Thoughts and Experiences of adding a Emotiva DR3 External Amp or other Ext Amp ….

[Philip Channell]

Hi,

I currently run 1723s Towers L/R 1723 Centre and 1723s surrounds and backs on a Denon x6700h.

I have been thinking for a while about an External Amp and toyed with Emotiva DR3 vs something else like  Parasound A31 however my finance hat hat is asking if an extra £3K will give me £3K of improvement.

Please share your experiences of adding an external amp ? improvements ? differences etc as well as which brand / model you went for and for which AVR.

 

Kind regards,

 

Phil

[Ford Holt]

I use to be in the ball park of amps are not needed as long as you can get the volume you need. Curiosity got the better one and I purchased so.e amps for my system. Even while at the same volume I will say I can hear a more detailed and dynamic sound….. now I went with emotive basx amps and not their higher end stuff. I would say for me it would be hard to justify 3k for an Amp. as for me their is a point of diminishing returns and a 3k amps is way beyond my limit. I think at that price I would be too critical of listening and making sure 3k can be heard vs enjoying the movie/game… the basx was a good sweet spot for me as I do enjoy listening to dynamics and having a critical ear but I don’t want to forget to enjoy the show as well.

[Philip Channell]

Thanks Ford, I appreciate you sharing your experience and food for thought.

[Lester Davis]

I agree with Ford, I am running an anthem Mrx-1120 with an Emotiva XPA DR3 on the 1723 L & R with Definitive Technology Center. 1723 Center is coming in two days :). I have an XPA-7 on the rest of the speakers. When 1st going from receiver to amp I was not impressed with the sound I thought I was going to hear night & day difference in sound or at least volume. I did not. I have reran the ARC room correction several times & I like the way my system sounds but Im not sure it it was worth the price. I will one day hook the receiver back up to the speakers to see if I can hear the difference or any loss of detail. Oh forgot to mention I did hear a night & day difference in my Atmos height speakers going from the Anthem’s power to the Emotiva’s power.

[brian-w]

I think it is a very individual decision. I have a Denon 6700. I wanted to push the processing out to the 13 channels, so I needed an additional amplifier. As long as I was adding and amp, I added the Outlaw 7000x. Overall a very solid amp, happy with the purchase, but I did not get much of any “improvement”  in sound quality. Perhaps a bit more retention of detail and control at higher volumes… or is that my sound memory? Either way, not a big difference. However, I decided to add another amp to the Denon so I could switch to pre amp mode. I had heard this mode provides a bit better channel separation. I purchased a Parasound A52+, not much more power… but it was a great sale. I can tell you I can hear a difference without trying or forcing myself to listen to small details. The Parasound has a much more natural easy way about powering the speaker. The biggest difference is not when playing loud, but at normal to softer moments in listening volume. For me, 100% worth the investment. I say buy them and try them, if it has little value in how you listen, return it and try a different amplifier. Hope this helps, BW.

[Philip Channell]

Brain this has really reassured me and also been a pleasure to read. I have been considering the Parasound A31 for some time .