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Please help. Why would higher power amp require gain? Marantz/Adcom

Hi,

This is my first post.

I recently connected my Adcom GFA-555 to the front preouts of my Marantz SR5015. I recently had the Adcom evaluated at a reputable repair business as I’ve owned it for 30 plus years. The Adcom had a clean bill of health.
I prefer to setup my speaker gains manually with a sound meter manually with slow C weighting at 75db. I set the Front Left speaker at 0db then turn the volume up to obtain 75db.
The Marantz receiver volume required was 84 where as with the Adcom it was 88. As a result the remaining 5 speakers required a reduction in db to balance out.
Hope this makes sense.....I was expecting a lower volume number on the Marantz to obtain the same 75db, as the Adcom is rated MUCH higher wattage.

Please explain.

Newbie
volfan72
erik_squires
16,227 posts
 
Wattage refers to the limit of output, more related to Volts than watts really, but it refers to maximum output before clipping.
The issue is that the gain, the ratio of Vout/Vin but we measure it in DB's so 20log ( Vout/Vin ).  By convention amplifiers offer ~ 23 dB of gain.  Receivers aren't under the same convention, and it IS just a convention, so nothing really wrong with an amp offering more ore less.

Best,
E
volfan72 OP
3 posts
 
Thanks to everyone that has responded!!
I will also be adding a 5 Channel Adcom GFA 7500 once it returns from the repair shop due to a damaged binding post. I might revisit this with differences in db settings if applicable once that amp is added.
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,521 posts
 
Different sensitivity and gain is going to yield different results. 
213runnin
914 posts
 
One other thing.  Any amplifier requires a certain voltage to achieve unity power.  The 555 can do 200 wpc, but it requires around 1.7 volts on its input rca jacks to do this.  At least the current 555SE needs 1.7 volts, perhaps the old 555 needs a different spec.

So the question is, what is the max voltage of the pre outs on the Marantz?  Most mid level AVR's do 1 volt max, which will not let the Adcom get to 200 wpc.  

I believe that many multi channel amp manufacturers take this into account and achieve unity power at 1 volt, not sure about the GFA 7500.
volfan72 OP
3 posts
 
Thank you for the response.

How difficult is it to determine the Marantz SR5015 Pre-Out voltage?

Also, the required voltage for my GFA-555 and GFA-7500?
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