AVR+Power Amp or Integrated Amp for Music & Movies

I had heard Crown with PSB Synchrony. It was a bit to bright, but bass was great.
No experience with emotiva or xtz. Check locally for DD and PeeCeeBee too.

Cheers,
Raghu
 
If you have the crowns with you, try it with a reasonably priced tube pre-amp like the FX-Audio DP-02. Crowns don't pair will with AVR's. You will have no problems squeezing the last bit of performance from your speakers with this very reasonably priced pre-pro.

The tube pre will also tune down the highs a bit.

With regard to Power amps making a difference, in my opinion, it will only make a difference if you are listening to it at levels that would normally drive the AVR to distortion . Like you correctly mentioned, a power amp should only amplify the signal and not add anything to it. So, all the issues, it at all, that exists in the pre-amp section of the AVR will remain. Adding a power amp in my opinion will not improve separation, soundstage etc. It will only give you higher output levels.


If you are looking for these, then you will have to try out an integrated with a HT Bypass option and listen to music only with the integrated. This might give you a benefit over music with AVR. Again, all this depends on your room and your placement of speakers.

I have a crown xls 2502 capable of pumping around 1500 watts connected to my puny quad s-c center channel in bridge mode. All I achieved probably was taking the load of the amp for the center channel and in the process increasing the noise floor of the center channel.
 
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That is where the confusion lies.
If i go the IA Route that means i have the same speakers and probably not be feeding them the right amount of power.
Also i did audition a few speakers along side my rti speakers( the dealer luckily had rti a7s)
There was q acoustics 3050i
Kef q350 bookshelves
Elac some high end speakers (mrp approx 1 lakh)
Monitor audio bronze 5
And some monitor audio speakers dont remember the model exactly but mrp 2.5 lakhs.
I tried them all with denon avr x4700 for parity in comparison with my current setup.

Frankly few of the speakers had more clarity but somehow at that point of time i couldnt find much value upgrading given that the price to performance upgrade was not satisfactory.
Anyways which Integrated amps would you suggest which can give me a better performance compared to my AVR.
As said by many FMs you should start auditioning many stereo gears / speakers in and around your area ( both dealers & FMs home) to have better idea .
It's not about amount of power,the quality of power and synergy between amps & speakers matters most.
 
If you have the crowns with you, try it with a reasonably priced tube pre-amp like the FX-Audio DP-02. Crowns don't pair will with AVR's. You will have no problems squeezing the last bit of performance from your speakers with this very reasonably priced pre-pro.

The tube pre will also tune down the highs a bit.

With regard to Power amps making a difference, in my opinion, it will only make a difference if you are listening to it at levels that would normally drive the AVR to distortion . Like you correctly mentioned, a power amp should only amplify the signal and not add anything to it. So, all the issues, it at all, that exists in the pre-amp section of the AVR will remain. Adding a power amp in my opinion will not improve separation, soundstage etc. It will only give you higher output levels.


If you are looking for these, then you will have to try out an integrated with a HT Bypass option and listen to music only with the integrated. This might give you a benefit over music with AVR. Again, all this depends on your room and your placement of speakers.

I have a crown xls 2502 capable of pumping around 1500 watts connected to my puny quad s-c center channel in bridge mode. All I achieved probably was taking the load of the amp for the center channel and in the process increasing the noise floor of the center channel.
Crown i sold within a month of getting it.
so power amp won't help in a home theatre scenario too?
 
As said by many FMs you should start auditioning many stereo gears / speakers in and around your area ( both dealers & FMs home) to have better idea .
It's not about amount of power,the quality of power and synergy between amps & speakers matters most.
Any suggestions on the amps to audition.?
 
Crown i sold within a month of getting it.
so power amp won't help in a home theatre scenario too?
I am not saying that it will not help. A lot of FM's have used power amps and found benefits. At the same time, some have added power amps and not found much improvements. It depends on how capable your receiver is to start with and how loud you listen and how big your room is.

For my room and my listening levels with my Marantz SR7010, I don't feel the need for power amps.

https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/connecting-an-external-amp-to-a-receiver
 
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If you have the crowns with you, try it with a reasonably priced tube pre-amp like the FX-Audio DP-02. Crowns don't pair will with AVR's. You will have no problems squeezing the last bit of performance from your speakers with this very reasonably priced pre-pro.

The tube pre will also tune down the highs a bit.
I noticed that swapping the stock tubes for GE's on the DP-02 appeared to give a nice thicker sound with this pairing.
 
I am not saying that it will not help. A lot of FM's have used power amps and found benefits. At the same time, some have added power amps and not found much improvements. It depends on how capable your receiver is to start with and how loud you listen and how big your room is.

For my room and my listening levels with my Marantz SR7010, I don't feel the need for power amps.

https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/connecting-an-external-amp-to-a-receiver
My score comes out to be 3 or 4.
As per the
I am not saying that it will not help. A lot of FM's have used power amps and found benefits. At the same time, some have added power amps and not found much improvements. It depends on how capable your receiver is to start with and how loud you listen and how big your room is.

For my room and my listening levels with my Marantz SR7010, I don't feel the need for power amps.

https://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/connecting-an-external-amp-to-a-receiver
My score comes out to 3 - 4. As per audioholics Power amp not required.
 
This is a painful hobby, but rewarding to no bounds when you get it right.

I have tried multiple combinations with my gear to get things sounding just right, including room treatment, and yet it was lacking.
The one inclusion that finally made everything perfect and pasted a broad smile on my face was an equaliser.

Trust me, it's a gamble going for any equipment, no matter what the reviews say, it either works for you or it doesn't, and it can get pretty expensive pretty quickly! My journey going down this black hole ended with the equaliser, on the cheap.

A graphic equaliser such as this Behringer Ultragraph can tweak those peaks and dips to your liking and your sound signature preferences. Trust me, this will bring a huge change. An IA or a PA is a gamble, but an EQ will surely sort things out for you very quickly. There's also a button to bypass the filters completely if the need arises.

A manual EQ also eliminates the need for Audyssey, ARC or the likes. The benefit being that sliders are always at hand to tweak or make slight adjustment in the frequencies here and there.

If you don't like the LEDs on the sliders you could opt for ones from DBX as well, they're also cheaper than the Behringer.
 
This is a painful hobby, but rewarding to no bounds when you get it right.

I have tried multiple combinations with my gear to get things sounding just right, including room treatment, and yet it was lacking.
The one inclusion that finally made everything perfect and pasted a broad smile on my face was an equaliser.

Trust me, it's a gamble going for any equipment, no matter what the reviews say, it either works for you or it doesn't, and it can get pretty expensive pretty quickly! My journey going down this black hole ended with the equaliser, on the cheap.

A graphic equaliser such as this Behringer Ultragraph can tweak those peaks and dips to your liking and your sound signature preferences. Trust me, this will bring a huge change. An IA or a PA is a gamble, but an EQ will surely sort things out for you very quickly. There's also a button to bypass the filters completely if the need arises.

A manual EQ also eliminates the need for Audyssey, ARC or the likes. The benefit being that sliders are always at hand to tweak or make slight adjustment in the frequencies here and there.

If you don't like the LEDs on the sliders you could opt for ones from DBX as well, they're also cheaper than the Behringer.
That's Cuz you could tweak the music to your preference. But Equalizer tweaks are rather polarizing. While i employed a 5 band to achieve what was most linear/full/clean sounding to my ears and on REW as per measurements, certain other listeners found that the dynamics became a bit subdued/too clean and composed and they preferred the room coming into play more. But yes, for arriving at ones own preference, an Equalizer can definitely help a long way.
 
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