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Question on 2 channel vs 5 channel amps ?

I am currently running a sherbourn 5210 5 channel 200x 5 amp, pushing a pair of aerial 7B's , cc3 center anf sr3 rears, the amp works fine with these speakers, I am considering getting a seperate 2 channel amp for the 7B's and letting the sherbourn do the center and surrounds, I am considering the classe 301, krell kav 250 and the rowland 112, my question is, will I hear a signifigant improvement in 2 channel, or would it not be worth the investment, thanks all
128x128samski
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
I have never listen to any Sherbourn amps so I don't know what they add or subtract from the big picture. You could do what many of us have done, add a two channel pre: passive or active with pass through for two channel. I don't know for sure, but I would think this may sound better for two channel sound.
misskuma
75 posts
 
Get the two channel amp from the same maker.
Otherwise, you'll hear a tonal balance shift in multi channel mode.

I dunno which one comes closest to the one you have. Those three
you've listed sure sound diffrent from one another.
sean
6,231 posts
 
I agree with Misskuma. Amps should have similar voices, at least across the front ( l, r and center ) channels. You can use what you want across the rears as it is less critical, at least for movies. It does become more critical if you are using the system for multi-channel music though so take this comment with a grain of salt. Sean
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misskuma
75 posts
 
Ideally, you want to have all same speakers/amps in all channels on multi applications.

I figure the rear won't matter so much and got different makes of speakers from the front.
Boy, was I wrong. When the sound field cross over front to back or vice versa,
I hear the shift. ( say helicopter flying over you and so forth )
rsbeck
887 posts
 
I have an Anthem MCA-50 which is 5 X 225. Recently,
I added Krell 350 MCX monos to the front two channels.
Huge improvement in two-channel listening. During
movies, the center channel is conspicuously different
in quality from the from L & R. Eventually, I will switch the Anthem with something that matches the Krells,
but in the meantime, I listen to a lot of two channel and
I find that I can live with the slight difference during
movies for the time being -- I love having the improvement for music and it ain't that bad during movies -- it is just that the front two speakers sound
better than the center. But, I am not nearly as picky
about movie sound. Then again, any music during
a movie is more likely to come from the front L & R
so I even get some benefit during movies. I wouldn't
keep from improving my two channel sound to protect
movie sound.
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