pre-out volume

Hi all

First of all, thanks to all of you for you great advice (and interesting / humorous debates). I have learnt a lot that I would have been completely ignorant of, if I had missed out on using this site.

I am getting there with the system. I managed to find a really great deal on a Tag-Mclaren 250x3R ($3300). It is a demo model and is in perfect shape. I will probably end up powering it through the pre-outs of a cool AV (much to mr Peabody's dismay I'm sure). My shortlist is the Denon AVC-A1SR, Yamaha AZ9 or Onkyo TX-DS989. I will use the Tag for the fronts (for really cool CD stereo sound using the AV's direct sound mode), and the centre channel. The AV will take care of the other channels (If I end up getting the Yamaha it will be a "9.1" channel system, otherwise a 7.1 channel). The amps alone are gonna end up eating a pretty substantial chunk of the budget (probably about 7 or 8k), so I have decided (much to the dismay of my wife) that i will save a bit more after getting the amps, and buy a really wicked set of speakers a bit later (together with the DVD/CD player). I am gonna be looking at the B&W 8 series, the monitor audio gold, and something from Dynaudio - but if anything else tickles my fancy then so be it.

I read (on 'http://www.whathifi.co.uk/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=59&newssectionID=3') that it would be possible to bi-amp my speakers. Apparently the amps do not have to have the same power, just the same gain. Do you reckon this would be worthwhile? Means I get to use all my channels on the AV after all then? But I read on one of the other discussions, that in order to bi-amp, the crossover needs to happen before the speakers. So which is correct? The site above simply says that one set of wires is sent from Integrated amp to drive the treble, and the other set will go from power amp and will drive the bass.

How do I find out what the gain is on the AV though? The tag lists it's gain in the specs (28.8 dB at 1 kHz) but none of the specs on any of the AV amplifiers say anything about gain.


the fun continues......

Regards
Justin

I don't really see any benefits of bi-amping any speaker with the same amp. Yeah, yeah, I know all about the "value" of having separate power supplies to the highs and lows, more "control', better reserves, blahblahblah. The key is, can you HEAR the difference? The ONLY time I've seen bi-amping make sense is when you use different amps for the highs and lows (and they don't need to be crossed over before the speaker btw) for example using a ss amp to get the depth and punch in the lows while smoothing out the highs with a tube amp. Now THAT I'd consider. But to bi-amp a speaker using the same amp? I certainly couldn't hear the diff but to each their own.

Very nice system you're building Justin. I applaud you for resisting the temptation for immediate gratification and buying something that in the long run, you'd be unhappy with. Why upgrade later when you can get it right the first time and never look back?

Enjoy!

In my experience, the output from a good external amp hooked up to an AV receiver sounds a little cleaner than the output from an AV receiver's built-in amps.

Using the AV receiver's amps to power your high-frequency speakers may make things worse in the long run. Might be a good thing if you have problems with brightness. I would say on this one that some experimentation is in order. ...Would give your system more power to work with...

Don't know the answer to your question about the AV receiver's gain. When I went shopping, I thought that Harman Kardon, Dennon and Onkyo sounded best.