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B&W 805 D4: which 5 channel power amp should I go with (home theater): Parasound or Rotel

Hearing Hans Zimmer score play during scenes from The Dark Knight, Inception & Interstellar is life changing. The 805 D4 works great for l/r speaker for movies. Of course I need to add a center channel which would either be the HTM81 D4 or the HTM82 D4 but I’ll save that for another discussion.

Here are the power amps I’m looking at:

Parasound:

- Halo A 51

- Halo A 52+

Rotel:

- RMB-1585

- RMB-1585MKII

 

I’m not able to go into an audio store to test out power amps  so I would like your expert opinion on which might work better with these speakers or if you have any recommendations for 5 channel power amp then I would gladly go take a look at those online.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

candyisdandy
wspohn's avatar
wspohn
578 posts
 

I currently use an Ascom 7605 but have also used ATI and was quite happy too.

zagorskia
5 posts
 

I listened to both the A51 and Rotel 6 yrs ago.  Both are awesome.  I liked the Parasound better.  More muscle.  If I had to do again I would get the A31 for the front three and a A23 for the back or even the 2125 v 2 new classic for the back.  Unless you are driving big surrounds the A51 is overkill.  My 2 cents.

fokakis1's avatar
fokakis1
10 posts
 

I have owned several B&W speakers and currently have the 805D4s.  Rotel makes good amos for the money, but the 8 series has impedance dips that Rotel doesn't handle well.  IIRC, the Diamonds (8 ohm nominal) drop to under 4 ohms in the lower treble.  I find that Rotel sounds a bit brittle in the highs driving my B&Ws.  I've used Classe and Pass with better results.  In fact, my 30W Pass pushes them much cleaner at high volume than did my 200W Rotel because it handles the low impedance much better.  Something to consider.  Good luck!

jafant
18,804 posts
 

candyisdandy

 

As above, Classe' is a sonic match as well. 

 

Happy Listening!

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