Please recommend budget $1,000 amp for Vistas--What would *you* buy?

[Webinattor]

I went the Emotiva Lpa-1 route. It is on my porch right now, so I will mess with it when I get home. Dipping toe into separates, so I will use my Yamaha receiver as a preamp to this new amp to power my Aerius I with new panels.

And see what happens.

 

[remoteportal]

HDMI 1.1 vs HDM 1.3

I highly recommend Sunfire multichannel amps for this purpose, which can often be found reasonably priced on the used market. Right now, there is a Sunfire Theater Grand Amplifier (7 channels x 200 wpc) dealer demo with full warranty on audiogon for $2,000.

Great ideas! Actually, there is one now for $1,300. One area of concern is that it appears this amp only supports HDMI 1.1. I think Super Audio CD needs HDMI 1.2 and the latest is HDMI 1.3 which seems kinda important to me since it seems to support a lot more stuff.

 

[remoteportal]

A 105 watts at how many ohms?

Specs: 105 Watt - 8 Ohm - THD 0.06 % - 7 channel(s) ( Surround )

But I guess we don't know at 4 Ohms, etc.

 

[remoteportal]

I am not sure I understand your current setup. Is your Sony STR-DE475 acting as your receiver/preamplifier and just feeding the surround speakers? How is everything connected? What is feeding your Yamaha amplifier for the Vistas?

...Are you looking to power a $2500 pair of speakers with $600 worth of receiver at 105 watts per channel?

Currently, sources are plugged into my stereo Yamaha receiver which drives my Vistas. The Sony 5.1 is plugged into the Yamaha at the pre-amp/amp point to drive (soon)Logos, Vignette surrounds, and Dynamo.

This gives me 200wpc for Vistas and simple Pro Logic decoding for 5.1.

Yes, well, um (embarrassed), I'm considering driving $4K-$7K (retail) speakers with about $1,000 (retail) amp. I really want my Vistas to sing (eventually) but home theater I guess is current highest priority. I think I followed the audiophile's Golden Rule of putting most of the money in the speakers then working back to the source as money allows?

With all the reading I've done in the last two weeks, it seems what I really need is a pre-amp/processor build on the the latest HT technologies (HDMI 1.3 1080p, Dolby True-HD, DTS-HD) driving a separate amp. That way both the processing and the amplification are not coupled and can be independently upgraded.

 

[URSPIDER]

I noticed that Emotiva was recommended to you by a couple of members. I have used some of their stuff and must admit it is very good, especially at the price point. I live in Charlotte and I have a couple of their amps that I am not using at this time and will be happy to let you borrow one for a month or so to try if you like. I have a RPA-1 and a LPA-1, if interested send me an e-mail and we can work out the details.

 

[Jungle Jack]

Hello,
If looking for a lower cost solution, the Onkyo TX-SR805 should warrant your consideration. For around $600.00 (street price), you get THX Ultra 2 certification, HDMI 1.3, all the latest codecs,etc... The thing weighs 55 pounds and has measured amazingly well for the price. Heck, the first ones were even built in Japan. I think the TX-SR805 might be one of the best deals ever. The unit offers full preouts as well when upgrading to an outboard amp is a possibility. The biggest downside is video processing. Component inputs will not be output higher than 720P through HDMI. Again, for 600.00 utterly insane value.
Cheers,
M.L