B&W FPM speakers, but what amp to drive them!?!

[dun101]

Folks - ive got a decision to make, and am looking for some expert and informed opinion (thats the smooth talking out the way!)

Im looking to upgrade my system from the Onkyo TX-NR905 ive got at the moment to an Onkyo PR-SC886 + external amps (via balanced connection).

Speaker compliment :
1xFPM6 (center)
2xFPM4 (front left and right)
4xFPM2 (surround l&r / surround back l&R)

Amps on the short list at the moment are:
Parasound A52 + A23
Rotel RMB1095 + RB1080

Does anyone have any externally amped FPMs who could recommend a good amp, or an opinion / recommendation either way on the above?

Thanks.

[Drongo]

dun101 can I ask why you're upgrading?

Is the sound now lacking in some way - and if so how?

Do you just want more features and facilities?

Or do you have some spare cash burning a hole in your pocket?

[dun101]

A mixture of a couple of reasons really - primarily that im closely linked with local / national Scouting. Part of what i/we do is a film night a couple of times a year at events for anything from 500 to 10000 people, so the onkyo upgrade is very much down to the advantages of the balanced outputs over unbalanced (as discussed in another thread) - i also want the added Audyssey functionality thats in the Onkyo TX-NR906 and PR-SC886 (functionality improved upon over the TX-NR905). So if im changing the processor from a reciever to a pre/pro i need to look at amps to keep my home system running. I dont want to just jump for the first amp i see - its not somehing i intend to replace for a great many years, so i want to do it properly within the budget ive got - of which the Rotels and Paras are at the (very) top end. But if thats the going price for the best quality i can personally afford, so be it.

To be honest im not dissatisfied with the Onkyo 905 at all - in fact ill be selling it to a friend with my recommendation thats its a good piece of kit so he can enter the world of proper HD AV (ie a reciever that will let him enjoy HD picture AND sound - something that some, but not all receivers in the same price bracket do).

I wouldnt say ive got spare cash burning a hole, but ive been setting aside some cash for a while now for this very project and hope to see it bare some fruit in the comming months!

:-)

[Dark Knight]

Im glad to see you have roughly narrowed down what you are after Dun

[Drongo]

A mixture of a couple of reasons really - primarily that im closely linked with local / national Scouting. Part of what i/we do is a film night a couple of times a year at events for anything from 500 to 10000 people, so the onkyo upgrade is very much down to the advantages of the balanced outputs over unbalanced (as discussed in another thread) - i also want the added Audyssey functionality thats in the Onkyo TX-NR906 and PR-SC886 (functionality improved upon over the TX-NR905). So if im changing the processor from a reciever to a pre/pro i need to look at amps to keep my home system running. I dont want to just jump for the first amp i see - its not somehing i intend to replace for a great many years, so i want to do it properly within the budget ive got - of which the Rotels and Paras are at the (very) top end. But if thats the going price for the best quality i can personally afford, so be it.

To be honest im not dissatisfied with the Onkyo 905 at all - in fact ill be selling it to a friend with my recommendation thats its a good piece of kit so he can enter the world of proper HD AV (ie a reciever that will let him enjoy HD picture AND sound - something that some, but not all receivers in the same price bracket do).

I wouldnt say ive got spare cash burning a hole, but ive been setting aside some cash for a while now for this very project and hope to see it bare some fruit in the comming months!

:-)

I may have misunderstood you, but if you want your amp and speakers for occasional use for film nights that will be for 500+ people then I don’t think that any domestic kit is really up to that job.

Any venue that is large enough to accommodate that number of people is going to be far larger than domestic kit is designed to be used in. I think you’d be better of hiring some P/A speakers and amps if you can.

You seem set on the 886 and I’m sure that is a worthwhile upgrade from the pre/processing section of the 905.

I would expect a greater degree of transparency to the sound – particularly with music (where most a/v receivers are weak) – that will probably show itself as more ‘air and space’ (if that makes sense!) around instruments.

I would say that once you get into this level of equipment, the law of diminishing returns starts to apply itself. You will be paying more money for a proportionately smaller increase in quality.

By itself I wouldn’t expect (true) balanced connections to yield a vast increase in quality – they should make a good product slightly better. Don’t forget that the whole idea of balanced connections originate from the studio world where cable runs of many tens of metres is normal. Over such lengths balanced connections are essential – not so with cable runs of inches or maybe a few feet.

Personally I think that you can never have enough power – unless the cost of buying that power means you have made unacceptable compromises to your system elsewhere.

The more power (specifically current) you have the greater the degree of grip the amp has over the speakers, which should mean faster and tighter bass.

But as I said before, I’m not sure that your existing speakers are a difficult load, so I wouldn’t like to guess the degree of improvement you would get from any new amplifier.

Ideally you would want to hear the new amps with your existing speakers and compare them with the 905.

Having said that, I’m a sucker for big power amps, and I’d be very tempted by the Parasounds….

[dun101]

Thanks again for the advise Drongo.

Re the larger events - dont worry, ive absolutely NO intension of using whichever amps i end up buying and my home speakers - we already have a sizable Bose speaker compliment with QSC PLX poweramps for the sub 1000 capacity shows, moving up to contracting in Funktion 1 kit for the larger events. So in that scenario the only part of my home system that would be used is the prepro (and blu ray player).