Mixing Amplifiers Emotiva and Rotel

[omegatemplar]

Currently I have a 2.1 system that's being powered by a Rotel 1582. I'm looking to flesh out the system to a full 5.1 system which means getting a center channel and 2 surrounds.

I'm looking to purchase the Emotiva XPA-3 in order to power those components, will there by any sound quality differences in using the Rotel to power my front left/right and the Emotiva to power the remaining portions of the system?

I know that sound quality is a subjective area, so I'm really just wanting to know generically if it will turn out to be a major difference.

Thanks.

Daven

[hemster]

Hi Daven,

Welcome to the forum!

You haven't told us the spec of the Rotel or what brand/model speakers you have. Generically there could be differences in how the 2 amps sound (warm, harsh, flat...).

If I were you, consider using the XPA-3 for front/left/right and use the Rotel for surround duty. This configuration would minimize any sonic differences between the amps...

Or get an XPA-5 and let the Rotel serve the rear 2 channels, making it a full 7.1 system (if you want to do that).

Good luck with what you decide to do. Keep us posted here..

~Hemster

[omegatemplar]

Hemster,

The Rotel is a Class A/B 2 channel, 200 watts per channel amplifier and the speaker setup is the following:

Front L/R : Bowers and Wilkins 684
Center: Bowers and Wilkins HTM62
Surround: Bowers and Wilkins 686

Thanks for the advice about using the XPA3 to power the front 3 speakers in order to minimize the sonic differences.

Is there anything else that I would have to do in order to balance the sound difference besides individually setting the gain on the speakers?

Thanks,

Daven

[soulrider4ever]

I think the gain on the Rotel vs. the Emotiva could be a problem, what is the specific amp model?

[hemster]

Oct 21, 2010 14:21:05 GMT -5 omegatemplar said:

Hemster,

The Rotel is a Class A/B 2 channel, 200 watts per channel amplifier and the speaker setup is the following:

Front L/R : Bowers and Wilkins 684
Center: Bowers and Wilkins HTM62
Surround: Bowers and Wilkins 686

Thanks for the advice about using the XPA3 to power the front 3 speakers in order to minimize the sonic differences.

Is there anything else that I would have to do in order to balance the sound difference besides individually setting the gain on the speakers?

Thanks,

Daven

Thanks for the detail Dave. I would stick with what I said earlier... use the XPA3 for F/L/R and Rotel for surrounds. That also yields another benefit in that if you use only the 2-ch mode for music, you'd get a little extra power from the XPA-3s. Although this is a very minor point.

I don't believe you'd have to do anything else.. the specs on the Rotel and the XPA-3 match very closely so you should be fine.

Cheers,
~Hemster

[Pauly]

I don't see anything wrong with it. soulrider could be right though. If there is a big difference in gain between the two, then you could run into a problem. But I used to run a Parasound Halo for the fronts, with an Emo UPA-5 for the rest, and it always sounded great. The only reason I don't anymore, is because the Parasound is in my 2 channel system now.

[omegatemplar]

Oct 21, 2010 14:24:36 GMT -5 soulrider4ever said:

I think the gain on the Rotel vs. the Emotiva could be a problem, what is the specific amp model?

The Rotel is the following model:

www.rotel.com/NA/products/ProductDetails.htm?Id=488

[omegatemplar]

Oct 21, 2010 16:32:34 GMT -5 Pauly said:

I don't see anything wrong with it. soulrider could be right though. If there is a big difference in gain between the two, then you could run into a problem. But I used to run a Parasound Halo for the fronts, with an Emo UPA-5 for the rest, and it always sounded great. The only reason I don't anymore, is because the Parasound is in my 2 channel system now.

The gain on the Rotel is 26.5 db vs 32 on the XPA 3, would it make that much of a difference?

[Pauly]

I think hemster has the right idea. Use an XPA-3 for the fronts, and let the Rotel take care of the rears, just so you wouldn't notice any difference(if any)up front, where it matters most.

[gman1234]

EMO in front: left, right and center where it belongs!