I have a Nad T742 and sold my psb speakers last week. Yesterday I bought a pair of Dynaudio 42 and my NAD is driving these speakers well.I heard you need a huge power to make these babies really sing. Since I'm planning to set up a HT later on I'm leaning towards the Rotel 1075 5.1 power amp because I want to bring out the best from my Dyns and use the NAD as pre amp.What do you think of this setup? What kind of sound will I get from this setup? Will I get a NAD sound which is warm or a Rotel sound which is bright?
Cool to hear that you're driving your 42's well with a T742 (I own one myself). I know they're lower on the sensitivity scale at 86 dB, and 4 Ohms to boot, but I'd suspect the T742 to at least be able to handle that load in stereo, and provide enough power to get the listening levels that you want. It does a clean 60 Wpc at 8 Ohms in stereo, so obviously more at 4 Ohms, which is really more power than one is tempted to believe. I'd be surprised if you're running out of power running them in stereo, provided you have a normally sized listening room.
I don't think the issue is whether or not you're giving your 42's enough power at the moment, but whether the receiver would hold up once you add 3 more speakers to the load, and it's quite conceivable that it wouldn't. The T742 isn't actually officially rated as 5-channel capable at 4 Ohms, so depending on the impedance of the rest of the speakers that you add, you may or may not be safe. The NAD's power supply may not be able to provide enough current to get the full wattage (50 x 5) out of each channel once you have 5 speakers going, considering the 4 Ohm impedance of your mains.
Obviously, by getting a power amp you'd be alleviating this problem, so you're thinking in the right direction. Now unfortunately, I'm not qualified to answer the exact question that you've asked. I think that modern power amplifiers tend to have a smaller range of deviation from neutrality than the preamp sections in receivers, so as long as your amplification is fairly neutral, the final sound will correspond with the sound of the NAD's preamp section, which is probably on the slighly warm side of neutral. I really don't know how neutral Rotel's amps are, though it does seem to be common belief that their receivers and integrateds are on the bright side of neutral. If the Rotel amp IS bright, then that may undo the warmness of the NAD and take the sound over to the bright side of things. I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, right?
Basically, my advice would be to demo whatever gear it is you're interested in and make sure that you're satisfied with it. I would never make an unheard audio purchase, and wouldn't recommend anyone else to do the same. Do you have the ability to demo the power amp that you're interested in? Why are interested in that particular one? Can you get a good price on it, or is it convenient, or what? There's a lot of great gear out there, and you're only limited by what is offered near you and how much time you want to spend evaluating it. You definitely shouldn't make a purchase that you're not 100% sure about.
I DO realize why you're asking though, which is cool, and maybe someone else can give some more useful advice. Good luck!
Anonymous
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Thanks RJW I really appreciate your response. I chose the rotel because the Nad is very warm and the Dyns has a dark top end too. I'm thinking rotel can adjust this system to the bright side of neutral which will give the details and clarity of the Dyns.
It doesn't mean that their products are the same of have the same quality. Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, and Lexicon are the same company. Do you think that the HK receiver sound as good or even have equal built quality as the Lexicon? Denon and Marantz are the same company. Can you find any similarity between them?
Rotel and NAD aren't the same company. The Lenbrook group owns NAD along with a few other companies - PSB, KEF, AudioQuest, and so on. They do not own Rotel. They may be made in the same factory - I don't know of they do or don't - but they don't have anything else in common.
Dexter - Denon/Marantz also owns McIntosh. By brownplus's logic, would McIntosh be the same as Denon and Marantz?
Harmon International Group own H/K, JBL, Infinity, Lexicon and Crown, among others. Present stock price is 102$. I have a little. More Jimmy Buffett than Warren, thiugh.
Erik Anderson
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The Lenbrook group does not own KEF. Gold Peak of Hong Kong bought KEF in 1992. Lenbrook just distributes their speakers.