Multizone amp- why not a 7.1 amp?

[jr_away]

Ssorry if this is a dumb question, but I need a 240V multizone amp and most of the recommended options here are 110V. Before buying a Russound or similar I'm wondering whether it is possible to use a surroundsound amp such as the Jamo AVR 793. This amp has huge power and would allow at least 3 paired outputs. I can get one of these fairly cheap but it has been suggested that there will be "bleed" between the channels even with the separate inputs allowed for each channel by this amp.
Does anybody have experience with this sort of thing?

[Marbles_00]

You'd better be careful. Most "7.1" receivers take a soundtrack that has 7 embedded audio channels and supplies a different signal to each channel for that surround sound effect. This means that all channels are being driven from one source (DVD, Sat...whatever). Multi-zoning amps have seperate inputs for each amplifier, so you could drive a different source to each output (though most people pair them for stereo out). So far googling that amp doesn't indicated that it has the capabilites of having individual sources connected to each amplifier for a multi-zoning condition. Don't get confused with the statements of 7 descrete amplifiers..or multi-channel outputs. Yes it has seven amps, but they are coming off a DSP chip that takes a 7.1 signal and distributes that to each channel.

Though it has a whopper of a power supply.

[Marbles_00]

I forgot to add. You basically want to make sure that the amplifer says "Multi-zoning output" and on the back of the amp, there are a set of speaker outputs dedicated to a true zone (should be silkscreened).

Hope that helps.

[Marbles_00]

Swear...my last post on this. Judging by the back panel image, it is not a zoning amp, nor does it have the capabilities.



It does have an A/B speaker, but what that means is that whatever is being played in the A speakers, are being played in the B speakers. Not true zoning, but could get you by if that is all that you require.

[jr_away]

No, those A/B speakers are not enough for what I need. Thanks for saving me $$$!

[fredw]

if this amp has seperate base line inputs i;e seperate rca inputs for each channel front left, front right, etc. then it will work the way you want. giving you 7 seperate sound zones. you will need to control the volume for each zone either before the amp [soundcard] or after with a high power volume controller. the.1 channel or sub channel might r might not be useable depending on the feq. it handes. i'm a bg halloween nut and i specialize in custom multi channel sound tracks, i've used amps like that for years to send specific sounds to differrent areas.

fred

[escort]

I looked for the right zone amp for about 6 months. I wanted to be able to have control pads in each zone with at least 6 sources. Although it does not have 7 channel stereo, I did not need that. I wired my listening room for that and the house for others. You can get the entire system which includes 6 pads, ir, and the amp for around 900 bucks. If you can get the double gang pads. Totaly worth the money, the pads run off cat5.
http://www.channelplus.com/product_deta ... ductId=114

[Marbles_00]

Okay, I lied...another post.

You could still buy a 110V amp and get a step down transformer from 240V to 110V. As escort mentions, you have lot's of oppurtunities and control with a true dedicated zoning amp. Or just get a simple muliti-channel amp that has enough amplifiers for your zoning requirements and use XLobby to control the volume, and sources to the amp.

[jr_away]

Escort, I posted a question here about a year ago about that Channel Plus system and was advised that controlling it via xlobby would be tough. Have you solved that?

fredw, sounds like you're doing what I had hoped! Can you point me towards an amp that allows separation of the 7.1 inputs?

Marbles, I should have said I'm hoping for 100W/channel. with the multizone amps you can achieve that by bridging channels to provide 3 zones. I'm hoping to get the same 3 zones with a locally available standard amp rather than an imported one-off.

[fredw]

any multi channel amp that has base line inputs to allow you to use a dedicated preamp/decoder will work for you. the back panel of the one your looking at appears to have them, since i'm veiwing it on a 19 inch tv its hard for me to tell.
fred

[rbziggy]

You actually don't need a full pre-poweramp (i.e. integrated amp) multichannel amp here either. I drive a 12 channel Russound poweramp directly off the PC soundcard line outputs. The volume control is done directly on the PC through XL. The preamp (and thus volume controls that are part of this) are simply not needed.

Mind you, the Russound amp is not that cheap unless you get it as a bargin off ebay (it is 230 V switchable though).