I recently purchased Sopra 2's and I already had an Emotiva XPA-5 amp and and Anthem AVM-60. I moved my B&W 805D3's to the rear and am using a Focal Aria center due to space limitations. I am a live music fan so most of my music listening is Blu-ray concerts and streaming, and of course movies as well.
I am considering upgrading to a new multi-channel amp and would like to keep the budget under $5000. My main questions is should I expect to hear a significant improvement over the XPA to make it worth the expense. Assuming the answer is yes, I am open to all recommendations as I have not yet started shopping.
I have an older Krell Theater Amplifier Standard that works really well with my sopra 3s and matching center. You can probably find these at a good price used.
Parasound Halo A51 five-channel amp. Or a combination of the A21 & A31 amps. You can use the Halo A21 stereo amp to power your front LR speakers and use the A32 three-channel amp to power your center & surrounds. These are great performing amps especially for the money. Or even the big Rotel RMB 1585 five-channel amp (class AB) will be better than your Emotiva five-channel amp.
For used amps I would look at the McIntosh. They pair well with Focal. Or just like rshad0000 recommended the Krell Theater amp that he's now using to power his Focal Sopra speaker system.
Regarding your center channel speaker, you should get a matching Sopra center speaker for timber match. Your Focal Aria center isn't the matching center for the Sopra line. It's very important to get a matching center channel speaker with your front LR main speakers.
Thanks. I currently have some space limits so I am unable to get the Sopra Center, which I will get when I can. Same issue with the Rotel and multiple amps. Looks like I will be checking out the Mac's, Krell and Halo's this weekend.
selectpr, we sell both the Parasound and Krell amplifiers please feel free to reach out to us we can give you some guidence on these two great amplifiers.
Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ Krell, and Parasound dealers
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