New A/V Receiver or Amp?

[Dharris]

I will be in the market for a new a/v receiver in a couple of months. I have not been fallowing the audio world lately as I once did. I just bought some new MB Quart “S” series speakers and I will need more power soon. I currently have the last Japanese series made Denon AVR-1800. Although this great inexpensive 75 watt amp was great for powering my previous set of Paradigm monitors series speakers, it lacks power to make my new 85 db MB Quart speakers really sing. I am looking to only spend 800.00 on a new amp. Is this going to be feasible? Or, since my current Denon 1800 has pre outs for an external power, you think it would be better to by a two channel amp to power my mains. Does anyone manufacture a three channel amp anymore?

I like to listen to two channel music most of the time, but love a great surround sound recorded movie as well.


Thank you,


Don

[topspeed]

Hi Don,

I believe Adcom still makes a 3 channel amp, Proceed used to, and PS Audio has a new modular HCA hybrid amp coming out that will allow the user to pick how many channels he/she needs and drop the amps into the chassis, each with their own power supply. Pretty cool. Unfortunately I doubt it will be within your price range. Proceed is no longer around so you might be able to find some close-outs. I wouldn't be too worried about their quality even tho they are out of business. Proceed was designed by the Mark Levinson engineers.

You can definitely get a good 2 channel amp within you price range, especially if you go used. I use a PS Audio HCA2 running thru a Denon 3803 for my mains and am very happy. This difference in sound between the PSA amp and Denon amp was almost laughable. You'd swear I'd bought new speakers. It was that dramatic. You can find them used for right around $1K usd on Audiogon. I purchased mine new through Audio Advisor but if don't mind used, you can get some really cool stuff.

Good luck