Amp Support

[MichaelPhile]

Ello Friends, I’ve settled on a bookshelf speaker kit developed by parts express known as: https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...-pair--300-640 . As a result of discovering these and reading about them, I’ve settled on them. However, what I am left without is an amp. Even after I’ve read online about the differences between all, I’m still undecided on which one would be best. So if you all would like to express your experiences with the different classification of amplifiers, I would be gratified and would settle with one which seems to be similar to the experience I hope to receive from these speakers.

What I would require in the amp though would be at least 1 optical in to bypass any analog connecting between my tv&amplifier, console&amplifier, cd player&amplifier. I don’t know if using an optical connection requires any other hardware. However if need be, please provide info . I want to use optical as I recall hearing somewhere it would be better to do it that way then to constantly convert digital to analog to digital etc... prove me wrong however and I won’t be mad. (also I’m unsure if digital processing formats like dts:x and dolby digital are just for marketing to turn users away from diy, or if the amp already takes care of that. Stupid question but that’s why I’m here, to ask questions)

As well the setup will be ran in a 2.1 setup initially, however. The possibility to add a Center channel is tempting (which I’m also not sure about if I can just grab any mtm with the same material drivers and plop it sideways) . I’m just especially keen on have a sub so that is a requirement.

Thank you to all who respond or even read this post! It means a lot! Have a wonderful Morning/Evening/Lunch/ or midnight

[Geoff Millar]

You may not need a sub with the BR-1: the DC160 woofer puts out excellent bass, at least it does in the Classix IIs, which use a similar cabinet. If I remember correctly from your other post, your room is fairly small anyway.

Our stereo receiver is a 20 year old Yamaha and I'm not up on the latest technology, so I can't advise you on that I'm afraid. But I've run the Classix with that receiver in our large living room and they sound great: they have plenty of output and ample bass. Using them with a sub doesn't add much, in fact it can sound rather muddy unless I fiddle with the sub controls.

Geoff

[MichaelPhile]

Hey Geoff,

thank you for your response. Yes my room is small, so the speakers probably don’t need to much power. But a part of the reason why I want a sub is to take some of the lower frequencies off the woofer so that it could (in my theory) perform better with mids.

Michael

[a4eaudio]

I think the key is an amp vs an integrated amp. An amp is going to amplify the signal coining from s preamp/source. An integrated amp will take the digital input and process it, this could be HDMI, optical, or coaxial. I'm sure if you Google it, there are people with strong opinions for and against optical, just like speaker wire and capacities. My guess is that MOST people are going to be indifferent between the different digital inputs.

[Geoff Millar]

Hey Geoff,

thank you for your response. Yes my room is small, so the speakers probably don’t need to much power. But a part of the reason why I want a sub is to take some of the lower frequencies off the woofer so that it could (in my theory) perform better with mids.

Michael

In that case, I think you will need an amp/receiver with a separate sub woofer out connection: my main Yamaha doesn't have that, although our newer but less powerful Yamaha does. It's certainly easier for an tech illiterate like me to blend the output with the 'sub out' feature.

With our main unit, our MTMs' F3 is about 50 Hz, so I set the sub to play below that. However, I think I'm doing this the wrong way!

Whatever, the sub out makes the connections much easier: just one RCA plug to worry about.

Geoff

[Millstonemike]

Given your objectives I recommend evaluating integrated receivers within your budget. An integrated receiver will take a digital audio feed from the TV (optical , digital coax, HDMI, etc) and provide power out to speakers (L-R, 3.1, 5.1 etc.). And a sub output. Most all subs, especially moderate consumer variations, have their own amp and take the receiver's sub out as their signal input. You don't need a lot of power. 50 W per channel (rms) is more than sufficient for your current situation. You just need to make sure the unit accepts the TV's digital output and provides a sub output. Of course, you need to understand your TVs audio outputs..

As a side note, various encoding schemes define the receiver's sub output signal. That is, the encoding scheme's standard determines the content of the sub media. For example, in DTS mode, the sub out is the LFE signal (Low Frequency Effect) provided with most movies. LFE signals contain content between 3 Hz to 120 Hz. Compare that with a sub output derived from a simple stereo feed such as a CD player. The basic sub output is mono summation of the L-R signal and full range. As receiver capability increases (along with price), the receiver will offer programmable filtering of the sub output (e.g., LP filter at 80 Hz),. And most subs have similar controls on the back panel to blend their output with the L-R speakers.

[djg]

How new is your TV? The outputs the TV can send kind of tell you what you need in an amp. If the TV puts out Dolby Digital via optical, you'll need an "amp" that can decode that. If you want a center channel, then I suggest an older lower power 5.1 AVR. Scads on Ebay, cheap. AVRs have had multiple optical and coax digital inputs for years.

If you ever want to process video through your AVR, say from a DVR, you would need to investigate further.

[JoeWilsonEq]

Hey Geoff,

thank you for your response. Yes my room is small, so the speakers probably don’t need to much power. But a part of the reason why I want a sub is to take some of the lower frequencies off the woofer so that it could (in my theory) perform better with mids.

Michael

I got the Dayton SPA250DSP 250w subwoofer plate amp with DSP, this could be well suited for what you want to do as well. I built a 12" sealed cube with an 8" Wavecor subwoofer, but you should be able to use it with most of the sub enclosure kits that PE sells.

What is great about this amp:
- It has DSP so you can tune the EQ and low pass on the fly, for instance to boost the low end for a sealed design, and to integrate with bookshelf speakers
- It can apply a high pass filter to the output (to the bookshelf speakers), so you can cut a bit of the low end off there if you want to. I'm using the Continuum II's as my mains, and they have a bit of a bass bump on the low end which may be desirable if not using with a sub, but sounds a bit bloated when paired with a sub. So I'm high passing them around 110hz to cut that off and let the sub handle that range.

The way I have this set up is Source (PC) -> Subwoofer (Plate Amp) -> 2 channel Amp -> Mains. With this sort of setup you can use any simple 2 channel amp, like the Dayton Audio DTA-120BT2.

Now, if you want to build a passive sub, you can get a 2.1 amp and go Source -> Amp -> Mains & Sub. Something like the Dayton Audio DTA-2.1BT2 would work fine here as it has a powered subwoofer output. With this amp there is a crossover adjustment on the amp for the subwoofer, so you don't need to have a crossover network for the sub and can change it on the fly, but you would have to adjust the hardware crossover network for the mains if you wanted to high pass them.

Of course there are many other amps from other brands at various price points that would work for both types of setups too. If you need multiple inputs, you would want to look into a home theater stereo/amp rather than one of these simple 2/2.1 channel amps.