Advantages of monoblocks


Hey all,

The merry-go-round, which had stopped for a while, is now showing signs of a slow circular movement. In nautical and financial terms this is usually never a good sign.

Anyhow, I'm running a quite good LSA Statement integrated now, powering de Capo BE monitors. I was wondering if monoblocks and a good pre-amp would be a better way to go?

I last had monoblocks when I ran Rogue M120's about a decade ago befor moving on to an ARC VS-110.

Would monoblocks present a significant advantage over a single amplifier or over the tremendous LSA?

They would have to be used and my budget is $4K max.

Cheers,

simao
128x128simao
It depends on your cable philosophy. If you believe in short interconnects and longer speaker cables, use one box. If you believe in long interconnects and short speaker cables, two boxes. Theoretically monos give you two power supplies so the two channels are not sharing one power supply transformer (except for dual mono stereo amplifiers), and less channel crosstalk.
I'd focus and put more emphasis on quality instead rather than get caught in the stereo/mono thing.
Well said, Bvdiman. That should be a truism of hi-end audio, along with being happy with what you have as long as it's making you happy.
No one has said anything about the disavantages of monoblocks. Here's a couple of main ones.

1: You have a greater chance of (hum) earth loop problems with monoblocks, and the powercords will both have mains earth conections, and most like be pluged into different mains wall outlets.
2: You need long interconnects if they are positioned next to the speakers, so you preamp needs to have good low output impedance and drive so some tube pre's and passive pre's will have ? put on them.

Cheers George