Good Amp around £1,000 for only 5.1 speakers

[DaveR]

Over 10 years ago I bought a Denon AVR somethingorother for around £500-£600 which has served me very well. Over that time we've moved from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray and moved house twice. It's so old it has no DTS, never mind DTS HD Master Audio.

I'm now looking to replace it but I still have 'only' 5.1 speakers (Monitor Audio and a REL Q400 sub) which only have one set of inputs and are therefore not bi-ampable. I'd therefore be wasting nearly half of 9.2 channels. I don't doubt that something like a Yamaha 1040 or similarly priced Pioneer or Denon has higher performance components in many areas other than just output stages that their cheaper models with less channels don't have - but it still seems like money wasted in some respects.

I can't be the only guy whose room just isn't laid out to make 7.x or 9.x channels a realistic proposition. When I sit down to watch a Blu-ray though, it's often a Rush gig or something like that so good sound matters to me (a lot).

All recommendations and wisdom gratefully received...

Edited by DaveR on Wednesday 17th December 14:27

[JimbobVFR]

The Anthem MRX310 seems almost spookily perfect for your requirements.

[camelot1971]

If you are prepared for the "charm" of using Arcam products I would highly recommend finding a 2nd hand AVR600 (should be £1000 or less) and it will blow you away with the sound quality. I swapped from a Yamaha RX-A3010 (a £2k amp new) to the Arcam and it's in a totally different league.

It is a bit quirky sometimes but it does what I need. I paid just over £1000 about 4 months ago for it, with 4 year warranty remaining. AVforums is a good place to research/hunt for one.

[clockworks]

Keep your receiver, use the pre-outs for the front and centre channels to drive some decent secondhand power amps. I've been doing this for years, currently with a midrange Denon AVR. The AVR gets replaced every 5 years or so, but the power amps are now at least 15 years old - Linn for left and right, Naim for the centre.

[ASK1974]

JimbobVFR said:

The Anthem MRX310 seems almost spookily perfect for your requirements.

This.

[DaveR]

ASK1974 said:

JimbobVFR said:

The Anthem MRX310 seems almost spookily perfect for your requirements.

This.

Thanks, all. I am indeed familiar with Arcam ( and the charm factor ) but the Anthem I'd not heard of before and it does indeed look spookily perfect.

[stargazer30]

I run a dual setup which is cheaper than 1K but works very well. Cambridge audio 551r. This is a musical 5.1 amp with HDMI/3d pass through etc.. You can get these for about £300 these days. The front left/right channels are pre-out to my Arcam A18 Stereo Amp. The Arcam has a AV mode to match the volume and it provides a simply superb stereo sound for both music and the musical bits of the movies. The A18 are about £200-£250 these days.

I've tried to beat this setup several times. I tired the Arcam A19 as the stereo amp, I even tried the Arcam AVR450 as a one box solution. Current set up wins every time.

[JimbobVFR]

I'm an Arcam fan and indeed still use my old AVR in a 2.1 system in the kitchen/dining room. If I was to upgrade I'm almost certain I'd end up with either an Anthem or another Arcam. I have heard the previous model MRX500 and loved it.

If you do go for the Anthem then bear in mind they are a little more involved to set up using the ARC kit but well worth the effort IMO.

[ratty6464]

clockworks said:

Keep your receiver, use the pre-outs for the front and centre channels to drive some decent secondhand power amps. I've been doing this for years, currently with a midrange Denon AVR. The AVR gets replaced every 5 years or so, but the power amps are now at least 15 years old - Linn for left and right, Naim for the centre.

I totally get the logic but the op needs to ditch his receiver first as it doesn't even have DTS etc. So I dobut it runs 1080p video etc either.

the Anthem looks good. If you're after a few more features (e.g. AirPlay for Apple products, up scaling for video and network radio etc) I'd keep an eye out for one of the higher end Pioneer receivers discounted in a January sale. They will have a few features that you don't use, but integrate well and have decent Class D amps so run cool, with a clear open sound with excellent bass response.
I've got one that I use as a processor and to run the centre and rear channels only. It detects what speakers are connected and just focuses on those.

[StuH]

Some excellent advice here. The arcam AVR600 would be an excellent one box solution in the 2nd hand market and the MRX310 as new.

Personally I would go prev gen anthem - in fact I did - I use an MRX700 to drive the system in our TV room, and an MRX500 as pre/proc into the power amps of my main system.

The Anthems are just brilliant for the money, eschewing all the unnecessary features to focus on sound quality. In ARC they also have the best EQ system in the business. The anthem actually replaced my old Arcam AV9/P7 combo to give you an idea of how good it is.

[Speedracer329]

Well this is a co-incidence as I was hoping to pick up a tip from suggestions to your thread, but I have a Denon AVR 3803, that cost around a grand when I bought it, in perfect working order that I am going to have to sell because we have just bought a new TV stand & it doesn't fit (doh!)
If it is of any interest let me know, no reasonable offer refused.

[Marlboro]

I bought my kit at Richer Sounds.

Have a Yamaha RX-V773, Monitor Audio BX centre, sub and rears.
Main speakers are B&W DM220's.

I would look at the Yamaha amps they are excellent.
The Yam RX-V477 is £229
http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...
Monitor Audio 5.1 speakers £550
http://www.richersounds.com/package/speakers/speak...

Speakers have moved on. It took me a while to replace mine, but it is worth it.
Unfortunately hifi kit that is a year old is out of date.

My suggestion.

Regards
Brian

Edited by Marlboro on Friday 9th January 04:55

[StuH]

Marlboro said:

Unfortunately hifi kit that is a year old is out of date.

I'd agree that processors after a few years fall behind in terms of the latest codecs, and features like video switching etc, but then that begs the question if the new 'features' are worth the upgrade, and a high quality 'old' processor will still provide higher quality audio than a lower quality modern one as the pre-amp componentary will be superior. For example a new one-box £2k AV amp like a Yamaha 3040 will get smacked into next week by an Arcam Av8 for 2 and 5 channel and these can be had for £250 2nd hand!

Speakers and amps haven't really moved on at all in recent years, as their quality is largely determined by construction budget and physics. Unless you consider Class D amps an improvement. I still use Celestion 'A' series speakers in 2 of my systems and they are now 15 years old, but nothing anywhere near their cost gets close from modern designs. Ditto old amps from the likes of Meridian, Quad, Bryston, Chord, Classe etc....as long as they are recapped every decade or so they lose nothing to more recent designs.

[JimbobVFR]

AV stuff does date very quickly, buy an all singing amp now and it'll be obsolete next year. Especially as we're on the cusp of 4K.

However the quality of the higher end kit does not date so much which means there are some excellent bargains to be had.