Is there a such thing as a home theater amplifier? ?

Question

If there is. Does anyone know a dot.com website to get one at?

Answer 1

You bet'cher subwoofers there are:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&cl...

Any big box appliance store like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, should have them.  Sears, Macy's, stores like that.  All should have websites to buy from.  

For me though, I never buy audio sight unseen.  I want to hear it and look at the specifications.

Answer 2

To the previous poster, actually you can use a receiver as a preamp as long as the receiver has Preouts on the back of the receiver.  They also make mono amps (one channel).

Basically an outboard amp can have more power, more headroom (clarity) and reduces the internal amp in your receiver which has to work hard to drive five or more speakers all together.  When you add outboard amps, then the receivers internal amp has more more to drive the other connected speakers.  Most people find that just adding a good powered stereo amplifier (two channels) to their main speakers, not only creates better sound for the main speakers, but the receivers internal amp now has more power to drive the center speaker and rear channel speakers.

I have three home theater systems in my house and two of them use outboard amps to drive all the speakers.

Answer 3

Sure, it's an amplifier that has more than 2 channels of amplification (usually 5 or 7), but you will need a home theater preamplifier with a surround sound decoder to use this amp as it was designed.  There also are integrated versions that have everything built-in except AM/FM tuners.

TIP:  If you have problems with hum, then go with an integrated amp or a receiver for the home theater to avoid improper impedance matching between the components.

Here's are several links to get you started...