Just got my Trends TA-10.1 in the mail this afternoon.
I have 2 systems at home, one for home theater and one for just music. Do you guys think this little amp would be better suited to drive the rear surrounds in my HT or to drive my speakers on my music system.
I guess what I'm asking is is this amp better suited to HT or music (in your opinions)?
You need efficient speakers with a consistent six to eight Ohm impedance. If that suits your music system's speakers, use it in that application. The six watts from the T-amp makes it unlikely to keeep up with most HT receivers, even driving rear speakers.
Took your advice and hooked it up to my music system. I ran it from the zone 2 output of my Yamaha RX-497, then into my Tannoy MX4 speakers. I must say it sounded pretty crisp and clear for such a tiny amp. The bass was noticable, but not fully satisfying and the midrange was not muddy at all. I'm not totally blown away with it right off the bat, but I must admit it is a cool little piece of gear. I'll have to play around with it some more.
This is probably going to sound like sacrilege to some of you, but I really wasn't very impressed with this amp after owning it for a little while.
Admittedly I am probably not using this amp for it's intended purpose (as dedicated music system for near-field listening). The room this amp was in is fairly large and harsh acoustically (concrete floors, bare walls, etc). I tried it in various configurations as well as with different speakers (Tannoy, PSB) and I just couldn't get it to impress me. I guess my biggest beef was the lack of volume - even turned up full it wasn't loud enough for me (maybe I'm going deaf)? Anyways, I guess I was expecting too much from 10 watts.
Ten watts into the right speaker should be plenty. It depends on what isn't impressing you about the amplifier. If it's just volume, then the speakers need to be more efficient, 96dB or higher for a ten watt amplifier. If the speakers are fairly high efficiency on paper but the amp doesn't sound like it's got enough power to drive them, then the speaker's crossover is probably sucking up wattage and throwing it away as heat no matter what the specs indicate for sensitivity. The majority of home audio speakers are less then 2% efficient in terms of turning electrical watts into acoustic watts. A speaker like a big Klipschorn at 104dB is still less than 10% efficient.
If that's the case then I guess the Tannoy and PSB's (with a sensitivity in the low 90's) weren't enough. I have a pair of Klipsch that I could have tried.