Hi everyone..
The hifi system I was going to get over the internet sadly fell through, and since I've saved up a bit more money since then I've decided to buy an amp. (You may remember my earlier thread about connecting speakers in series..well, basically I'm new to the forum and I'm a noob at hifi stuff so please be patient.. but I can assure you I am most grateful for any advice you can give me since you guys are practically my ONLY source of advice
)
Anyway, I've been dwelling over a couple of questions:
1) Firstly, is the Yamaha AX-496 value for money? I am spending not more than 400 euro on an amp ALONE. (I'll talk about a CD player later). 400 euro is approx. 270GBP for all you folk in Britain. Is this a good investment?
This system is for my bedroom. I have two sets of speakers at home already: a set of 80 watt, 8ohm floor-standing and a set of 80 watt, 6 ohm bookshelf ones. So basically I need an amp that will make optimum use of these speakers. And the guy at the hifi shop told me the AX-496 is perfect. It has A and B channels exactly for 4 speakers and he said the power is about perfect. What do you reckon?
I've read some mediocre reviews about this amp and about the 596 too, so are there any other models that your personal experience would suggest are better value, keeping in mind the wattage dictated by my current speakers? Something in the Denon or Pioneer range, maybe?
2) Secondly, do I actually need to get a quality CD player for the amp? The guys at the hifi store said that stereo amps are better for music and surround sound amps are better for movies. Well 90% of the time I'm listening to music, so I've decided to go with a stereo amp designed for music (such as the AX-496). But what would happen if I used my DVD player to play music through the amp? I mean, what's the point on buying a separate CD player if the DVD player can work just as well?
What about music coming from my PC via a minijack-RCA cable? Would the quality of the music be the same as coming straight from a CD player separate?
And lastly (I know this is farfetched) can I use my discman to play CDs into the amp? Something tells me that although it's possible (once again with the minijack-RCA cable) the quality would still suffer ..
Again ANY advice on this issue would be really appreciated. Should I get a separate CD player? Should I just use the DVD player? Should I use my PC? Which (if any) would have the better quality? What model(s) of CD player do you guys use? Maybe I can hook up the DVD player to a DAC? (I've been reading the sticky thread..). How do I know if I need a DAC? I am looking to spend the least amount of money and get the most out of my purchase(s) for as long a time as possible.
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OK that's it. Seriously, I know I ask a lot of questions, and most of them is bread-and-butter stuff for you guys, but I've been googling my ass off for days and I've been asking for advice in all the electronic shops, but they just want to sell me stuff -- they don't want to actually help me. So you have no idea how much I appreciate your help on this..
Cheers,
phalaris.
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