Found a good deal locally on a pair of Marantz SA500 mono-block amplifiers. These are connected to my Marantz SR5005 AVR and drive a pair of Polk RTi10 floorstanding speakers. I use Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 interconnects for amp-to-AVR, and Belden 5000UE speaker cables.
MA500 specs:
125 W RMS power
8Ω @ 20 Hz - 20 kHz
THX Ultra certified
I have to say that moving to mono-block amps totally transformed the sound and was well worth it. For years I was reading suggestions from people on AVSforum to get dedicated amps, and it seems that the hype was justified. For now I'm going to hold off on new speakers since these amps have renewed my love for the RTi10s.
I may eventually buy a few more of these to drive the center and surround speakers, but the SR5005 seems more than adequate for now. Once the prices on HDMI 2.0-compliant AVRs/pre-amps come down a bit, I will probably swap the SR5005 for one of those.
(ignore the messy cabling, I haven't tidied it up since installing them)
MA500 specs:
125 W RMS power
8Ω @ 20 Hz - 20 kHz
THX Ultra certified
I have to say that moving to mono-block amps totally transformed the sound and was well worth it. For years I was reading suggestions from people on AVSforum to get dedicated amps, and it seems that the hype was justified. For now I'm going to hold off on new speakers since these amps have renewed my love for the RTi10s.
I may eventually buy a few more of these to drive the center and surround speakers, but the SR5005 seems more than adequate for now. Once the prices on HDMI 2.0-compliant AVRs/pre-amps come down a bit, I will probably swap the SR5005 for one of those.
(ignore the messy cabling, I haven't tidied it up since installing them)