Amp recommendations?

[Spetz]

I am looking at buying a second hand 5.1 channel receiver for around $200.

 

What brands are regarded as generally good?

 

I am somewhat partial to Yamaha and Sony for some reason.

 

Any advice is appreciated

[Guest Muon]

Note...maybe knowing what speakers you will be using will help with recommendations also.

 

Edit: good idea going secondhand

Edited January 6, 2015 by ortofun

[NQB]

I am looking at buying a second hand 5.1 channel receiver for around $200.

What brands are regarded as generally good?

I am somewhat partial to Yamaha and Sony for some reason.

Any advice is appreciated

Hi Spetz,

Yamaha is not a bad choice. As with most things, quality varies greatly between models. Brands I personally consider worthy (in no particular order) : NAD, Denon, Marantz, Harmon Hardon and Onkyo. Entry level models for all of these can be found second hand within your budget. Sometimes you can get lucky and an older model high spec unit will go for a song. I found a THX spec 7.1 onkyo unit for $200 a few years ago. It sold for $2999 in 2003 and had all the feaures I needed at the time.

Power ratings on these brands are generally real, unlike some others out there that boast inflated numbers (Sony, Kenwood, no name brands). 40w per channel can actually be decent if it is clean amd real.

Next thing to think about is feautures. Do you need 7.1 or would a higher quality 2 channel amplifier be better for you?

As the previous poster suggested, let us know what speakers you have. We may be able to make a better recomendation.

J

[Spetz]

Thanks guys,

 

The speakers I plan to run are the JMax QHS-125:

http://www.jmaxproducts.net/QHS125W.html

 

They are well priced and I've read sound fairly decent.

There is a chance I will get a Yamaha subwoofer (YST 90 or there abouts).

 

I want a 5.1 channel amp but will be running only stereo and would an A/B speaker switch as I have a spare pair of speakers I would like to be able to run in a separate room. Cannot say much about these, they are from the 70s, 3 way, 8" woofer and sound pretty decent.

 

I want the amp to be capable of running 5.1 if even I go down that route.

 

The JMax speakers will be used primarily for movies/TV but on occasion music.

The old 70s speakers are music only.

 

Any help is appreciated

[pete_mac]

The JMax are reasonable for the dollars. They sound better with some minor crossover tweaking - from memory, the woofers run full-range and the tweeters have the standard Chinese 2uf capacitor which provides a very high crossover frequency. I've got a tweaked pair in the garage somewhere.

[Spetz]

What tweak exactly do you mean Pete?
I read that adding dampening material on the inside makes them sound nicer

[pete_mac]

Increase the capacitor from the original 2uf electrolytic to a polyester or polypropylene cap of around 4uf to 4.7uf. This helps to improve the sound noticeably IMHO. 

[mpearce38]

Does it need HDMI? If not the old demons were very sweet sounding

[Spetz]

Pete, what does this do in terms of crossover?

HDMI would be preferable, though the input will be optical in from the TV

[pete_mac]

Pete, what does this do in terms of crossover?

 

 

 

It lowers the crossover frequency slightly. The original capacitor provides an extremely high crossover frequency and is typical of cheap Chinese speakers where little work has gone into proper crossover design and testing. It's not wise to go any larger than 4-4.7uf without proper testing to confirm that the speakers are happy operating at lower frequencies. 

[NQB]

I was looking at JMax a while back. They looked too good to be true. Very interested to know how they work out

[pete_mac]

I was looking at JMax a while back. They looked too good to be true. Very interested to know how they work out

To be honest, the cabinet quality on my pair is pretty average, and they are very, very basic speakers with virtually no crossover to speak of. They sound better than they have any right to, and are pretty much unchallenged at the $70-100 price point. I think I scored mine for $55 delivered or thereabouts in a $0.99 starting price auction.

My pair are boxed up in the garage and will be gifted to my son at some stage. They are cheap enough that I won't blow a gasket if he manages to kill them

[NQB]

To be honest, the cabinet quality on my pair is pretty average, and they are very, very basic speakers with virtually no crossover to speak of. They sound better than they have any right to, and are pretty much unchallenged at the $70-100 price point. I think I scored mine for $55 delivered or thereabouts in a $0.99 starting price auction.

My pair are boxed up in the garage and will be gifted to my son at some stage. They are cheap enough that I won't blow a gasket if he manages to kill them

Heh that's a pretty solid recommendation. If the main thing wrong is the crossover, a $20 weekend project of trial and error should be able to make a difference.

[Spetz]

Lowering the crossover for the tweeter would severely reduce their power handling though?
Does it pose an issue them being 4 ohm?

[batou]

have tried entry level onkyo receiver (cant remember the model) sound quite lifeless like cheap stereo sound.

if you are into 5.1 receiver. i suggest you go for top of the range. you can easily find a rrp $2000 receiver around $200-400 on gumtree or ebay.

i still miss my pioneer vsx d1s which has died these amps sound just as good as my friend's yamaha class a reference power amp when we test it side by side.

[pete_mac]

Lowering the crossover for the tweeter would severely reduce their power handling though?

Does it pose an issue them being 4 ohm?

They aren't 4 ohm IIRC - they are 6 ohm. The original 2uf cap gives a very, very high crossover point. Lowering this crossover point slightly appears to be fine based upon my testing. It's simple enough to try it and see how it sounds - it's a 10 minute job. If you intend running the speakers very hard, perhaps leave them as-is. Realistically, I'd be surprised if you'd be putting more than 10W through them during normal listening.

Again, there is absolutely no science behind the 2uf cap used on these speakers from the factory. Look inside any number of cheap Chinese two way speakers and you'll see a simple 2uf or 2.2uf cap to protect the tweeter. The manufacturers do not even bother modelling the crossover as such - they just throw the cap on there and call it a day.

[LHC]

Power ratings on these brands are generally real, unlike some others out there that boast inflated numbers (Sony, Kenwood, no name brands). 40w per channel can actually be decent if it is clean amd real.

 

Not meant to pick on you but do you actually have factual evidence that Sony deliberately misled by using inflated numbers? If they stated a RMS power value then that is not inflated, it is what it is. Sony have made some well regarded AVR over the years (e.g. their ES and STR-DB lines), one should not over generalise based on brand name.

 

The best advice is to audition each gear carefully and buy the amp that sounds the best regardless of brand. 

[LHC]

I am looking at buying a second hand 5.1 channel receiver for around $200.

 

What brands are regarded as generally good?

 

I am somewhat partial to Yamaha and Sony for some reason.

 

Any advice is appreciated

 

I think it would be better to be brand agnostic and base purchase decision only on model performance, features and reliability. But in terms of Sony there are a few AVR that SNA members liked and have mentioned in this old thread http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/31338-sony-used-to-make-some-lovely-gear/

[NQB]

Not meant to pick on you but do you actually have factual evidence that Sony deliberately misled by using inflated numbers? If they stated a RMS power value then that is not inflated, it is what it is. Sony have made some well regarded AVR over the years (e.g. their ES and STR-DB lines), one should not over generalise based on brand name.

The best advice is to audition each gear carefully and buy the amp that sounds the best regardless of brand.

Hi LHC,

There is a fairly common marketting practice out there for entry lwvel products to measure a single channel's performance and then post that as the measurement for all powered channels.

Other companies such as NAD give more accurate information on multi channel usage and can be overlooked by not subscribing to the hype.

I guess I was a little generalised in my previous post. I personally have not had any joy with Sony audio in the last 15 years or so. Happy to stand corrected if there are great lower end Sony products inside the Ops budget.

J

[ben54b]

Hi LHC,

There is a fairly common marketting practice out there for entry lwvel products to measure a single channel's performance and then post that as the measurement for all powered channels.

Other companies such as NAD give more accurate information on multi channel usage and can be overlooked by not subscribing to the hype.

I guess I was a little generalised in my previous post. I personally have not had any joy with Sony audio in the last 15 years or so. Happy to stand corrected if there are great lower end Sony products inside the Ops budget.

J

Thanks for this info, I have searching gumtree myself and came upon a great buy on a nad 2 channel setup, amp cd radio but wrote it off due to low power, only 40 w. May need to revisit this. I noticed as well that a lot of receivers list one channels output and sometimes at high distortion. Taa guys.

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