When Should You Add External Amps to Your Home Theater?

When Should You Add External Amps to Your Home Theater?







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[oszkarhathazi]

Youthman and Bradley Cooper from American Sniper 😂

[Barleyleg]

I can relate to the comment around 32:00 about simply having the extra power to not have to worry about anything. I have a BasX A3 that was running my Polk es50 and es35 - plenty of power for my apartment environment; never going to run out. I recently upgraded to the R200’s and R350 and will add a XPA 3 in the spring. I’ll never need that kind of power here, but at least I’ll want for nothing - and be somewhat future proofed.
And if all the neighbors decide to go somewhere at the same time, then I’ll have the extra power to be able to open these babies up full throttle! Lol.
Cheers, everyone! Happy Holidays!

[rethanmakena]

Greetings from Kenya... Am building my Homethearter based on what i have learnt from your tutorials. I am positive it will sound awesome thankyou man am a huge fan✌️

[SoCalVipers]

My home theater journey began decades ago with a 19" TV mixed brands of speakers and a small sub. I'd fire up the Laser Disc, pull my chair close and had a great time. Soon after, 1994 or so, I bought a standard definition CRT projector that was 8 feet wide and 4:3. I had a real sub, and mediocre 5.1 receiver and the LCR speakers were Tannoy PBM 6.5 studio monitors (2-way 6.5" woofer, soft dome tweeter). It was okay, but it sounded very small. I thought I needed bigger speakers to fill my room. But the first thing I did was add an Outlaw 200watt per channel amp. That made those little speakers fill the room beautifully! The amp made huge difference.
It's now 2023, and I am still using that 5 channel Outlaw amp. I'm also still using the 18" Bag-end sub from 1994. A good amp is a long-term investment. You can add more channels, and you'll likely need to replace the pre-pro and projector every 6 to 10 years. But a good amp will be a good amp for decades.

[tg]

I’m in components. Currently running external amps all at 200W/ch @ 8ohms; 350w/ch @4ohms - Adcom Amps

[mudfan]

Just AVR, for now. Will be adding 3-channel amp in future

[MrSmith-zopo]

Great video, thank you. I have a Denon 3700H running a 5.1.4 setup in a 10 X 12 ft room. I have a BasX A7 for the 5 ear level and have the AVR power the heights. It sounds great, and when I added the external amp, I didn't really notice a difference. I don't think I needed the external amp, but bought that one for two reasons, I wanted one that would go into standby mode when the AVR powers off, and I got the A7 if I wanted to go to 7 ear level speakers in the future. Since I don't listen at loud levels, I'm probably using only a few watts - 4 max, so I didn't need the external amp for the power. It was really just ease of use and future set up.

[robertmason]

Well explained have Amps drive your speakers will be a big benefit. When I sold home theater years ago this is how I explained it when you have a AVR I will compromise the audio quality the AVR has to do a lot. So in choosing AVR depending on your budget is to choose one with Pre outs for separate amps
And the more efficient your speakers are the less amp power is needed to run the speakers without distortion and amp clipping

[WardoUSA]

I added my first external amp to an avr this year.
Noticeably better separation, clarity and more natural sound if using pure direct.
Very loud listening is a total game changer. You can’t understand what overhead means until you hear ultra low distortion at max volume.
I am now intrigued about going full separates.
Avr is a Yamaha RX -A2A
Amp is a old Marantz Mm9000, thx certified 170 watts with all channels driven.
Bi-amp the front and rear channels into SVS ultra bookshelves.
Sounds killer even in my big room with terrible acoustics.

[frankvanderlee]

Greetings from Eindhoven, the Netherlands

[D.L.W.]

To answer the question, no, I do not run a separate power amp. I have a 7.2.4 system and all my speakers are 87dB sensitivity. My AVR is 150 watts R.M.S. into 2 channels and has an internal 600 watt power supply. Occasionally I crank it up pretty loud and I've never detected any distortion. My sound system consists of 4 SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers (2 for the mains and 2 for the side channels), an SVS Ultra Center speaker, 6 SVS Prime Elevation speakers (4 ceiling mounted for Dolby Atmos and 2 mounted on the back wall for the rear channels) and 2 SVS SB-3000 Subwoofers. The system is powered by a Yamaha Aventage RX-A8A 11 channel AVR connected to a Panamax M5400-PM Power Conditioner.

[doublet]

Great show as always! Keep up the great work 👍

[scruffy]

When listening to Youthman be sure to set your processor to Church mode.

[peterwilliamson]

This is explaining technical elements of speaker-amplifier interaction using technical language, to a non-technical audience.

This is not the first time this guy has done this.

I was hoping to get the information I need to make a decision on the power I need for the speakers I want. I’ve watched 17 minutes of this video and we’re not even close to explaining the formulas to make a decision. Without the formulas it’s just a guess.

[mariopaez]

Hey! @Youthman are you doing live streams every Sunday? If so what time? I want to join in on the next one!!!

[vincentaerts]

Hi guys, bi-amping doubles the damping factor from the amp, which does allow for better driver control . Apart from that, amplifiers age much better than processors, sole exception being Storm or Trinnov I think.

[donlew]

By adding an additional 100 watts per channel, won't you be able to drop the cutoffs on the towers, giving better mids and adding some bass extension?? Even listening at 80-85 decibels should still hear more body from speakers, I think. Not sure.

[zelko]

Thanks guys very informative. One thing that I always get stuck at is speaker wattage compared to power requirements. So let’s say your speakers are rated at 100 to 200watts what power would you require. 100, 200 or watts per channel?

[SealedOrPorted]

A good sign that external amps may be needed is if you experience ear fatigue when listening to your HT at ~80 dB. Your system could be causing distortion. Having power headroom reduces the opportunity for distortion as well as improving clarity of sound.

[christianlacroix]

Quick comments. For the math you guys did for the power needed. 2 factors were missed. You calculated just for 1 speaker. Each speaker would add 3db from the beginning. Also, important to consider is if they are 4 or 8ohms.