Just wondered if this was do-able?

Been looking for a second amp for the conservatory but don’t want to spend loads. AV amps seem to fetch less than conventional amps on that eBay.

So can they be used with just 2 speakers as a conventional amp?

Cheers!

Yes. Just wire up the front L&R speakers and you’re good. Not been into it for years but it used to be felt that an AV amp wasn’t as good sounding as a stereo amp. But unless you’re a hi-fi purist I can’t imagine you’ll care too much.

Muffin I do just this although mine is used for both tv/blu-ray watching sound and audio inputs with just two speakers.

Wiring for speakers as per Jeffl above.

I am no hifi buff and mine is a budget set up but it’s still a bucket load better than our other combined stereo system and my music source is streamed from Google play or cds through the blu ray player of that helps to know?

Set the amp to output in stereo and you’re golden. Don’t drive speakers that aren’t there.

I use one as my main tv surround sound amp and it has a another set of speaker terminals for a “b” output. I have the surround sound speakers on the “a” output and flick the amp to output “b” which are connected to my hifi speakers.
It’s a top end pioneer one connected to kef eggs and kef ls50 speakers and the sound is amazing. You could definitely get better sound from a dedicated stereo amp but I’m more than happy with how it currently sounds.

Some AV amps even have a pass through for straight stereo. My ancient Yamaha does anyway

Generally, you will see a drop in performance if you’re using an AV amp that is the same price as a 2 channel amp. There simply isn’t the money available to buy 5, 6, or 7 times the same level of components.

You sometimes get AV amps bundled with the processors and they can date quite quickly, hence sometimes they can be cheaper.

How sensitive you are to the difference is a personal thing and how much you want to solve for it will depend on budget / appetite to fix the issue.

And some AV amps are really quite good. Bryston make some decent gear and it’s second hand, it’s good value.

However, if you only want 2 channels, I’d definitely recommend (i) getting a decent, second hand 2 channel amp (ii) auditioning a Meridian F80 / M80 – these are really good and again, second hand, they are good value for money.

Used a Cambridge Audio Azur 540R for the last (umm, nearly a decade I think), absolutely fine for stereo.

You won’t notice the difference. Your system is only as good as the weakest link and in most people’s systems that’s the speakers. Even cheap amps use common circuitry and components with their more expensive brothers and, like bike components, the cheaper end stuff is usually the previous years higher end stuff flowed down, so you’re not looking at a reduction in quality, more a reduction in features.

Slight hijack. I have an AV receiver with 2 speakers in Stereo mode. Will adding a subwoofer mean I’ll not need to turn the power level to the left and right speakers up as much compared to just using 2 speakers?

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘power level’; are you asking “will it be louder?”

The sub handles “LFE” signals – low frequency effects – which are generally beyond the range of regular speakers. So you’ll get a “fuller” sound. On my amp (and its 2000 vintage predecessor) I had the option of selecting “large” or “small” for my main speakers. This changes the frequency cut-off; “large” sent more bass signal to the mains, “small” directs it to the sub instead.

I had a high mid-end AV amp from the early noughties, very highly reviewed, weighed 20+kg, massive power supplies beautifully constructed, total dogcrap for stereo, luckily it died a couple of years ago so I could buy a decidedly budget stereo amp which absolutely annihilates the £900 av monster for music listening.

Slight hijack. I have an AV receiver with 2 speakers in Stereo mode. Will adding a subwoofer mean I’ll not need to turn the power level to the left and right speakers up as much compared to just using 2 speakers?

? Probably

I’m using a Marantz NR1504 as a stereo amp as the wife doesn’t like surround sound and it’s great.

Sorry for not being clear. Say I had to turn the volume up to -30db with two speakers, would adding a sub mean I’d only have to go to -40 because the load would be spread across the speakers and the sub instead of just the speakers?

Sorry for not being clear. Say I had to turn the volume up to -30db with two speakers, would adding a sub mean I’d only have to go to -40 because the load would be spread across the speakers and the sub instead of just the speakers?

How big are your fronts/stereo speakers?

The sub won’t make it sound louder, but should make the sound fuller, so if you like a lot of bass and you have to crank your speakers up to get the bass that you like the yes you probably can have your speakers slightly lower. Although -30 to -40 is a big difference.

Most AV amps, even high end ones, are pretty average in stereo mode and in my experience, even a £500 stereo amp will sound better than a £1000 AV receiver for 2 channel music.

However, if it is just for pumping some music into your conservatory, it’ll be absolutely fine. You can get very inexpensive AV receivers with network connectivity now so you can control it from a smart phone which might be useful.

Curiousyellow – as above, adding a sub won’t make the system any ‘louder’, especially as human ears are far more sensitive to mid and high frequency sounds, but if your current speakers are quite small, the sub would mean it should be able to go louder before the speakers start flapping and should just sound ‘fuller’ at most volume levels.

They are this big:
350 x 185 x 255 mm

Monitor Audio BX2s. Does that help?

Understand what you’re saying about making the sound fuller. I’m just looking to see what would allow me to not have to turn the sound up so high when I’m watching TV and movies. Perhaps I’d be better served getting a centre, instead of a sub?

Sorry for not being clear. Say I had to turn the volume up to -30db with two speakers, would adding a sub mean I’d only have to go to -40 because the load would be spread across the speakers and the sub instead of just the speakers?

Ah, I think I follow you. You’re asking if, essentially, it’ll be more of a “drain” on the amp. It shouldn’t be, no. If an amp claims to be (handwave) a 50W amp, it’ll be 50W per channel.(*) Driving more speakers won’t diminish its ability to drive the ones you already have.

(* – gross oversimplification, but that’s the idea)

Sorry for not being clear. Say I had to turn the volume up to -30db with two speakers, would adding a sub mean I’d only have to go to -40 because the load would be spread across the speakers and the sub instead of just the speakers?

More speakers and amplification may mean the amount of power going into the air at a given volume level is different, yes. Also, you may find that you don’t want the sound as loud as the bass now goes deeper, so to get “enough bass” you don’t need to increase the volume as much. I certainly noticed this when I added one.

As for the OP

Why stop at one?! 😉

No, seriously, this is only the case as someone gave me another amp. These are Cambridge Audio azur 540R’s [1xV1 1xV2] and I think they sound great, much like squirrelking, above. They often go for about £60 on ebay etc.

Worth bearing in mind, that most AV amps have a line-level subwoofer output, you will have to buy a sub with an amplifier in it [most do].

Two of my friends have these

and like them very much.

Last word – if you can find a simple stereo amp, you might not need a subwoofer output, many subs can attach to the speaker terminals [in parallel with the main speakers] using what’s called a High Lever Input – they sample the signal from the speaker output, but they don’t draw any power from it, they send the signal to the sub’s amp and the effect is much the same as a line-level connection, the sub’s amp still does all the work.

Cheers!

EDIT: My speakers are also BX2’s. The bass response is surprisingly good. Make sure you don’t by a “pretend subwoofer” – you’ll need one with genuine extension down below 50Hz [down to 25Hz or something at -6dB] to notice an improvement in true bass depth, as opposed to buying a small box that goes “Boof” [looking at you, Bose]. The SW150 is a bargain legend in that respect, much like your BX2’s.

I’m just looking to see what would allow me to not have to turn the sound up so high when I’m watching TV and movies. Perhaps I’d be better served getting a centre, instead of a sub?

Exactly that, that’s what a centre is for.

Incidentally, if you’ve got your amp set up for surround and don’t have a centre speaker then all the dialogue is going to be sent primarily to a speaker which doesn’t exist, so watching movies is going to be challenging. (-:

@Cougar

My poor brain is melting trying to figure out if more speakers means more clarity when watching movies, which in turn means not having to turn the power up as much!

I worry a bit because depending on the audio source I have to turn the receiver up to -25db (Sky is usually the culprit). I know it probably doesn’t matter, but I’ve had experiences in the past where I’ve knocked out amps due to being overzealous with the volume!

@gofasterstripes
It seems to depend hugely on the source. For example, Spotify gives me pretty good sound at low power levels. Same for CDs. I guess you can’t fix poor audio sources. I wonder if it’s just me though? Cheers for the sub recommend. I’ll keep an eye out for one of those. May add a centre if it’s the cheaper option for now.

@Cougar

My poor brain is melting trying to figure out if more speakers means more clarity when watching movies, which in turn means not having to turn the power up as much!

I worry a bit because depending on the audio source I have to turn the receiver up to -25db (Sky is usually the culprit). I know it probably doesn’t matter, but I’ve had experiences in the past where I’ve knocked out amps due to being overzealous with the volume!

As Cougar said, if you’re watching the TV through your AV amp in anything other than a stereo mode (on your AV amp) then it’s going to sound very odd.

-25db sounds a lot but it’s probably just low output volume, same from my Panasonic TV via optical, often get a shock when we flip it on to spotify/NAS or something

Edit: Just get a sub, pretty cheap s/h and they’re great imo.

It’s setup in stereo mode. There’s a picture guide the receiver takes you through and everything!

@Curiousyellow – if your amp is an AV amp – is it setup to use only the
2 speakers – ie in the setup of the amp – set to no-centre and no-sub
otherwise the processor will be splitting the available signal out to non existing speakers – hence there will be a lot of sound missing.
To get a sub to work for both movies and music takes a fair bit of tweaking and
depending on the amp may not be possible.
As mentioned above – if its for TV mainly then a centre spesker will make the most difference.
Also in your amp setup you may be able to adjust the gain on each input so that they come up to a similar level.
AV amps can take a lot of setting up – what model is it?

Volume out is proportional to volume in. If the input levels vary between input devices [or even software sources] then for the same volume control setting the volume you hear will vary.

You can safely use the amps volume control to counteract that, the only caveat is if you have to turn it right up for one source, you might forget you’d done it and switch over to a “louder” one, forcing your amp/speakers to suddenly get much louder, perhaps beyond their safe limit [it’s usually speaker’s tweeters that break, not woofers or amplifiers].

When movies are mastered, often the dynamic range is higher, quiet bits are really quiet, speech can be a whisper or a roar, and LFE/explosions etc would be very loud. This usually means with a good source and speakers, you’ll have to turn the volume up quite high, so that speech is clear, but then the loud bits will be truly loud. This is more realistic, but as you note can be an issue.

Many AV amps have “Dynamic Range Compression” which makes the difference less, this helps when you can’t afford to have the loud bit actually be loud, ie when watching a move at night with a sleeping person in the house. This is useful, but robs the soundtrack of realism and range.

As cougar is pointing out, a centre speaker would be pretty much dedicated to speech, and therefore may well help with following dialogue.

However the bigger issue is, as he said, if you are sending a signal to the 2 channel amp setup that has a separate centre/speech channel, you may not be hearing the speech properly as it’s stripped from the front left and right channels.

Ensure your source [software or hardware] and your amplifier are bother setup with the correct speaker layout. EG, set DVD player to “Stereo” mode and the amplifer too if you only have 2 speakers.

If you buy a centre, then you’ll have to adjust those settings to Left/Right/Centre. Similarly, with a sub. You may find you can also set the amp to strip the deep bass signals from the left/right channels [there’s none on the centre anyway] and send it all to the sub, this may give you a tighter sound, as the main speaker won’t be covering the same range as the sub with a slightly different sound and distance from you – both of which smear and distort the bass.

Just play with the settings and see what sounds good to you!

Pioneer VSX 922

It sounds pretty good, I just worry about how much I need to turn it up sometimes!

I worry a bit because depending on the audio source I have to turn the receiver up to -25db (Sky is usually the culprit).

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to numbers, they’re just numbers. Cf. Spinal Tap. Mine is typically anywhere from -36 up to -24, for reference.

If you’re turning it up to hear dialogue and everything else is blasting, that would point towards either a configuration issue or something wrong with your hearing. What do other readers listeners think?

How is your sky box connected to the amp?

An old AV amp is going to cost you around £100 and will probably be a big ugly thing, also conservatories are dreadful acoustically so hardly worth the bother. I’d just get a active speaker thing like this and leave it at that.

If you have an AV amp and speakers already then yes it will work fine as a stereo amp just use the stereo setting.

No, it’s a general lack of loudness consistent with all the programs through the Sky box so it sounds like it’s the source, not the receiver. I spent some time rewiring the banana plugs, and checking the speakers, but that seems ok too.

Connection is over HDMI, so Sky–>Receiver, no fancy business.

Maybe I just have high expectations.

yes it suggests source is the problem – and google suggests that low sound level from sky box via hdmi is a common problem with no apparent solution .
Although you may be able to use the optical/toslink out . A 2 quid toslink cable
may be worth a try as it is a pretty annoying issue.
Another possibility is a setting on the AV amp to remember the output volume setting for each input , my old Arcam does this , I would be surprised if your very modern amp does not.

For gits and shiggles it may be worth seeing what the audio is like over a TOSlink cable rather than HDMI. Whilst HMDI audio is technically superior, the Sky box(*) does something weird with it. I had murders with mine trying to get 5.1 surround out if it, transpires that the surround signal is only passed over the optical digital and the HDMI feed is something pousy like Pro Logic.

(* – fixed in the 2Tb boxes and by a firmware update on some of the older HD boxes I think)

EDIT: sorry, what he said ^^ I had the edit window open for about half an hour typing that whilst being constantly interrupted.

My old Yamaha A/V amp has the Sky box linked via TOSLink, same as my Minidisc and Mac Mini. It switches automatically into stereo effect off when I select the Mac or Minidisc and surround when I select satellite.
The sub stays on in stereo, which is necessary as my surround speakers are little Sony satellites.
Sounds perfectly fine to me.