Classic Amp and Speaker recommendation

[grenpayne]

We're moving house soon and I want to rekindle my love of late 80s and 90s hifi. All our music has been ripped to FLAC and is stored on a Synology NAS and streamed through Sonos, so my plan is to hook up one of our Sonos Connects to a half decent amp and speakers, possibly through a standalone DAC.

Back in the day I owned all sorts of amps and speakers, some of which included a Kenwood 3020SE, Pioneer A400, a Cyrus 3i and a Rotel Pre/Power setup with a RB981 power amp. Speakers wise I've had JPW, various Missions and KEF Concerto floorstanders as well as some B&Ws 601s.

The room it'll be going in is 10x10 and I listen to an eclectic mix of everything except classical. I've no preference of floorstanders vs bookshelf speakers but I do prefer powerful sounding amps (I loved the Rotel I had). So...bearing in mind I have no idea what to get and what I should spend I'd really appreciate some suggestions, the more the merrier! Ideally suggestions that feature well partnered combinations would be better too. So, over to you!

[legzr1]

Budget?

[legzr1]

Budget?

[grenpayne]

As I mentioned I'm not sure since I'll be buying second hand and used values can be all over the place, but I guessing somewhere in the region of £500 to £750 would be about right.

[NDA]

http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-rec...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-spe...

Job jobbed.

Worth looking around the Richer Sounds site.

[FlossyThePig]

In the mid '80s I built my own speakers based on the BBC LS3/5A design. I got my kit from Wilmslow Audio.

http://www.wilmslow-audio.co.uk/wa-ls3-bookshelf-l...

[P700DEE]

Buying second hand is a good idea. A decent amp can be bought cheap but choosing speakers is the tough bit especially second hand. What about the wife approval factor (WAF) ? Bang for buck and for decent bass go floor standing

A set of true classics http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KEF-104-2-Speaker-Audiop...

Couple them to a classic amp ?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exposure-XX-Integrated-a...

[StuntmanMike]

Arcam Delta 290.
B&W 603 s2.
I've got this, sound very very good, within budget as well.
This is second hand, eBay is your friend.

[grenpayne]

Thanks all, I've had a good look round eBay and some second-hand websites this morning and it's been very interesting, a real trip down memory lane! I hadn't considered buying new and although the Cambridge Audio Azur Amp seems good (and I like Richer Sounds having bought from them in the past) I've decided that something second hand would suit me better.

I would tend to agree that buying speakers second hand is problematic so could well go new for those, although I keep coming back to the B&W 600 series and Mission 750 series units. Maybe I'm just being nostaglic though!

Amp wise, the things that have caught my eye so far are things like the Exposure Amp mentioned above, the Audiolab 8000a, Musical Fidelity X Series and even the Maratz PM66SE KI Signature. Ebay is stuffed full of amps and the choice is huge.

Wife approval is a potential issue, however this will be going in my home office so I have perhaps more latitude than normal

[NDA]

Have you thought of active speakers for a study?

Just a thought.

[Crackie]

grenpayne said:

Back in the day I owned a Rotel Pre/Power setup with a RB981 power amp.

I do prefer powerful sounding amps (I loved the Rotel I had).

P700DEE's suggestions are good.........some more KEF104s here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KEF-104-2-Raymond-Cooke-...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-of-AVI-Bigatron-Spe...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan01/articles/avi...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AVI-Pro-nine-plus-speake...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep05/articles/avi...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Castle-Chester-Floorstan...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Monitor-Audio-Silver-S8-...

I understand why you liked the Rotel 981 , I have 3 of them and 3 RB-971s running an active system.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROTEL-RB-06-POWER-AMP-RC...

RB-06 superseded the RB-971, their specs are identical. Looks like a good buy, imho the 971 sounds even better than the 981.

Edited by Crackie on Wednesday 8th April 09:17

[SS2.]

grenpayne said:

Amp wise, the things that have caught my eye so far are things like the Exposure Amp mentioned above, the Audiolab 8000a, Musical Fidelity X Series and even the Maratz PM66SE KI Signature.

25-30 years on and my Audiolab 8000A is still sounding superb - no frills, no flashy bits, just a great amp.

Highly recommended.

[dvshannow]

Have an 8000a driving some missions in a spare room. It's an amp I had since uni and still sounds great compared with the modern one box solution.

Except for naim have a muso in another room and it sounds absolutely superb for its price, size and convenience. As an old system would still take the audiology/mission as the naim has more detail and better for most but louder Rock still prefers the floorstanders

Neither system comEs close to the main system a separates 2.1 floorstander which I've found to be the perfect setup so far note with a really good fast sub.

[stiglet]

Quad may be worth a look - I have a pair of these which I bought on eBay a few months ago.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quad-22l-speakers-Black-...

Driven through the pre-amp stage of an old NAD 3020 to two Cyrus Smartpowers on mono. Price-wise , I had the old NAD anyway and the 22Ls and Smartpowers were well below £750. Bags of punch for the dough!

NB I bought a Cyrus pre-amp, tried it and went back to the NAD which I thought sounded better

[telecat]

If you are looking at The Audiolab 8000 make sure the serial does not have a "G" or later in it. Those are Chinese built ones that do not have the reputation of the earlier models. Build and sound quality was not up to scratch. The later 8200 was an improvement. I can think of a few Amp/Speaker combos that would also work for you but you may struggle to find them. The Sugden A25/A28 with JPW P1 and AP series speakers, (black fronted, the older ones need XLR plugs). Incatech Claymore with EPOS ES2 speakers. Alcemist Kraken again with JPW speakers. Audio Innovations Valve Amps the S200, S300, S500 and S700 with Snell K, J/II and E speakers. At the cheaper end the Creek 4040 went with a few speakers.

[grenpayne]

Thanks all, really useful and helpful info especially on the 8000A serial numbers

We move in to the new house on Tuesday so the ebay watch list is starting to grow! Although I've not completely ruled out buying the speakers new.

[Warmfuzzies]

SS2. said:

grenpayne said:

Amp wise, the things that have caught my eye so far are things like the Exposure Amp mentioned above, the Audiolab 8000a, Musical Fidelity X Series and even the Maratz PM66SE KI Signature.

25-30 years on and my Audiolab 8000A is still sounding superb - no frills, no flashy bits, just a great amp.

Highly recommended.

Still have mine, driving a set of FB1's...why change a good thing.

K

[Crackie]

Audiolab 8000A was one of a select few sub £500 integrated amps that achieved a 'very good' sound quality rating in Hi-Fi Choice's group tests. Many far more expensive pre / power amps, including Audiolab's own 8000C/8000P, didn't achieve "very good" in the blind listening tests. .

Other sub £500 amps that rated very good for sound quality were.

Audio Innovations series 200 ( £449 )
Cyrus One ( £200 )
Cyrus Two ( £350 )
Pioneer A400 ( £240 )
Rotel RA-930AX ( £160 )

The lowest cost product to achieve an 'excellent' rating was Musical fidelity's £875 a pair MA-50 monoblock power amps.

The other integrated amps or pre / powers which achieved 'excellent' were

Audio Note Ongaku ( £34000 )
Deltec DSP-50S / DPA-50S ( £1650 )
Jadis JP30/JA30 ( £9890 )
YBA 1 Pre / YBA 1 Power ( £5890 )
YBA 2 Pre / YBA 2 Power ( £3290 )

Info from June 1992

[Ali2202]

A simple NAD 350 through a pair of Wharfedale standing speakers from a long time ago has just astounded an audiophile pal of mine. So much unnecessary wky-bks costing ridiculous amounts of cash out there. Not needed!

[telecat]

A lot of it is down to the room and your listening preferences. The 8000 for example can sound too clinical or bland to some whereas others love the detail and space. Make a list and try to listen before you part with the cash.