I have the Onkyo Integra DTR6.3 HT receiver with 100 wpc. I am living
just fine with its performance, but am curious about the possibility
of enhancing my sound quality with the addition of a power amp, using
the preamp out of the Onkyo.

My questions a

How much of an amp will I need to buy to achieve an improvement that
will make me grin?

Can I do this for under $2,000.? Under $1,000.?

Are there certain makes and models that anyone might recommend?

Thanks.

Gary

Gary:
The answer is "Hell yeah", but the price will depend upon whether you
want 2ch or 5-6 ch for surround, and whether you will consider only "audio"
amps or "pro" gear as well. You could easily triple your 2ch power with a
Pro amp, but some of these will have forced air cooling, however not all.
Crown makes studio amps that are convection cooled, meaning no fans, as do
many others such as Bryston, QSC and Crest. Even some of the fan cooled amps
are quiet enough to use at home or in a studio.
Ignore anybody that says Pro gear has more noise and lower sound quality
that "audio" gear, it's just not true of the better pro gear. Noise in the
signal chain is simply not tolerated at the big touring level, that's why
you see differentially balanced connections on everything, exteme signal to
noise ratio and dynamic range specs, and now efficient light weight amps
with big power, 2ohm load handling, and extensive protection circuitry to
protect both the amp and speakers.
I say do some research for the brands above, and then go see what they cost.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Paul

"gary h" wrote in message
om...
I have the Onkyo Integra DTR6.3 HT receiver with 100 wpc. I am living
just fine with its performance, but am curious about the possibility
of enhancing my sound quality with the addition of a power amp, using
the preamp out of the Onkyo.

My questions a

How much of an amp will I need to buy to achieve an improvement that
will make me grin?

Can I do this for under $2,000.? Under $1,000.?

Are there certain makes and models that anyone might recommend?

Thanks.

Gary

Yes, it CAN make a significant difference (depending on the
components such as speakers, the you are using of course). HT
receivers may be rated at high wattages but they can have limited
reserves. Another thing to consider is that although parts of it
is also fed to other channels, the music scores for movies tend
to be carried primarily in the left and right mains. For these
reasons, myself and others I know have personally discovered that
in our systems, adding a decent amp for the mains alone has made
a significant improvement, especially for the musical scores in
movies which add so much to the impact of what you are watching.
Also, if you don't have a sub, and (depending on the type of
speakers you are using), you will discover that the support of
the LFE channel can also be improved when it is fed to the mains.

Note that the preamp sections of many HT receivers can sometimes
be a bit wanting, so going to very expensive amps will more
quickly reach a point of diminishing returns since the preamp
sections can be a bottleneck for quality. E.g., For a given
amount of money put into a receiver's preamp section, which would
likely sound better, a single preamp input, or a gazillion inputs
like on many HT receivers being sold today? Give me 4 good inputs
instead of 15 cheap ones anytime.

The good news is that if all your music sources are coming
through the internal receiver DACs (i.e. on a digital input), the
DACs usually bypass the cheaper preamp sections and so even on a
relatively inexpensive receiver the sound quality from the front
end can be pretty good.

As far as which amp to pick, you'll need to experiment to see
which works best for you with the speakers that you have but
Adcom, Rotel, NAD, Bryston, etc. are some names you could look
for but any 80-100 watt stand alone amp (depending on your
speakers) that you could get your hands on to try out would be
worthwhile to check out. Also, watch for used equipment as it can
be good value-many 2-3 year old amps can be had at 40%-60% of
their original price with a little shopping. For a reference, you
can check out audiogon.com for current asking prices.

Hope this helps some

- Jeff



gary h wrote:

I have the Onkyo Integra DTR6.3 HT receiver with 100 wpc. I am living
just fine with its performance, but am curious about the possibility
of enhancing my sound quality with the addition of a power amp, using
the preamp out of the Onkyo.

My questions a

How much of an amp will I need to buy to achieve an improvement that
will make me grin?

Can I do this for under $2,000.? Under $1,000.?

Are there certain makes and models that anyone might recommend?

Thanks.

Gary

In article ,
says...
I have the Onkyo Integra DTR6.3 HT receiver with 100 wpc. I am living
just fine with its performance, but am curious about the possibility
of enhancing my sound quality with the addition of a power amp, using
the preamp out of the Onkyo.
My questions a
How much of an amp will I need to buy to achieve an improvement that
will make me grin?
Can I do this for under $2,000.? Under $1,000.?
Are there certain makes and models that anyone might recommend?

You have to identify a problem before you can come up with a solution.
What problem does your current system have that you think a new amplifier
will solve? If you are thinking of upgrading, most of the time your
money is best spent on getting better speakers.
------------
Alex