range. No higher then 300watts. But with that said, you hook those up to a quality 100watts system and crank them up to 100%, I guaranty you those speakers will blow. Most of the time (ok, all the time) watts are just part of the marketing. Dont buy into it

Alright so I don't need to worry about getting near 300w, so I'll go ahead then with the onkyo/energy combo.


Thanks all! I'm really excited about finally being able to listen on a nice setup as loud as I want

 

[GTaudiophile]

I spent a good bit of time getting hooked up on wattage as well. In the end, I knew I wanted a 2.0 solution and so a 7.1 A/V receiver seemed like a waste to me. Besides, few of them offer the wattage (120 @ 8 Ohms) for as little money as the HK 3490 ($450 or less). The HK was also officially rated for 4 Ohm speakers as well, and save products from the likes of NAD or ARCAM, none of the AV receivers are really 4 Ohm rated. Dynaudio speakers typically run 4-6 Ohms, so this was important to me. So this is why I decided to go with the 3490. And it has digital inputs, a feature few stereo receivers have. In the end, I can't turn it up all the way. It offers PLENTY of power. AND it runs cool! (The HK 3490 also garners mostly 4-5/5 star reviews at most sites I read.)

Before I decided on the HK, I went to a local Best Buy/Magnolia and auditioned several AV receivers costing around $700. I went in thinking that I would leave with the Onkyo 709 since it is so highly rated. Well, I didn't like the sound it produced, and it ran the hottest of the bunch. I walked out preferring Yamaha, Pioneer Elite, Denon, Onkyo, and Marantz (in that order from best to worst). I would highly recommend looking at both Yamaha and Pioneer Elite products if you need an AV receiver.

 

[kornphlake]

And I do get a lot of functionality with this receiver that I didn't think about. I could run my 2.1 setup in my office the way I want, and since I'm running 2.1 on a 5.1, can't I use the rear channels running parallel to the front speakers to get double the power? That would get 200w at 8ohms and 250 at 6ohms, which would be awesomely awesome (the towers recommend up to 300w). Then I could use the extra hdmi inputs and outputs along with the zone 2 and the 2nd sub pre-out to run a 2.1 system in my living room (I highly doubt I would ever want 5.1, and would love to be able to run everything through one receiver).

That's not the way it works, you can't bridge a home theater to get more power. In most cases the amp can only supply as much wattage to the speakers as the amps are given from the power supply, if you have a 5 channel amp and only 2 channels are used most of the available power will go to the 2 channels.

 

[alcoholbob]

Those Energy CF70s are rated at 96db @1m sensitivity at 8 ohms.

That HK amp is more than enough to blow your ear drums to the next district.