2. home-theater
  3. 1309982196

HT amp for my father - advice please

I never ventured into HT so I'm at a loss. My father has an older TV (will upgrade soon) and has 5 speakers (Sonus Faber concertino left/right, center and rears. He would like to use them for TV, DVDs and to run his dedicated imac loaded with music from itunes. PLUS...he is wired from the living room throughout the house including outside. Maybe 3 pairs of speakers not including his HT setup.

First thing...he needs an amp. He's thinking $5-600. How much pwr?

Recommendations please! I feel foolish I can't help him after all my years at audiogon. He likes simple and relatively inexpensive. I'm visiting him for 10 days so I'd like to get this rollling for him.

(oh, and hi to all my old audiogon friends.I haven't been around much lately!)
kublakhan
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Used Marantz MA-500's?
mceljo
1,357 posts
 
The speakers are only rated at 86 dB so I would anticipate power being a bit more important than with a lot of speakers.

It sounds like you need a receiver that has two or three powered zones and I would recommend getting one that has pre-outs for each channel allowing a dedicated 2 channel amplifier to be added in the future. I have an Integra and have had Onkyo in the past. I think they are very user friendly units.

Something like the Onkyo TX-NR708 would be a great starting point, but is a bit above the stated budget. It has two powered zones and 7.2 channel pre-outs. The 608 is less expensive, but you give up the pre-outs and I would anticipate that the amplifier isn't nearly as good.

There are a lot of good options, but here's a place to start looking. The 707 is the previous version of the 708 and is available on Amazon for much closer to your budget.
rbstehno
1,460 posts
 
i have a yamaha rx-v1 that i'm selling. it's an integrated amp/preprocessor, 7.1 setup (2 enhanced front speakers), 2 zones, was there top of the line a few years ago. i actually used it with a pair of totem mani 2's which are 85db.
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