Have times really moved that much

nivek1612

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Recently went to a friends house and listened to a Bluray movie on his system (same player as mine) but he was using the Sony STR-DH820 amp.

Now I know my Yamaha RX-V1400RDS is getting long in the tooth, and it wasn't a proper test !! but I was amazed at how impressive his setup sounded.

So good people of this forum can it really be that a modern £250 amp is so much better than the Yamaha which cost circa £600 when I bought it. Have things really moved on that much ?

So I'm about to start the tour of local Hi-Fi specialists testing various options but where to start ?
Will I really get a better amp for less than £300 or should I be starting higher to really improve on the Yamaha ?
 
The simple answer is most likely NO.

What Blu-ray player are you using and how is it connected to the AV amp.

What speakers are you both using!
 
Try an analogue source or a stereo CD via both amps and compare them. You'll still rather have your Yamaha ;)

The actual bits that cost you the money in the first place haven't changed and it is these that determine audio quality You'd probably need to spend as much if not more than you purchased your RX-V1400RDS for in order to get the same SQ from a more recent amp. It is the codecs and the formats they decode that have changed and not so much the actual solid state circuitry required to amplify the resulting analogue signal and power your speakers.

If you've a rigid £300 budget then consider the DEnon AVR1912 which is very good value for money right now.
 
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Thanks guys, this got me thinking

So I took my amp and player to a local dealer and compared it to some new amps.
Result is I love mine still. I'd need to spend circa £800 to get an improvement. In fact my amp sounded so much better during the test than at home (yes same speakers - well almost). Only the cables where not the same.

So and now the biggest bonus of all when I got back home I decided to use a different digital optical cable just in case.
The amp came alive again. Put the old one back and it sounded dead and flat again. So for the price of a new optical cable I'm sorted.

Weird I'd always thought optical cables where immune to this sort of issue.
 

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