Finally finished my dream theater 🙃🙃🙃. All the components are hidden and can be sealed under the stage and out of sight. I beefed it up w all the cooling fans in the rear of the components to keep it cool.
I highly recommend the NAD M27 seven-channel amps since they are smaller than the McIntosh seven-channel amp and they would just perform as well as the McIntosh since they are only powering your center and surround speakers.
No, I don't use any of these amps I suggested. For my dedicated theater room I have the Trinnov Altitude 64 processor. I use 3 Classe Delta CAM-600 monoblock amps (class AB) to power my front LCR speakers and several Plinius multi-channel amps to power surrounds and height ceiling Atmos speakers.
I use this setup strictly for HT (movies) mostly 4K UHD & bluray disc movies played back through the Oppo 205 4K UHD bluray player. I don't listen to stereo music in my dedicated theater room. I have separate stereo setups/systems in separate listening rooms (strictly 2ch setups).
They all have XLR inputs, however, the Classe Sigma Amp5 has only XLR on front LR channels only but this amp is fully balanced design internally (true differential design). Even its single ended (RCA) inputs (center and surrounds) are converted to balanced upon entry.
All the NAD M27, McIntosh seven-channel amp, Rotel RMB-1585 and the Parasound Halo A51/A51+/A52 all have XLR balanced inputs on all channels. I believed the Parasound A51/A51+ are fully balanced design internally (truly differential design), but the Rotel RMB-1585 isn’t true differential design internally. Not sure about the McIntosh seven-channel amp and the NAD M27 seven-channel amp. Your Marantz MM8807 is also not fully balanced design internally or not true differential design internally just like the Rotel. But the Rotel RMB-1585 is a big step up performance wise from your MM8807.
All these multi-channel amps I suggested are big step up performance wise and sonic fidelity wise from your Marantz MM8807 amp. I know although they are only powering your surrounds and height ceiling Atmos channels (speakers) but they will improve your overall theater performances. Marantz makes great HT processors (AV8805) but their multi-channel amps or their amps in general suck big time, especially their multi-channel amps such as the MM8807.
However, Marantz Reference series stereo integrated amps are pretty good for the money but still not that great. They lack dynamic punch and attacks, PRAT, and musical textures and distinctions, and they are sounding somewhat soft and easy and pleasant to listen to music to but are colored and lacking musical drive, rtyhm, pace, speed and articulation.
Actually McIntosh has seven-channel amp. This would be a big step up sonically from the Marantz MM8807 amp. NAD M27 (NAD Master Series) is also a seven-channel amp and is compact in size due to its class D design and would be much better than the MM8807. You could easily fit 3 of this NAD M27 amp under the stage due to its compact size.
If you said earlier that you cannot accommodate one more amp. Alternatively you can find used Classe Sigma Amp5 amps (discontinued) in used markets. Size wise these amps are the most compact multi-channel amps cause it’s class D design and uses SMPS. They can easily be found in used markets for pretty cheap since they were discontinued in 2018. The original retail of the Classe Sigma Amp5 was $5k but nowadays can be had for around $2500. You could easily stack them up and you could easily fit 4 of these Sigma Amp5 under the stage in your HT setup. This Classe Sigma Amp5 will be a big step up from the MM8807 performance wise. They are very suitable for HT, sounding smooth, very resolved, detailed, fast, clean and articulate which would make it great candidate for HT (movies).
But the Rotel RMB-1585 and the Parasound Halo A21 are huge and very heavy since they are linear analog amps (class AB amps). Actually the Halo A21 is biased into class A/AB.
Its actually does make a click (a light relay sounding click) once it passes over 50 volume. Since I keep the volume between 65-75 I don't encounter it anymore once Im listening. Perhaps the others are hearing a different sound from their units.
The system is still being broken in.... If I hear anything else, Ill post it here :)
I noticed you have the PS Audio BHK Signature preamp. Heard from lot of people that this preamp makes noise when turning the volume control up and down and is quite audible through the speakers, but otherwise is a great sounding preamp.
Thank you for pointing that out. I missed that! Im using a Sony UBP-X800M2 4K Player (Ill add it after this post).
I did consider using other multi channel amps. The issue I had was that most of them were only 5 channels. My current setup is using 6 ceiling speakers and 6 surround speakers. I would have to buy 3 pcs of the 5 channel amps, only to have 3 unused channels ( I could bridge them somehow...). The other issue is that my stage underneath could not accommodate one more amp. I originally wanted to use the Audio Research modular multi channel amp (same as my other system) but I found out they were discontinued :(
The Classe, Rotel, and Parasound amps are definitely all upgrades and something to look forward to in this never ending hobby of ours :)
Awesome! What are your AV sources? 4K UHD bluray player? You didn’t list your AV source component(s).
I noticed you have multiple Marantz MM 8807 multi-channel amps to power your surrounds and height ceiling speakers. I recommend Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel amps or the Parasound Halo A51 five-channel amps as they will make big difference but these amps are huge and very heavy and not sure if they would fit under the stage as both the Rotel & Parasound are much taller than the Marantz MM8807 amp. The Parasound Halo A51 runs hot and the Rotel RMB-1585 runs barely warm to the touch and it is a class AB design. The Halo A51 biased in class A/AB. But you have 3 PS Audio BHK 300 monoblock amps that are under the stage and those BHK 300 monoblocks are huge so I think either the Rotel RMB-1585 or the Parasound Halo A51 might fit under the stage. Or if you have space or height limitation since all your components are hidden under the stage I highly recommend the Classe Sigma Amp5 five-channel amps (discontinued) and a used one can be had at massive discounts in used markets. These Classe Sigma Amp5 are very compact in size due to class D design but do not sound like typical class D amps. They can easily be stacked up and hidden under the stage and run cool at all times. These Classe Sigma Amp5 amps are excellent for HT they sounded very resolved. All 3 amps (Classe, Rotel, Parasound) are great amps and will be big step up from your MM8807 amps performance wise.
I would like to add that I did make a mistake on the height of the 2nd row platform (the chairs arrived a month later). I only elevated it 6 inches originally so I had to build an additional 6 inch platform -which is still a bit low. I think 14-15 inches for this particular chair is ideal.
