How to upgrade my AV amp
Discussion
I've got a Denon 2307 7.1 amp at the moment, but a speaker upgrade is showing it up. I'm also getting back into my 2 channel music (part of the reason for the speaker upgrade). The way I see it I have a few upgrade choices - what do you think to each?
1. Upgrade to a better AV amp. I guess unless I spend a fortune, 2 channel music will still sound poor.
2. Get some power amps to drive the new speakers better, maybe bi-amp them (my Denon amp has pre-outs)
3. Buy a half decent 2 channel amp which will run the front speakers, while my Denon still decodes and powers the rear and centre channels. I think the denon allows this through the pre-outs.
Budget is around £1k, but can stretch if it's worth it.
1. Upgrade to a better AV amp. I guess unless I spend a fortune, 2 channel music will still sound poor.
2. Get some power amps to drive the new speakers better, maybe bi-amp them (my Denon amp has pre-outs)
3. Buy a half decent 2 channel amp which will run the front speakers, while my Denon still decodes and powers the rear and centre channels. I think the denon allows this through the pre-outs.
Budget is around £1k, but can stretch if it's worth it.
Option 3 all the way.
I have a set up very similar; a Yamaha RXV640 doing all the decoding and powering front and surrounds with pre-out to a Cyrus 7 + PSX-R.
My CD and Squeezebox Duet plug directly into the Cyrus with blu ray and DVD into the Yamaha, obviously.
This way you'll get far better stereo performance, as you rightly say, a AV amp to compare to a decent stereo will cost a fortune.
I have a set up very similar; a Yamaha RXV640 doing all the decoding and powering front and surrounds with pre-out to a Cyrus 7 + PSX-R.
My CD and Squeezebox Duet plug directly into the Cyrus with blu ray and DVD into the Yamaha, obviously.
This way you'll get far better stereo performance, as you rightly say, a AV amp to compare to a decent stereo will cost a fortune.
Edited by allgonepetetong on Monday 8th March 16:19
The problem with Option 3 is volume control. The Denon Pre-Out will probably require the stereo amp to be set to a much higher volume level than if it were controlling itself and if you forget to lower the volume before using it in stereo you could damage your speakers. How about buying a preamp/power amp combination for stereo. Then you could run both the Denon front L & R pre-outputs and the stereo preamp's outputs into a switchbox and into the power amp. That's what I do.
I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
allgonepetetong said:
Option 3 all the way.
+1You really want to upgrade the front 3 channels at once to keep a uniform sound field. And if you are going to do that then you may as well go for a 5 channel and do the whole lot!
The Rotel is will provide a very worthwhile upgrade and is under budget http://www.hifigear.co.uk/site/scripts/product_bro...
What speakers are you using?
Zod said:
The problem with Option 3 is volume control. The Denon Pre-Out will probably require the stereo amp to be set to a much higher volume level than if it were controlling itself and if you forget to lower the volume before using it in stereo you could damage your speakers. How about buying a preamp/power amp combination for stereo. Then you could run both the Denon front L & R pre-outputs and the stereo preamp's outputs into a switchbox and into the power amp. That's what I do.
I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
I think he meant power amp rather than a separate integrated (?)I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
Saintjsmythe said:
Zod said:
The problem with Option 3 is volume control. The Denon Pre-Out will probably require the stereo amp to be set to a much higher volume level than if it were controlling itself and if you forget to lower the volume before using it in stereo you could damage your speakers. How about buying a preamp/power amp combination for stereo. Then you could run both the Denon front L & R pre-outputs and the stereo preamp's outputs into a switchbox and into the power amp. That's what I do.
I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
I think he meant power amp rather than a separate integrated (?)I dodn't know what your budget is for the stereo amp, but Audiolab pre-power combinations can be had at around £1k and Cyrus from just over £2k.
Zod - where did you get the switchbox? My google skills are poor today.
Some stereo amps such as Arcam A32 or A36 have an 'AV' button so that you can feed your AV preouts into the auxiliary input and the gain is fixed (you still need to set up the levels using your AV amp's controls), so the stereo amp acts just like a power amp on that input. For the other inputs such as CD or whatever the volume control works as normal on the stereo amp completely taking the AV amp out of the equation for stereo music (it won't even need to be turned on if listening to 2 channel music).
I was about to go that route myself, but happened to get a response to a wanted ad for an Arcam AV9 processor which does a very good job with 2 channel anyway, otherwise an A32 or A36 was on the cards for me...
I was about to go that route myself, but happened to get a response to a wanted ad for an Arcam AV9 processor which does a very good job with 2 channel anyway, otherwise an A32 or A36 was on the cards for me...
Zod said:
Brilliant - thanks.Before I start bothering dealers for trials of 2 channel amps, are there any AV amps out there which are also musical? Marantz do them now, as do Arcam? I need the picture switching functionality.
Maxf said:
Zod said:
Brilliant - thanks.Before I start bothering dealers for trials of 2 channel amps, are there any AV amps out there which are also musical? Marantz do them now, as do Arcam? I need the picture switching functionality.
Zod said:
There are several, but despite having a high end Arcam processor, I still find it cannot match my Cyrus DAC-XP for stereo.
That's interesting, which processor did/do you have (I've bought a used AV9 myself and I'm very impressed with it's stereo abilities, but that is coming from a Denon 2808 or a NADC350)?Zod said:
There are several, but despite having a high end Arcam processor, I still find it cannot match my Cyrus DAC-XP for stereo.
Next stage is to add a Lyngdorf TDAI2200/SDA2175/DP-1/BW-1 Combination...
PS Get my mail about the Pronto SQB Client?
Edited by Plotloss on Sunday 14th March 22:59
I always followed this purist approach and ran separate 2 and 5ch systems with a bi-amped Arcam Alpha 8/8p into a pair of Mission 753s for hi-fi.
Looking for an upgrade however I tried the Denon 3808 and was blown away with the Stereo performance. You can bi-amp the fronts if you have 5:1 (rather than 7:1) giving so much more power than the Arcams for a vastly more authoritative sound. I was amazed as I'd always believed that a receiver would never be able to compete. Needless to say the cinema sound is awesome too.
I paid a little over £1k for the amp - may give another option to think about.
df
Looking for an upgrade however I tried the Denon 3808 and was blown away with the Stereo performance. You can bi-amp the fronts if you have 5:1 (rather than 7:1) giving so much more power than the Arcams for a vastly more authoritative sound. I was amazed as I'd always believed that a receiver would never be able to compete. Needless to say the cinema sound is awesome too.
I paid a little over £1k for the amp - may give another option to think about.
df
Plotloss said:
Zod said:
There are several, but despite having a high end Arcam processor, I still find it cannot match my Cyrus DAC-XP for stereo.
Next stage is to add a Lyngdorf TDAI2200/SDA2175/DP-1/BW-1 Combination...PS Get my mail about the Pronto SQB Client?
Edited by Plotloss on Sunday 14th March 22:59
Something tells me Lyndorf would open a whole new world of insane spending.
OldSkoolRS said:
Zod said:
There are several, but despite having a high end Arcam processor, I still find it cannot match my Cyrus DAC-XP for stereo.
That's interesting, which processor did/do you have (I've bought a used AV9 myself and I'm very impressed with it's stereo abilities, but that is coming from a Denon 2808 or a NADC350)?Zod said:
Plotloss said:
Zod said:
There are several, but despite having a high end Arcam processor, I still find it cannot match my Cyrus DAC-XP for stereo.
Next stage is to add a Lyngdorf TDAI2200/SDA2175/DP-1/BW-1 Combination...PS Get my mail about the Pronto SQB Client?
Edited by Plotloss on Sunday 14th March 22:59
Something tells me Lyndorf would open a whole new world of insane spending.
Well, you're always welcome to a no obligation demonstration...
inkiboo said:
Maxf said:
I ended up buying an Onkyo AV amp, used. It was cheap enough to be able to be moved to the study when we move and I get my cinema room. I must say, it doesnt seem a great leap from the Denon at the moment, although I imagine a settings tweak will help there.
Did you buy the Onkyo from a guy on AV Forums?I used the Audyssey set up last night and it is many, many times better now!
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