Integrated Amps

[Basinguy]

i am looking for an integrated am to got with me Acoustic Energy Aelite 2 speakers.

Anyone heard the Roksan Kandy or Naim N5i and can comment on the difference ?

also any suggestions on alternatives ?

MUST have an asthetically matching CD player and DAB would be a bonus

 

[Knyght_byte]

have heard a Kandy, altho not on those speakers.......

it seemed mostly suited to Rock style music......but to be honest didnt really impress that much even then....

assuming your budget is somewhere between £600-800, you should put Arcam, Primare and Musical Fidelity on your list....they all do amps around that price which have brilliant abilities.....although as i say i havnt heard your speakers so cant comment on whether they would be suitable or not, but certainly worth trying

one thing tho, the amps might be outperforming the speakers......whilst i happily use a £1,500 MF A5 amp on a pair of £800 MA GR10 speakers, the GR10's are a good step up on a £500 pair of floorstanders (if i've got your model number right?) generally......spending too much on the amp might not get much more gain at the price level of the speakers.......if you plan on upgrading the speakers tho eventually, i'd urge you to consider upping the amp budget more to around £900-1,000 and check out the higher amps from the companies i mention, namely the Arcam A90 and the MF A3.5.....

however there are plenty of amps around from various manufacturers, i'm sure other folks on here will add some names

 

[Basinguy]

my speakers are big standmounts and have a 175wpc power maximum.

i have heard the a3.5 but its a bit dearer than i was hoping to spend, and as its my first hi-fi system i didnt want to go too ott to start with.

my budget is around £600 give or take for the amp and the same again for the cd player.

Im considering second hand and have seen the naim in my local paper for £400.

i was also thinking of the cambridge audio 640 which is nice and cheap but powerful too

 

[Adam Shaw]

Whats your timescale?
740A and 740C will be popping up in the spring.
Do remember, that if you get an amp like the 640A with pre-outs, you can always add an extra power amp latwer for bi-amping (but not so aesthetically pleasing).

 

[overkill]

You could also look at the Exposure integrated's at that price.

I would also look on ebay for the Primare, ARcam and MF amps suggested above.

 

[Arfa]

Also check out some of the brands off the beaten track (read those not mentioned in What Hifi) like:
Densen - The Beat 100 or DM series are easily in your range 2nd hand. There was a bunch of the latter on the Pink Fish Classified not long ago.
Meridian - The 5** series should be affordable 2nd hand in your budget and give a nice smooth warm sound.
Rega Mira3 - comes in at 600 quid new and I vouch for the matching Rega Apollo cd player.
NVA - A small brands sold through ebay, but with a good rep and similar sound to Naim.

 

[cwilson]

How about something like a Rega Apollo, and if you are considering s/hand try the emporium, the have a Rega cursa/maia going for around 500 at the moment,
Stonking partnership with the apollo.

 

[OneDesi]

On the Musical Fidelity front I would recommend the V3 X-series as the new X-series is out so you will get good deals (I can point you in the direction of X150's for under £400 ex dem and 2nd hand) and you shouldn't have too much difficulty tracking down the X-Ray V3.

You could probably use a TEAC DAB radio to match up and you can always upgrade the X-series V3 with poweramps etc.

I rated it better than the A3.5 range.

 

[Basinguy]

so with regards the Musical Fidelity A3.5 i have had a look and although it is a bit too expesive i suppose it would last these speaker and when i upgrade as well so we shal see......

one thing is that the speakers are rated at 175w max at 6ohms, and the a3.5 pumps out 150wpc at 8 ohms meaning at 6 ohms it will kick out 200wpc.

will it matter that the amp is overpowering the speakers or not ?

 

[Knyght_byte]

you actually want the amp to be able to overpower the speakers...that way you know the amp isnt underpowering them....thats when most problems happen.....you can always keep the volume control down with a powerful amp.....with a weak amp, running it up full is more likely to damage something or lots of things...lol

my GR10's are 100watt power handling, my A5 is 250wpc

my S6's are either 150 or 175watt power handling and the A5 powers them once in a while too....

the best bit with an amp in the league of the A3.5 (or similar by other manufacturer) is that it will most likely survive your next speaker upgrade.....so its a case of economics.....get the cheaper amp now, but when it comes to upgrading speakers you might need to upgrade the amp as well....however get the best possible amp you can stretch to now and you shouldnt need to replace it when you up the speakers......thats why i bought the A5, essentially a A3.5 would have done me fine, but i know i want to upgrade at some point but without doing all components at once...so i get the A5 and can happily power most speakers worth up to around £4k with it.....might need to add a power amp with some, but hey, they do a matching A5 power amp....heh....

whether you buy MF, Arcam, Densen, Primare, Naim, etc, either go for something around £400 or go for something around £1-1.2k........the cheaper amp means you wont feel so bad upgrading to a new amp...the more expensive amp means you wont have to......buy something for £750 now and you'll be betwixt and between.....

just the way i look at it anyhow......always best to go with what feels right to you.....no point making me feel happy, its your ears

 

[karkus30]

Try an LFD integrated amplifier, stunning amounts of power and grip but really tuneful and exclusive too..........

http://www.listencarefully.co.uk/lfd.html (stockist)

http://www.hi-fi-specialist.com/Product-LFD.htm (another)

http://www.aanvilaudio.u-net.com/lfd_charter.htm

I was very tempted to swap my Naim NAC72 / 2 x NAC135s for the straight integrated amplifier as it sounded so good and had similar power to the Naim mono blocks........incredible for a 60w integrated amplifier.......LFD provide a line only or phono stage (the phono stage is incredible).

This is an amp that doesn't appear very often in the mainstream, they can sell virtually everything he makes, it is a very bespoke build not a mass produced piece of kit.

As for price, you need to ask. I know when I was looking the integrated was ITRO £600, but like most things it fluctuates, but it certainly was not top end prices.

 

[Basinguy]

Does anyone have any experience with the Yamaha AX-497 Amp & Cd Player.

seems like a trusted name with good power and a great price!

dosent have a tuner though but id say the marantz or denon would match well

 

[overkill]

Does anyone have any experience with the Yamaha AX-497 Amp & Cd Player.

seems like a trusted name with good power and a great price!

dosent have a tuner though but id say the marantz or denon would match well

Tbh, Yamaha gear polarises listeners. The AV Receivers are very good, they used to make great Cassette decks, but their Amps and CD players were/are very much an 'acquired taste'. They tend to err on the 'bright side' of neutral. Ie they can sound a tad 'harsh' or put too much emphasis on the top end. I would NOT buy Yamaha Amps or CD players without a good long listen.

If you are looking for cheap, then Denon make great lower end gear, and you can buy, fairly safely, a whole system. But then so do Rotel.

Do I detect a switch from just one or two components to a 'wider picture'?

 

[Basinguy]

well theres so many about its heard to know where to start. i have been told that denons lower end stuff is quite poor and i will most likely go for the marantz pm7001 series kit but i wanted to get peoples opinions on ohers as well

 

[CJROSS]

well theres so many about its heard to know where to start. i have been told that denons lower end stuff is quite poor and i will most likely go for the marantz pm7001 series kit but i wanted to get peoples opinions on ohers as well

Denons 1500AE series is a stunning range, I would say avoid the PM7001 not bad starter kit but you will be upgrading it sooner rather than later. Amps like the PM7001 whilst OK are hyped up by mags like WHF when they are other "better" bits of kit about, you have had some excellent responses about amps from the chaps above, last thing I would do is get a PM7001.

 

[overkill]

Denons 1500AE series is a stunning range, I would say avoid the PM7001 not bad starter kit but you will be upgrading it sooner rather than later. Amps like the PM7001 whilst OK are hyped up by mags like WHF when they are other "better" bits of kit about, you have had some excellent responses about amps from the chaps above, last thing I would do is get a PM7001.

I have never understood this CJ? I worked with Marantz stuff for years, and listened to the KI gear as well to keep up to date. However, I never found it lived up to the quite monstrous hype that surrounded it.

In side by side listening tests the CD players were never that much better than the Philips machines they were based on (and who owned Marantz). Their other gear was always either worse, or only just equal to other gear the press rated as lower than, or on a par with their stuff!

I cannot understand why Denon stuff doesn't get rated as highly now. It used to do well. It's still well built, sounds good and should last for ages. The returns rate was always miniscule as well.

Nerox, if you are looking for 'ranges' now, I would suggest Denon, Rotel, Cambridge and NAD as good, basic, ideal for system building kit.

Come back with some thoughts on what you need and we can go from there.

 

[Basinguy]

the 1500ae has a good review in hi-fi choice.

plus it has all the matching bits.....the guys in the shop almost refused to give me a demo of the denon stuff for some reason, said it was a waste of money compared to the marantz but i guess they might make more comission on them or something

 

[overkill]

the 1500ae has a good review in hi-fi choice.

plus it has all the matching bits.....the guys in the shop almost refused to give me a demo of the denon stuff for some reason, said it was a waste of money compared to the marantz but i guess they might make more comission on them or something

You're learning..............

I would never have flogged someone one piece of kit over another (despite the fact one employer would try and get us too) due to commission. However, the pressure to do so in some shops is heavy. I find it incredible that salesmen would do that though. Many customers would (rightly) be switched off by that and just walk out, having had their suspicions raised.

You always demo what ever the customer wants, and advise either positively or negatively once you have heard what they like and seen their initial reaction to the piece of kit demonstrated. You should always however, offer alternatives.

 

[Basinguy]

well i have been looking at the cambridge 640 range and am interested.

i saw the rotel RA-06 but revies say it is too bland.

the nad stuff, well i never heard of nad but went to the shop and saw.... i think it was the 372 but was told its very smooth and as most of my music is rock or similar it may not be as well suited as others.

the only other option os the Creek Evo.....but who the hell are creek ?

 

[Knyght_byte]

Creek have been around for quite a while, they just havnt done a lot lately...lol

they have made some very good amps tho in the past (i havnt heard a Creek amp myself but they were often well received)

i think they fall in to the Rega and Naim kind of market, something a little different from the norm in some respects....

 

[Basinguy]

so going back to the denon 1500 amp, i see the 1500 cd player with SACD for £450, the same as the amp.
but to be honest sacd isnt a selling point for me, i dont own any sacds and looking at places that sell them there isnt really anything that jumps out at me to get sacd.

so in compairson to the next model cheaper the 700ae cd player, are you just paying for the benefit of sacd abaility on the 1500 player ?

 

[crowncd]

Nerox, do you have access to the Denon 1500AE review? Just wondering what comments were made about it and how it scored/rated.
I'm just about to purchase cd/amp to go with the Denon 1800 tuner I bought a few weeks ago and a pair of AE Aelite 3 floorstanders.
I plan to listen to a few pieces of kit and pricewise am looking at the Denon 1500 amp and cd player, Arcam A70 and their CD73 cd player, the new Rotel range (although I've read mixed reviews about Rotel) or the Cambridge Audio 840 amp and cd. The later really would be at the top of my price range. Comments really would be appreciated.

 

[Plugman99]

Can't comment on the Arcam kit although I have at various times changed my hifi. I would rate the 840c Cambridge as the best CD player I have ever heard pace, timing bass, clarity are spot on. For the first time in my life I am not kidding myself that this sounds better. I have this matched to a 640v2 amp and it certainly sounds very good to me to a pair of Monitor Audio S1.

The only thing that worries me a bit with the Cambridge kit is that its not that reliable but as you get a 1 year swop out for any faults I am less bothered than I woould have been.

Also doont be afraid of asking for a discount I managed to get about £50 off my 640a and 840c, just wish I could have afforded too goo foor the matching amp.