Integrated amp with streaming (one box or separates)

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I’m having a bit of a shuffle with my Hi-Fi. My main system is a one box solution (Yamaha RN-602) feeding into some monitor audio silver 6 floor standers. I’m happy with my speakers and absolutely love the feature set of the Yamaha. I’m thinking of moving the Yamaha into the home office/summer house and just using some old Tannoy profile 632’s I have in the loft for now.

This leaves me some options to improve my main room. I have a budget £2000 give or take. I want the same features I have but a system that gives me more in the sound quality department. As the Yamaha is a sub £400 unit, I’m making a bold assumption that spending up to £2000 will give me better sound.

I’ve been thinking about the features I want and have decided that the following are important to me:
  • 60W – 150W into 8 ohms (I have a long room to fill and the speakers suggest this)
  • Phono Stage
  • USB A (I have a large 256GB thumbnail USB with my CD’s ripped to a FLAC collection)
  • Spotify Connect
  • Internet Radio
  • DAC
  • Analogue input for CD Player
Some nice to haves would be
  • Toslink input for my Sky Q box
  • Tone controls as I prefer a warm sound and always crank up the bass on my amps
  • Headphone Socket
I’m undecided whether to go with another one box solution or a decent integrated amp and streamer. The one box options I’ve been looking at are:
  • Marantz PM7000N. Does everything I want and a cheaper option at £895 but I’m not sure if this will give me a lot more than I have already.
  • Lingdorf TDI-1120. Top of my budget but does everything I want apart from the tone controls.
  • NAD M10. Slightly over budget and no phono stage means I’d have to spend even more.
  • Naim Atom. Although very well received from a musical aspect, it’s very pricey and lacks the analogue and phono options. I also think 40W won’t drive my floorstanders very well.
If I go the separates route then the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 seems to do all I want from a streaming point of view so I’ve been thinking of one of these mated to a good amp like the Rega Elex-R.

Sorry for the long post but I suppose I’m just gathering people’s thoughts on whether I should be investigating other options and whether or not separates will give me better sound than a one box solution. I appreciate the room and music preferences make better sound “subjective" but any advice or personal experience would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I’m not at all sure the MAs warrant a £2000 amp so...

...I’m going to suggest a £2500 instead :thumbsup:

This impressive as they come amp was originally £2500, and is now absurdly inexpensive.


Not only does it have everything you want, it also has Dirac live.

A review from AVF here,


Not only is it a superb bargain, it will also leave you with a spare £1100.

Which I’m now going to suggest you consider spending on these.


Or, with the sale of the MAs and a little wallet opening, these bad boys.


Essentially a near £5000, exceptional hifi for less than half of that price. And you’ll be gobsmacked at the improvement.
 
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Ps, the 1120 does have tone controls in the form of ‘voicings’.

That is the user is able to shape the response to suit a room or genre or simply personal taste.

Considerably more accurate and useful than a pair of dials :smashin:
 
I've just bought the NAD M33 all-in-one and I have mixed feelings about its control system. Sadly I've just parted with its predecessor, the M32. This was a great amp and I'd recommend you look for a good used one - cheapish now that the M33 is out. Much better to control and very nearly as good sounding. Look for one with the BluOS module installed so it'll offer great streaming services too. In fact it ticks every one of your wish list items. I bought or borrowed a dozen amps before deciding which suited me best and, despite its modest price the M32 came out on top. Highly recommended.

Peter
 
Ps, the 1120 does have tone controls in the form of ‘voicings’.

That is the user is able to shape the response to suit a room or genre or simply personal taste.

Considerably more accurate and useful than a pair of dials :smashin:

Nice, I didn't know that.
 
A NAD C368 with Bluesound MDC installed will set you back £1200.00. Alternatively you could buy the C368 for £799 without the MDC, and buy a seperate Bluesound Node 2i (the route I took).

Either way, this will do everything you want and having owned the RN602 previously I can confidently say it will improve the sound you are getting considerably. It will also offer plenty of scope for getting the best out of any future speaker upgrades.
 
Having recently bought a Lyngdorf 1120, I wholeheartedly promote at least trialling it...
 
I have the 1120's big brother, the TDAi-3400, which has a great number of similarities. I have it connected to my Arcam AVR850 and get excellent results for both stereo music and surround movies.

Definitely worth a home trial of Lyngdorf. I doubt you would regret it. :)
 
I have the 1120's big brother, the TDAi-3400, which has a great number of similarities. I have it connected to my Arcam AVR850 and get excellent results for both stereo music and surround movies.

Definitely worth a home trial of Lyngdorf. I doubt you would regret it. :)
Before settling on NAD's Master Series (M32 and now M33), I trialed or bought numerous other amps including the Lyngdorf TDAI- 3400. After having this machine in my system for 2 or 3 weeks, I returned it to the dealer with these observations:

The Lyngdorf is something I don’needs rebooting regularly. It’s described as Roon Ready but it can’t stream directly from any of the high quality services (Tidal, Qobuz) without Roon, only from Spotify.

I was hoping that the Room Perfect room correction system would have made it a great all-in-one, but I did the calibration last night and was rewarded by a “99% accurate” result after 9 individual readings as per instructions. However apart from losing 5dB of volume, engaging RP also sucks the life out of the music, leaving it with little bass, thin and cold. I’m concerned that there was no initial instruction to download the supplied microphone’installed into the unit, but I doubt it. In all, most disappointing.


I hope your experience isn't as disappointing as my time with this amp. It ticked all the boxes on paper and I was looking forward to testing it. The Lyngdorf has a number of excellent features but I couldn't live with it's shortcomings, in particular its display and (for my room) RoomPerfect was a disaster.
 
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Before settling on NAD's Master Series (M32 and now M33), I trialed or bought numerous other amps including the Lyngdorf TDAI- 3400. After having this machine in my system for 2 or 3 weeks, I returned it to the dealer with these observations:

The Lyngdorf is something I don’needs rebooting regularly. It’s described as Roon Ready but it can’t stream directly from any of the high quality services (Tidal, Qobuz) without Roon, only from Spotify.

I was hoping that the Room Perfect room correction system would have made it a great all-in-one, but I did the calibration last night and was rewarded by a “99% accurate” result after 9 individual readings as per instructions. However apart from losing 5dB of volume, engaging RP also sucks the life out of the music, leaving it with little bass, thin and cold. I’m concerned that there was no initial instruction to download the supplied microphone’installed into the unit, but I doubt it. In all, most disappointing.


I hope your experience isn't as disappointing as my time with this amp. It ticked all the boxes on paper and I was looking forward to testing it. The Lyngdorf has a number of excellent features but I couldn't live with it's shortcomings, in particular its display and (for my room) RoomPerfect was a disaster.

Your results are virtually the opposite of mine, but each to their own. FYI, the 3400 can stream directly from Tidal (Tidal Connect) and Qobuz (UPnP) nowadays. I also prefer the display as the last thing I would want is artwork on it, but again, that's personal preference.
 
Hear Here - I'm sorry top hear about your issues with the TDA.

Correctly set up RoomPerfect absolutely will not "suck the life out of the music". Either the unit or mic you had was faulty or it was set up incorrectly.

I'm very happy to arrange a visit from an experienced installer to show you this is the case.

Are you up for it?
 
Hear Here - I'm sorry top hear about your issues with the TDA.

Correctly set up RoomPerfect absolutely will not "suck the life out of the music". Either the unit or mic you had was faulty or it was set up incorrectly.

I'm very happy to arrange a visit from an experienced installer to show you this is the case.

Are you up for it?
Hello Rob

Many thanks for the invitation. Too late as far as RoomPerfect goes as the Lyngdorf was returned long ago.

Interestingly, several pro reviewers of equipment have also commented that DSP room correction systems seem to do a great job of ironing out speaker response curves, but they also take a little of the life and excitement factor from the music. I'm sure this applies more to some speakers than others and would probably go unnoticed with many systems .

I've has 4 DSP systems in my home in total - RomPerfect (Lyngdorf), MARS (Micromega), Anthem (Martin Logan) and Dirac Live (NAD). All to a greater or lesser extent have shown this effect, so I generally switch off the filter. I also have XD software in my own Avantgarde XD speakers, but I don't have the means to measure the response apart from by using the Dirac Live measurements as a guide

I'm still working on minor mods to these speakers and haven't yet decided on footers, but I'm looking forward to getting this software applied because it should have no adverse effect on the excitement factor as it adds no filter - it simply adjusts the built-in amp settings. The AG distributor has access to a specialist kit that will measure and adjust the speakers, although I'm unsure of how it works in detail.

However, if you are up for a visit when conditions allow, I'd welcome you to visit Portsmouth to see what we can come up with. As I say, I have Dirac Live and XD, but would prefer to use the latter for response adjustment. Both influence only the bass frequencies and the XD software can also change the XO design with about 10 options from Butterworth, Bessel and Linkwitz.

Peter
 
Hi Peter

Thanks for your reply. I'd welcome the opportunity to hear your system and to compare RoomPerfect as I'm certain something is faulty or has been used incorrectly......... but I doubt this will happen for a few months now.

Dirac etc. will all be changing the response of your speakers to match a pre determined curve which will change how they sound. If you prefer it, that fine, but they will be changing how they sound.

RoomPerfect creates a target response based on the sound of your speakers and your rooms acoustics. It will then be correcting the system power response not the frequency response. You may not like what its done in your room, but it will be changing the sound of the speakers far less.

Cant you connect in say April so we can book a visit?

Stay safe!

Rob
 

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