Question about 5ch. amp Power?

ABEX · « **on:** 25 Mar 2003, 06:58 am »

Why is it that people need so much power for the CC and rear speaker's?

In my setup I have a B&K ST-202modified and for the remaining channel's I am using a B&K AV-2500 which I think should be adequate.

It is rated around 50w for those channels.

TIA

bubba966 · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 Mar 2003, 10:51 am »

I think it has less to do with actually needing that much power for rears & rear centers, and more to do with keeping things as equal as possible.

True, a quality sound pan from front to rear is rare. But it's nice to try and keep things as close to each other as possible so as to cut down on variances between the front & rear channels when you do get a good pan from front to rear.

ABEX · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 Mar 2003, 03:58 pm »

The thing I cannot understand though is if you have medium efficient speakers and only use those channels for movie viewing then you will not really use to much power for those channels given the fact you only use no more then 10-20w for the forward channels when viewing programs.

Thx!

JoshK · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 Mar 2003, 04:02 pm »

I think Brian's argument is one of purism. However, I don't think there can be much departure in sonic character of the rears from the mains as there is little to no voice in the rears. I also think you would need great difference in sonic character of the amps being used to tell any difference from the front to back. Across the fronts (L/R/C) I definately see the rationale but not towards the back, but this is just my take and I could be wrong.

If it were my money, I would focus on the front three and leave the rears for a much later endeavor.

ABEX · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 Mar 2003, 08:22 pm »

Well that is why I bought the B&K AV-2500 amp in order to mesh correctly with the ST-202 main amp and speakers.

Just seems to me that people buy these mega $$ 5ch. amps when they will not need the power. My sytem or my taste are built around the 2ch. reproduction with out HT interfering with that playback.

The only time that high levels of power are needed are during transients for explosions in movies and inless you have really inefficient speaker's in the rear and CC you really do not need to have alot of power.

I just was wondering if I was wrong in this assumption.

JoshK · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 Mar 2003, 08:25 pm »

Brian,

If you went the AKSA route, you could build three 100w monos for the front and later on build two stereo 55w aksas for the rears. Everything would probably work hunkey dorey.