Venturing into Amp Land

[eslaudio]

After using my 1056 for around four months, I'm now considering the addition of a two-channel amp for music listening with the 1056 as pre/pro. Do I need a five-channel amp for the 1056 or can I leave my rears and center channel hooked to the 1056 while my mains are connected to a separate amp?

I'm intrigued by all-tube or hybrid tube amps and wonder if anyone in this forum has their 1056 or 1055 paired with a tube amp. Any suggestions for under $1000?.. So confusing this journey into amp land. Please help!

My current system:

RSX-1056
Cambridge Audio 640c
Soliloquy 5.3
Axiom M3ti
Axiom VP150
Analysis Plus Oval 9 biwire
Better Cables Silver Serpent

[Eiffel]

You can indeed leave your rear and center channels hooked to the 1056 while the mains are connected to a separate amp (I'm doing this with my 1055 and a RB1080). You can even redirect two of the 1056 amps to power some additional channels (such as Center Rear...)

I happen to have a tube amplier (Audio Research VT100 MkII-- wonderful, but above your budget) and tried to connect it to my rotel unit... It does work, but it also shows the limitations of the 1055 as a preamp. My suggestion is to go for something like a Rotel 1080 (within your budget, and a great power amp, with easy system integration)

[aud19]

Yes you can use your 1056's amps to power the remaining speakers. Careful with mixing tubes/solid state amps in same system. The tubes will sound awesome for 2-channel but may cause enough of a difference between your mains and surrounds/centre to pull you out of multichannel auidio/moview soundtracks.

Jason

[eslaudio]

Thanks for your advice. It sound like I should probably go solid state and give up on my tube dreams for the time being.

[aud19]

If you really want to get in to tubes and two channel, you owe it to yourself and your gear to have them as a seperate systems IMO. Check out the "Audio Hideout" area of HTGuide for more 2-channel info

Jason

[mars]

Yes you can use your 1056's amps to power the remaining speakers. Careful with mixing tubes/solid state amps in same system. The tubes will sound awesome for 2-channel but may cause enough of a difference between your mains and surrounds/centre to pull you out of multichannel auidio/moview soundtracks.

Jason

Couldn't agree more. Home theatre use does not play to a tube set's strength's. If two channel performance is very important, there are some pretty warm sounding "class A" solid state units around. I'm using an older Sumo (no longer in business) unit that suits my ear and still packs plenty of punch for HT. I've heard much better solid state units than mine but can't justify the expense of a change.

[eslaudio]

If I add a solid state amp to the 1056 would it be possible to bi-amp using the 1056 amplifier? I'm currently using internal biwires but have heard that bi-amping can make a significant difference. Any thoughts?