Looking to get some feedback on the best possible sound quality out of a TritonCinema Two system.

Some amps/receivers I've short-listed include the following:

Amps:
$900 - Emotiva XPA-5 (200wpc) - very cheap but might not have the ultimate sound quality desired, based on various comments
$1600 - Outlaw 7500 (200wpc) - based on reviews not quite up to the quality of the Parasound, but quite close for a great price
$2850 - Parasound 5250 v.2 (250wpc) - stumbled across this recently, anybody know other similarly high power/quality amps?
$3500 - NAD Masters Series M25 (160wpc) - at (or slightly past) the outer limit of what I'm willing to spend (or next NAD below this)
$3000 - Wyred 4 Sound Ice Cube MC Multichannel Power Amplifier - reasonably well reviewed, but concerns about class-D power

Pre/Pro or Receiver:
$1000 - Anthem MRX 300 - with ARC (60/80wpc)
$1500 - NAD T 757 (60wpc)
$1500 - Anthem MRX 500 - with ARC, adds USB and Ethernet (75/100wpc)
$1600 - Marantz 7005 - just Pre-Pro, lacks ARC but well reviewed
$2000 - Anthem MRX 700 - better sound quality and HD radio (90/120wpc)
$2600 - Integra DHC-80.2 - marginal sound improvement compared to Marantz 7005, according to reviews

Integrated Tube Amp:
$2300 - PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium Integrated Amplifier (35wpc)
-this one is out of left field, but reviewers say it's a great match for the Triton 2s, and could be paired with a receiver powering the center and surround channels. Or even the receiver could power all speakers during moving watching for sonic consistency, then this tube amp only connected for stereo music sessions.

I also have a significant concern about the Anthem Receivers. From reading this forum and others, I have heard that they don't output LFE signals for 5.1 content through the speaker wires, meaning you'd have to get 2 Sub cables and a splitter to get proper bass. Is this still true, or has Anthem provided an update to deal with this limitation? Ideally all LFE info should always be sent through the speaker wires if you have the fronts set to LARGE and Sub set to No. The great ARC room correction system would seem to give Anthem an edge for use either as the only receiver or with the pre-outs to a higher end amp, but the LFE issue seems to be a drawback.

Thanks!

typo moving=movie

Also, I will be able to listen to the Anthem and NAD receivers at a local dealer, but possibly none of the others on the list. If there is an amp with less power (i.e. 80-150wpc) but MUCH higher sound quality than any of the above amps, and a price of $3000 or less, I would consider that as well. I want to have the full dynamic range during home theatre use, hence looking at 200wpc Amps.

Well, you've done some homework! Hopefully others will add their thoughts here for you as well.

First, the Anthem receivers DO blend LFE into mains whenever there are four or more speakers in the system. So a 5.1 or 7.1 source will be completely downmixed to your 5.0 TritonCinema system, including LFE. The forums got this wrong based on a misunderstanding of the information provided - the Anthem DOES discard LFE when downmixing to less than four speakers.

The Prima Luna is a great sounding amp but your desire for "loud" seems to negate that choice (unless your intention is to use it for music only and within its output range - which will still be quite good with Triton Twos).

Your list of choices is excellent - for separates I would choose the NAD or the Parasound coupled with the Marantz Pre/Pro from your lists. For a receiver-only solution the best on your list is the Anthem MRX-700 (NAD is very good too, perhaps there's a higher power model to consider?). Another receiver brand we have had great experience with is Arcam (AVR-400).

Hope this helps!

Thanks this helps a lot. To clarify with the Anthem receivers, if a 5.1 or 7.1 source will not be lacking any LFE even when only using the speaker wires, what about stereo music? I'm hoping that with a stereo CD, the bass will also work as expected - I guess both for upmixing to 5.0 and straight stereo only going to the 2 Triton Two's. Most likely I would be doing direct stereo for music and not adding further processing to the sound to play through all 5 speakers, but I'd just like to confirm this scenario in case I ever use it.

If I understand you, you're saying the issue is only with downmixing a 5.1/7.1 source to JUST the 2 Triton Two's, or the front 3 speakers, in which case the Anthem receivers don't pass on the LFE signal to the mains. This would not be a concern for me as I'd never play a 5.1 or 7.1 source without using all 5 of my TritonCinema Two speakers.

I think the Prima Luna was a bit of a dream - in reality it would stretch my budget and not blend with any receiver I'm looking at (regarding the other 3 channels being powered by the receiver). Perhaps it is something I could add in a few years IF it significantly adds musical enjoyment over whichever 5 channel receiver/amp I end up picking. If I can get a 5 channel amp that approaches (or equals/exceeds) the sound of the Prima Luna while also playing much louder, then I'll be set.

My priorities in choosing an amp are the following:
1. Very good sound quality and musicality, noticeably above the mainstream sub-$1000 receiver level with which I am familiar. While the Triton Two's can sound very good with less expensive and less powerful receivers, I think their absolute ability is being wasted by not pairing with a reasonably good amp (or very high end receiver).
2. Impressive Dynamic Range for movies and also for music. I listen to music sometimes quietly, sometimes medium, sometimes very loud - it should sound great in all 3 scenarios. I tend to listen to movies always very loud, and would like "reference" levels (which I do not achieve from my current system). I don't want any compression at very high volumes (I know the GE system is capable of this, now I just need the amp to match). But I also want excellent quality from relatively low volumes - I know some speakers and some amps don't "come to life" until the volume dial hits a medium level. Again, I believe the GE's accomplish this as well, much better than most similar priced speakers, but need an amp to match.
3. Audiophile level, suspension of disbelief level of accurate and detailed music reproduction. In other words, very good sound is a must, and I would love audiophile level sound but not at the expense of too much dynamic range. I could probably accept a 120-150wpc amp with superior sound quality over a 200wpc+ amp, but would not want to go much below that to sacrifice further range.

To give perspective, I currently have a Yamaha HTR-5750 and Athena Point 5 Series speakers and sub. I also have Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1 computer speakers which play remarkably loud (and clear) for a $500 system, so they set my minimum expectation of loudness. However I have also listened to many more expensive systems, and have an idea of the type of improvement I can look forward to.

If the LFE issue is not an issue with the Anthem receivers, then the advantage of ARC makes them quite appealing to me (given my room which is less than ideal though not terrible sonically - mostly bass issues). You mentioned paring the Marantz Pre/Pro with a good amp. How much would I be sacrificing in terms of sound quality if I got an Anthem MRX 300 to save $600 and gain ARC, and used it as a pre-amp to one of the previously mentioned 200wpc amps? Would I be losing more sound quality to the Marantz than I gain in ARC room correction, or would the difference in sound quality (when MRX-300 only used as a pre-amp) not be that large?

From what I've read, even really good receivers like MRX-700, or some of the NAD and Arcam, are still noticeably behind a good separate amp in terms of sound quality (and also dynamic range), although they are also noticeably better than more mainstream brand's receiver offerings.

I guess my choices are as follows:

1. Get a high quality reasonably powerful receiver like the MRX-700 or Arcam AVR-400 or NAD T777 for 2-3k.
2. Get a very good multichannel amp for 2-3.5k, and a pre-pro or less expensive receiver with pre-outs for 1-1.5k, for a total of 3-5k.

The question then becomes, how significant is the improvement I get from the separates in exchange for spending potentially twice as much as the receiver option. It would need to be fairly substantial to justify the higher cost. If the improvement is there, an advantage to spending more now is to be able to keep the amp a very long time, while only needing to replace the pre-pro/receiver a bit sooner for new standards and features. For example if I got a "4K" TV or some new HD audio standard is introduced, only the pre-pro would become obsolete. After 1-2 pre-pro/receiver upgrades the total lifetime cost *could* be lower than upgrading a higher end receiver 1-2 times in the same time frame.

One more point, if you don't mind. Currently the Outlaw 7500 and Marantz 7005 are available in a bundle for $2800 direct from Outlaw - a $400 discount. This is quite tempting for the price and power (although I would be giving up ARC), but based on reviews I'm not sure if the Outlaw has quite the level of refinement and absolute sound quality I'm looking for in a separate amp. The following quote from a review concerned me:

"If you're one to flog your system by taking it to 11, the 7500 will play along, however it will come at the expense of high frequency and lower bass performance."

hometheaterreview.com/outlaw-audio-model...ier-reviewed/?page=2

However it's hard to say if I would need to take to it "11" with a real 200wpc on tap, and most other comments about the Outlaw were extremely positive. It again becomes a matter of "is the sonic gain of one of the more expensive amps worth the extra 1-2k". I don't want to save a few $$ at the expense of a significant difference in sound quality. It's really hard to tell exactly how the Outlaw stacks up against Parasound or NAD based on just reviews. Some say it's nearly equal, others say there's still quite a gap. Can't really demo an Outlaw since they're not in dealers. I'm hoping others on this forum will chime in with their experiences on the amps I have listed or any others I haven't considered that might deserve consideration.

Thanks again for your help!

Hello Tom, I recently purchased an Anthem MRX 500 to be associated with the Triton Cinema system (that I don't own, yet).

My choice was mainly due to these reasons:

1) ARC. From reviews, it seems to add a great value to your listening experience and easily beats other "similar" solutions

2) "Real" power. The Anthem wpc seems to translate into 1.5x - 2.0x wpc of other brands

Reading other owners posts, on the avsforum, the general advice is to give a try to Anthem A/V receivers THEN, maybe, purchasing a separate.

Hope that helps

Stereo is 2.0, no LFE to worry about . And yes, discarded LFE would not be a concern in your 5.0 system playback.

I think your choice 1 makes sense unless you want to step up to separates in the $5-10,000 range. Can't really say on the Outlaw deal as I have no experience with that gear.