A/V Processor and Amp for B&W speakers?

Hi Auxinput,

Thanks for these suggestions, these hit my price point perfectly and seem generally well regarded. As per my setup above I only need 5 channels, but would it be worth buying the 7 channel and bi-amping the front speakers and is the Outlaw 976 even capable of bi-amping setups?

I’m open to used items also, particularly on the amp side, in fact I’ve looked a few times for the rotel gear I mentioned but they seem hard to find second hand, but ultimately I’d prefer to buy new with such large expenses.

Thanks,

Kevin

Hi Tim,

The rotel amp was already sold by the time I clicked in the clink, hot item I guess, but thanks for sharing the link

Unfortunately I have too many other items to connect (tivo dvr, mac mini, apple tv) for the oppo option. The death of Oppo was surprising a few years back given how well regarded their gear is.

Thanks,

kevin

Yes it's true that the Oppo is basically a self-contained HT processor.  However, it's great that you caught that "single HDMI input" limitation.  I was going to mention that.

The Outlaw does not have bi-amping.  I wouldn't normally bi-amp unless you had an out-board analog crossover.  That's really the only true benefit to bi-amping (but you would need to modify internal speaker crossovers).  Also, bi-amping in processors can frequently degrade sound quality because of the way they automatically try to do bi-amping signal differences.

You could always do a Y-Cable, but then you are affecting the amplifier input impedance.  The Monolith has more than enough power to drive your B&W speakers without bi-amping.

As far as the 5-channel vs. 7-channel.  The 7-channel has bigger transformers, so it's possible that it would give you slightly more power in the bass/midbass area, especially if you don't connect the last 2 channels.  It's up to you.  It's basically a $230 price option, so it depends on your budget.

I don't know if you noticed, but I typoed the price for the 5-channel.  It should be $1500.  NOT $5100, lol.

One thing about the Outlaw is that the menu/setup is somewhat cumbersome.  It takes about 3-5 seconds to bring up the menu and it blanks out the audio/video.  It pretty much treats the menu system as a completely separate source.  It doesn't have OSD overlay like every other processor.  But you can configure it and the performance is quite good.

Scratching bi-amping, then the X5 model makes sense to me. With thanksgiving round the corner is it worth waiting for some discount or do these items rarely get discounted?

Point taken on the Outlaw useability, other reviews have similar comments, but once setup it should be fine.

Monoprice also have a good reputation for cables so I was thinking of these:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33837

Thanks again for all the help.

kevin

Those Monoprice Monolith cables look to be pretty good for the price ($60 for 1 meter pair).

Other candidates I would recommend would be a couple from Audio Advisor (www.audioadvisor.com):

- Pangea TrueBalanced XLR-to-XLR ($99 for 1 meter pair).

- Kimber PBJ ($132 for 1 meter pair).


Alternatively, keep your eye out for some used Audioquest XLR cables.  There's a pair of King Cobra on ebay for $95.