A do-it-all amp/receiver for £200?

[Bikerjon]

Hi,

I'm dipping my toe back into Hi-Fi and looking for a new amp for the living room primarily to use with the TV and also for Airplay. Can anyone recommend a decent amp for around £200 that has Airplay, Optical and Bluetooth inputs. I'm not fussed about surround sound as it will only have two speakers hooked up - probably Dali Zensor 1's. Currently thinking about a Denon DM41 which has the added bonus of a CD player, but not found too much else to consider so far. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[AC43]

Bikerjon said:

Hi,

I'm dipping my toe back into Hi-Fi and looking for a new amp for the living room primarily to use with the TV and also for Airplay. Can anyone recommend a decent amp for around £200 that has Airplay, Optical and Bluetooth inputs. I'm not fussed about surround sound as it will only have two speakers hooked up - probably Dali Zensor 1's. Currently thinking about a Denon DM41 which has the added bonus of a CD player, but not found too much else to consider so far. Any suggestions?

Thanks

You could have my brand new unopened Yamaha RXV 581 for the £220 I paid for it if you arrange the shipping.

I paid £220 for a reconditioned one from Richer Sounds which the man from DPD left behind my bins in the rain when I was away on a business trip.....obviously it was trashed so Richer Sounds sent me a new one in its place.

I've since decided to buy an older higher-spec one as I fancy the grunt but don't need all the newer software features.

I'm going to stick it on eBay but PM me if you're interested.

https://www.whathifi.com/yamaha/rx-v581/review

[Bikerjon]

Thanks for the offer. That yamaha certainly has all the options I'm looking for (and quite a few more besides!) but I'm not sure I'd have the space in the cabinet for that - it's a bit of a monster! I'll have a think.

[stargazer30]

So you don;t want 5.1 surround then huh? How fussed are you about sound quality? You see a £200 AV amp with all the bells and whistles functionality is going to have a very cheap IC amp onboard and it won't hold a candle to even an old dedicated Stereo audio amp.

To give you a comparison, it took a £1300 Marantz AV amp to measure up to my old £300 Arcam stereo amp for stereo music.

I'd say go listen to a few AV amps in that price bracket (richer sounds?) and see what you think. If, like me, you think they sound trash, then your other option is get a stereo amp and get a DAC which has bluetooth streaming, spotify, airplay etc.. built in instead. New, that lot would be closer to £500 though but still better than a £500 AV.

[Bikerjon]

Correct, I don't particularly want 5.1 surround, but I do want to use 2 speakers for the TV as I'm sure that will be enough of an improvement. Aside from that I'm just interested in listening to music so audio quality is important but I also want the convenience of airplay, bluetooth etc. I hadn't considered a conventional stereo amp with separate DAC - ideally hoping for a one box setup but if the sound quality is that much better for the money then I think I'd be happy to go that route.

[tonyg58]

Yamaha do the same sort of thing for stereo

The RN301 is the cheapest -

https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual...

RN602 is a superb product

[hyphen]

For £200 don't get anything new.

Get used/ex-demo/last years models.

[AC43]

Bikerjon said:

Aside from that I'm just interested in listening to music so audio quality is important but I also want the convenience of airplay, bluetooth

If your music isn't locked into the Apple ecosystem you should think about Chromecast (Audio). It uses the same sort of approach as the Apple Airport in that you control from your phone but the stream goes straight from your router into the back of your amp.

I happen to use Spotify Premium at the maximum quality setting and that's good enough for me. But it works with thousands of apps that support casting - ie just about everything out there bar Apple.

[B17NNS]

https://www.marantz.co.uk/uk/products/pages/produc...

A little over budget but it ticks all your boxes.

£249 at Richer Sounds.

[mathmos]

Might be to big...and outside your budget...but I've just bought this for £279 and I have been really impressed -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07178VYSF/ref...

Side note..if you do order from Amazon I would select another vendor other than Nottingham HiFi Centre...they tried to pass off a used one as new (they even forgot to include the remote in the box!)...Superfi worked well though.

[Bikerjon]

I quite like the Marantz option - will check that out. I've also found the Tangent ampster which looks interesting and well within budget!

https://www.richersounds.com/tangent-bluetooth-ste...