I have been to a few stereo stores and have been told that stereo amps will give much better sound than multichannel ones when used for two channels. Is this "old" news? Are home theater amps catching up in this sense (within similar price ranges)? My original goal was to buy a multichannel for stereo use for the near future. Thank you-confused
Of course a stereo amp that costs the same as a "Home theater receiver" will usually sound a lot better. I know there are probably a couple exceptions with either really crappy stereo amps that costs a lot or really good home theater amps that are pretty cheap, but generally speaking that's true.
But why would yo buy a Home theater amp for stereo use? You'd have to spend twice as much to get a home theater amp that sounded as good as a dedicated analog stereo amp.
Well, my feeling is that if the sound quality within the same price ranges are not too great, why not have the flexibility? Spoke to Marantz and asked the same question. Their response,perhaps expected, is that stereo quality is similar between MC and 2 channel within their range at similar price points.
Many 5 channel amps will have their two channel equivalents. Reviewers will compare the two and in most cases the sound is usually always the same. In some cases for 2 channel playback on multi channel amps the sound is bit more dynamic. This is partly due to the bigger power supplies powering only 2 channels instead of 5.