I have a typical midrange home theater with distributed speakers throughout the house using a Pioneer Elite reciever/ Niles Audio speaker selector/ Adcom GFA-5300 2-channel 80 watt amp. I recently added a few outdoor TIC Omni speakers to the Niles selector which is powered by the Adcom. I am using a typical wall plate volume control to control these and they sound great but they do not get as loud as I know that they can. The Adcom will occasionally light up the thermal lights but not shutdown. My question is, I know I am at the limit of my Adcom amp, but will adding a new amp to just drive the outdoor speakers make them any louder or am i limited by the volume controls range or is it the output of the Pioneer (Record out) combined with the input gain of the Adcom (no external gain control)limiting me? Thanks for any input!
" ... is it the output of the Pioneer (Record out) combined with the input gain of the Adcom (no external gain control)limiting me?"
I don't know what that means.
You shouldn't be using the record outputs of the receiver. Those are fixed level outputs with a relatively high output impedance. Was this connection suggested by someone or was this your decision?
To answer your question it is unlikely an additional amplifier will make much difference. I would guess a lot of the power is being eaten up by the switch box, volume controls and wiring distribution. If the Niles is a "typical" switch box, it has a large load resistor inserted in the signal path to "protect" the amplifier from impedance dips. This resistor eats up power.
Switching to a different amplifier is a very nonproductive way to get volume. For any doubling of power, you will only gain 3dB with the same set of speakers. Three dB is just about noticeable as an increase when playing music. When people say they want more volume, they usually mean they want the system to play twice as loud. Twice as loud means using about ten times the amount of power you now have. Most speakers will not tolerate 800 watts.
With this in mind, it gets very expensive to buy enough power to get enough volume, particularly when you are starting at having to buy more than 80 watts. Additionally you will still be slugging through the same switching and wiring.
I would do an inventory of everything you have running in this system and take the list to a reputable dealer in your area. You will probably be looking at a new multi-channel amplifier and a new switching arrangement.
Excellent information! Thank you very much. The system was hooked up by a local small size installer right after the construction. It was basically a package system. I will take your suggestion and do the inventory and take it to Showcase here ( high end retailer)locally and see what they suggest.