Advice on amp purchase

thomasjoseph

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Hi

I have a Technics SE-CH570 amplifier - manual here: Technics se-ch570 Manuals | ManualsLib

I upgraded the speakers a year ago to a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze BX2s, which I got off ebay for around £120. It made a big difference to the sound quality so was very happy with them.

I'm now wondering whether it's worth upgrading the amp (which, as I've kept the old speakers, would mean I have a spare hifi set for my spare room as well). But I'm unsure how much money to spend in order to make a tangible difference to the amp quality, or on the other hand whether spending too much is not worth it for the difference it'd make to the speaker quality..

I spoke to Richer Sounds about amps on sale now, and they said the Audiolab 600A would work well. I'm sure it would, but my instinct is that it's a lot to spend in proportion to the speaker cost, so I might be able to pay a lot less (including second hand) and get similar results.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.
 
this is worth looking into - Rotel A11 tribute. Stevenage is not far from London may be worth asking if you can take your speakers round for an audition ? IIRC the seller was running the amp with Monitor Audio Silver 200's so may have some views on the BX2.

 
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I use a Yamaha as-501 with them speakers and think it's great. I have also used a marantz pm6005 with them, also great imo
 
Thanks for your replies :)

Interesting you mention marantz pm6005, as that's one I was looking into as seen it recommended, as well as marantz + monitor audio in general as a pairing.

Will look into the yamaha and rotel as well, cheers.
 
Rotel probably well suit Monitor Audio quite well. Punchy, dynamic sound.

You could see if you can find Rega Brio also.
 
Never heard Audiolab, but it seems this amp can have issues. As I said I’m not sure, it could be useful to google it before buying it.

If you can buy the PM6007, then you we’ll get musical amplifier. Quite powerful also.

@FootHealer amp is also to be considered.
 
Hi,

To be honest, the Rotel might not be a good pairing with your speakers. It is a very clean sounding amp that focuses on providing plenty of detail. It also has a small reduction in bass quantity (but not quality), making it best for speakers with boosted bass. It does have a "boost" EQ setting with bumps the bass and treble (basically a loudness button) and seperate digital tone controls, but I didn't find these to my liking. It isn't a bright amp, but it shows your music "warts and all". If you listen to well-recorded, well-mastered music, if sounds sublime, but if your recordings are compressed, clipped, brickwalled, etc (basically most popular and rock music today), it shows you exactly how bad it is. On top of that, if your speakers lean towards lean, clinical or bright, or lack bass, then it generally brings out more of that also, highlighting the deficiencies. Bad recordings plus speakers with a clincal or boosted treble sound, with the Rotel, is frankly unpleasant (at least to me). For use with MA bookshelf speakers, I would hesitate with this one. I used several MA speakers with the Rotel A11 Tribute and didn't like any of the combinations, except maybe the Bronze 500s with two 8-inch woofers on each speaker! Put on a Wharfedale or QA floorstander though, and its great. The Rotel really compliments these well. Put on a good recording, like Dire Straits "Brothers in arms", and its fantastic. Synergy is very important and while I haven't read this in any reviews of the Rotel, it is actually a very fussy amp in my opinion.

If I were looking for an inexpensive amp to pair with the BX2s, I'd probably go with a NAD D3020v2 (you can pick these up for £250-300 new at Sevenoaks) or the Denon PMA600ne. Someone is selling one in the classifides here on AV Forums for £250. I have owned both and they are warm and forgiving with plenty of power (actual grunt, not just watts). They paired very well with MA speakers, including the Bronze 2, which I believe was follow up to the BX2. These would be a good pairing in my opinion. I haven't heard the Audiolab 6000a, but from what I've heard, you may be disappointed for the price you paid.

I hope that helps...good luck :)
FH
 
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Hi,

To be honest, the Rotel might not be a good pairing with your speakers. It is a very clean sounding amp that focuses on providing plenty of detail. It also has a small reduction in bass quantity (but not quality), making it best for speakers with boosted bass. It does have a "boost" EQ setting with bumps the bass and treble (basically a loudness button) and seperate digital tone controls, but I didn't find these to my liking. It isn't a bright amp, but it shows your music "warts and all". If you listen to well-recorded, well-mastered music, if sounds sublime, but if your recordings are compressed, clipped, brickwalled, etc (basically most popular and rock music today), it shows you exactly how bad it is. On top of that, if your speakers lean towards lean, clinical or bright, or lack bass, then it generally brings out more of that also, highlighting the deficiencies. Bad recordings plus speakers with a clincal or boosted treble sound, with the Rotel, is frankly unpleasant (at least to me). For use with MA bookshelf speakers, I would hesitate with this one. I used several MA speakers with the Rotel A11 Tribute and didn't like any of the combinations, except maybe the Bronze 500s with two 8-inch woofers on each speaker! Put on a Wharfedale or QA floorstander though, and its great. The Rotel really compliments these well. Put on a good recording, like Dire Straits "Brothers in arms", and its fantastic. Synergy is very important and while I haven't read this in any reviews of the Rotel, it is actually a very fussy amp in my opinion.

If I were looking for an inexpensive amp to pair with the BX2s, I'd probably go with a NAD D3020v2 (you can pick these up for £250-300 new at Sevenoaks) or the Denon PMA600ne. Someone is selling one in the classifides here on AV Forums for £250. I have owned both and they are warm and forgiving with plenty of power (actual grunt, not just watts). They paired very well with MA speakers, including the Bronze 2, which I believe was follow up to the BX2. These would be a good pairing in my opinion. I haven't heard the Audiolab 6000a, but from what I've heard, you may be disappointed for the price you paid.

I hope that helps...good luck :)
FH
Hey, thanks a lot, this is really helpful for a bit more understanding about the price range I should be looking at and other considerations. I've read about the BX2s being a bit bright, so a bright amp might be an issue.

I use apple music which plays lossless quality, but on the other hand I listen to a lot of online radio, so pretty low quality streams too.

Will look into both you suggest. Can I ask - you or anyone else - how much should I be thinking of watt output? I think the amp I have now gives out 35 and the speakers go up to 100w. Is there much of a difference between e.g. 45/55? For context, I'm set up in am open plan kitchen, dining and living room, around 25-30 square meters.

Thanks for the other replies too :)
 
Hey, thanks a lot, this is really helpful for a bit more understanding about the price range I should be looking at and other considerations. I've read about the BX2s being a bit bright, so a bright amp might be an issue.

I use apple music which plays lossless quality, but on the other hand I listen to a lot of online radio, so pretty low quality streams too.

Will look into both you suggest. Can I ask - you or anyone else - how much should I be thinking of watt output? I think the amp I have now gives out 35 and the speakers go up to 100w. Is there much of a difference between e.g. 45/55? For context, I'm set up in am open plan kitchen, dining and living room, around 25-30 square meters.

Thanks for the other replies too :)
Hi,

The BX2 has a 90db sensitivity, meaning it will play at 90db at 1 meter away using 1 watt of power from the amplifer. After that, power use doubles for every 3db increase, which isn't much. At 2m, you'll need 4 watts to get to 90db. And 90db is pretty freaking loud. I listen at around 60-65db usually. So, if you are sitting 2m away and listen at sensible volumes, you won't even be using 1w from the amp. Because the power doubles for every 3db anyway, even if you needed more power, 20w or so per extra power per channel will get you very little in terms of volume. One thing that doesn't factor into this is how much current the amp can deliver. I have seen little amps "that could", despite the low watts, deliver plenty of oomph when needed. NAD are famous for this, rating their continous watts as low and have masses of dynamic power on tap. The NAD D3020v2 is no exception. I actually feel it is more "powerful" sounding than the D3045 that I have, which is double the watts at 60w per channel compared to the D3020v2's 30w. The Denon PMA600ne is the same. It has far less watts than the Rotel A11 Tribute and doesn't have the Rotel's clarity (it's much warmer), but boy oh boy can that little amp punch! The warm sound will go nicely with the monitor audios. The D3020v2 is also quite warm, especially if you use the onboard DAC. It's bigger brother the D3045 is not warm at all, quite neutral, so I actually prefer the D3020v2 myself.

I wouldn't worry about the watts so much. Go for something you can afford that has a sound and look that compliments your speakers. The power handling of the speaker being 100w, don't worry about it, unless you need to run more than 100w through it to get it to the volume you need. And at 90db sensitivity, putting 100w through the BX2 would be curious indeed. Either you'd be deafening yourself, or are deaf already, or for some other reason need a tad more than 100db in volume, or you listen at 90db and sit 10m away from the speaker. That would be strange indeed!!!

I hope that helps. Good luck with your purchase...
FH
 
in theory you only need an amplifier around 10-15 watts to control the MA speakers you have, but as precondition get an amplifier around 50-70 watts.

The amplifier needs to control the drivers on loud volume.
 
Any speakers that can not be driven correctly by an honest 30 to 50 Watt amp should be banned. Just my opinion sorry.
Oh shit I forgot unless they have a 'separate mega woofer that needs a massive 150W separate power amp.
 
Foothealer's description of the Rotel A11 sound is spot on, I'd agree it's not a bad amp but probably not suited to those Monitor Audio speakers, I would also say that even the audiolab 6000 may not suit those Monitor Audio's. the Audiolab can sound a little thin and forward with the wrong speakers.
You might find a better solution with Yamaha, Marantz or Denon amps which tend to have a warmer smoother sound, or even one of the cheaper Cambridge amps like the AXA35 or even a second hand Topaz AM10 if your budget is really tight, these can be had (used) for about £150.
 
Strange since A11 is tuned by Kenny Iswatha. Marantz PM6007 probably would be better choice.

Full bass with impact (fuller rounder bass, not lean sounding), wonderful midrange, treble.

It lacks drive compared to other amplifiers, however I don’t think this we’ll be an issue with MA.

What people seem to forget is that MA needs over 100 hours to sound mellow, after this they sound quite warm.

The treble well always have the forward edge to it, still I never sounds strange, at least to me.

Fabulous midrange, bass.
 
This might be why Rotel doesn’t suit MA. Though I didn’t like Rotel either. Since Rotel is very dynamic sounding amplifier, my speakers got real workout.

Believe me this helped immensely. Before with my current Marantz amplifier it never sounded great, no matter what I told my self.

Now smooth, dynamic. Today I’m going to try and see how the MA speakers can cope with 10 hertz bass tracks.
 
This might be why Silver 200 also didn’t suit me. It was never any fun listening to Marantz.

Since Rotel is neutral as can be, it was treat having the volume loud. Thought bit too neutral for me.

My Marantz has slight treble boost, probably that’s why the speakers at the time didn’t sound optimal.

PM6007 does resemble PM8006 but is way warmer sounding.

So MA takes ages to break in.
 
Strange since A11 is tuned by Kenny Iswatha. Marantz PM6007 probably would be better choice.

Full bass with impact (fuller rounder bass, not lean sounding), wonderful midrange, treble.

It lacks drive compared to other amplifiers, however I don’t think this we’ll be an issue with MA.

What people seem to forget is that MA needs over 100 hours to sound mellow, after this they sound quite warm.

The treble well always have the forward edge to it, still I never sounds strange, at least to me.

Fabulous midrange, bass.
[EDITED] On the right speakers, with the right recording, at the right volume, the Rotel can sound amazing with lovely detail, natural sounds, and great imaging. But it takes a careful matching to get that. Wrong pairings sound poor to me, especially the bass which seems to lack impact.
 
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Are you sure about this? It’s a voicing which is totally “neutral” according to Rotel.

I sincerely doubt this. Sorry.
 
It’s an amplifier measured to around 70 watts, instead of 50. It might lack omph, still this is the voicing. Not power wise.

I believe you mentioned this above. Yes, I agree with you. It’s an amplifier without any personally, still it should be available to drive 86 dB, 4 ohm speakers.

Not heard it, so I cannot how it behaves with my speakers. Voicing too. Most likely it would be sold quickly, since Rotel is not for me.

Strange if they can’t drive 4 ohm speakers, when Marantz PM6007can do this.

Epically PM6007 is very popular with B&W 603 floor standing speakers. Many adore the sound.
 
Are you sure about this? It’s a voicing which is totally “neutral” according to Rotel.

I sincerely doubt this. Sorry.
That's just my experience of owning the amp and pairing it with more than 12 different speakers over a 1 year period and using it almost daily.
 
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Thanks for all your replies. From all this, and additional research, I'm maybe thinking either the Marantz PM6005 or the Denon PMA-600NE which it looks like go for around £200/£250 second hand respectively.

Does that sound about right price-wise for those amps and also about right for the speakers I have? Ideally I was hoping to pay around the same price as I did for speakers (£130 second hand) but I don't know if the amp I'd get for that wouldn't be worth the upgrade.
 
12 speakers! Probably owned 10 speakers, and 10
amplifiers the last 20 years.

Cons with buying, selling eq all time is losing a lot of money.

It is not worth in the long run.

As mentioned break in is extremely important.

And putting on bass heavy music, then adjusting the bass to 5 o clock helps immensely. Epically for breaking in the speakers, only you need to be careful!

C-cam drivers are very stiff too. They need to soften up considerably.

I can only say as mentioned before, with the current Marantz amp the MA speakers simply does not sound as great as the current moment.

So break in is real! Am I totally happy-of course not. But as long as I can listen for music for hours, then I’m happy!
 
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Thanks for all your replies. From all this, and additional research, I'm maybe thinking either the Marantz PM6005 or the Denon PMA-600NE which it looks like go for around £200/£250 second hand respectively.

Does that sound about right price-wise for those amps and also about right for the speakers I have? Ideally I was hoping to pay around the same price as I did for speakers (£130 second hand) but I don't know if the amp I'd get for that wouldn't be worth the upgrade.
Money wise it should suit the speakers. Both this amplifiers are fine speakers.

Denon is more bass heavy, where’s Marantz shines in the midrange. Only you can decide.
 
Buying second had, can be risky though. So do your research.
 
People claim MA is bright, this is nonsense. My opinion.

The MA speakers you own you probably don’t need to suffer trough 100 hours to get optimal sound MA has.

Not the best imaging, but extremely fun, warm speakers at the sane time.

Also they measure quite well too.
 

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