[Marcus Wood]

I'm planning to get an Audio Design Associates PTM-8150 power amp, but given that their Rhapsody HD processor isn't available yet, I'm looking at using a mid-range AVR as a stop-gap preamp/processor.

I thought the Marantz SR6003 might be a good choice, because it's inexpensive, Marantz have a good name for sound quality (especially music, which is important for me), it runs cool, it's a recent design (which might mean fewer HDMI gremlins) and it looks quite good. I don't care about upscaling, but I need a zone 2 output and RS232.

I suspect that if I was to spend, say, an extra £200 or £300 above the SR6003, the main improvement would be beefier electronics on the power amp side, but I'm not really sure.

I'd be interested to hear others' opinions on this choice, in particular whether other makes/models have siginificantly better analogue outputs especially for music.

[Neil Davidson]

Hi Marcus,

The Suite 7.1HD processor from ADA is now shipping and is the ideal complement to the PTM8150.

The Rhapsody adds further I/O but has no difference in DSP.

Please drop me a PM if you want further info as we already have a number of 7.1HD/8150 combinations in use.

[Genesis fan]

I have a set of Genesis Technologies 500 speakers and was plannng to mate them with an ADA suite7.1 and ADA pf-2502 power amp. I want to know if these would make a good match?

[Neil Davidson]

Per the measurements of the speaker found at Stereophile: Stereophile: Genesis Technologies 500 loudspeaker

The 500 series need big current delivery and that is what the ADA amps do best and the PF2502 excels in over all models (including the larger MPA502). It has huge excess in the design of the power supply which enables it to hit very very hard without effort when called upon.

Please note that Genesis Technologies (my company) are a European distributor and not at all linked to the US speaker company Genesis Technologies.