Question Looking for stereo amp with dac to partner kef R300's

[cgm22]

Hi I'm looking to find a stereo amplifier with build in dac and Bluetooth to drive my kef R300's
Happy to have separate dac/Bluetooth and power amp if with in my budget
My budget is around £800 may go more if needed
Iv looked at audiolab m one
Quad vena
Cyrus one + dac

Any suggestions ??

Thanks

 

[Paul7777x]

I'd check out this one,

Cambridge Audio CXA60 & BT100 | Black Amplifier with Bluetooth Receiver | Richer Sounds

Plenty of power and, more importantly, headroom. Includes a dac section too.

And includes their well rated Bluetooth thing for free.

 

[Mark.Yudkin]

With an £800 limit, I like the Quad Vena you mentioned.

At a slightly higher price than your budget (you said you were flexible) you could consider a Rotel RA-1570, which is rather more powerful than the other choices mentioned so far. Not that your KEF R300's need all that power.

 

[cgm22]

I'd check out this one,

Cambridge Audio CXA60 & BT100 | Black Amplifier with Bluetooth Receiver | Richer Sounds

Plenty of power and, more importantly, headroom. Includes a dac section too.

And includes their well rated Bluetooth thing for free.

Thanks I'll put that on list too

 

[cgm22]

With an £800 limit, I like the Quad Vena you mentioned.

At a slightly higher price than your budget (you said you were flexible) you could consider a Rotel RA-1570, which is rather more powerful than the other choices mentioned so far. Not that your KEF R300's need all that power.

Rotel is nice but a bit more then I'd like to pay !!
Quad vena is fav at moment , just want to look at all my options, see what's out there

 

[Cribbster]

I would probably favour the Cyrus myself. They tend to work well with Kef speakers from the demos I have done. Definitely worth a listen.

 

[BlueWizard]

Cyrus might be nice, but I don't think you can get those for £800, probably closer to £1100.

Closer to your stated budget, the Yamaha AS801 Integrated Amp with DAC is currently on sale reduced to £699 from the previous £799 -

Peter Tyson - Yamaha A-S801 Integrated Amplifier

Here are the full specs on the Amp -

Yamaha-UK/IE - A-S801 - Overview

• USB DAC function supports 2.8MHz/5.6MHz DSD native resolution and PCM 384kHz/32*bit reproduction
• * Windows support. Mac support is 24-bit.
• High efficiency ESS 32bit DAC (ES9010K2M)
• Digital signal indicator shows DSD and PCM playback formats and sampling frequencies
• 160W x 2 (max), 100W x 2 (RMS) high power output
• 1xOptical, 1xCoaxial, 1xUSB-PC

There are plenty of great amps out there, but do they fall in the stated price range, and have the necessary features?

Yamaha are High-Value as always, and with the £100 discount, that makes the Yamaha AS801 very attractive, and it has all the features you specifically asked for, with the exception of Bluetooth, but Yamaha does make a low cost Bluetooth Receiver.

Yamaha YBA11 Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver - Superfi

However, in general, Bluetooth Receivers can be had for about £50. You should find dozens of them on Amazon.

Amazon.co.uk: Bluetooth Receiver

Also, keep mind if you buy a separate stand alone DAC, plan on spending between £200 and £500, or more for just the DAC.

Just a thought.

Steve/bluewizard

 

[Cribbster]

The Cyrus One is £699 RRP. Bit of a bargain if you ask me.

 

[BlueWizard]

The Cyrus One is £699 RRP. Bit of a bargain if you ask me.

Yes, but the requirements are for -

- Amp
- DAC
- Bluetooth
- £800 budget

I was thinking the Cyrus 6DAC Amp.

Though, perhaps a DAC could be added to the Cyrus One and you would only go a bit over budget.

Given its tiny size, I would expect the Cyrus One to be a Class-D amp. Though making no judgement on that, simply making people aware.

The amp is likely 75w/ch to 8 ohms, still decent.

So, whether that is the right amp is a decision for the Original Poster to make.

Steve/bluewizard

 

[pixelpidgeon]

Check out this thread regarding a couple of relatively cheap but popular dacs if your thinking going through seperate DAC/amp route.

 

[pixelpidgeon]

SMSL M8A (ES9028Q2M)

 

[BlueWizard]

$200 out of a £800 is pretty steep, but the SMSL M8A DAC looks pretty nice.

Even the Cambridge DACMagic 100 is reasonably priced at £169 -

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO DACMAGIC 100Black DAC

CAMBRIDGE AUDIO DACMAGIC 100Silver DAC

But that is pretty steep from an £800 budget when there are amps that come with DACs built in at a considerably lower cost.

But indeed, an external DAC is one of the options.

Actually the SMSL M8 DAC is £159 on Amazon-UK, looks pretty sweet. I know a lot of people like the compact SMSL Amps.

SMSL M8 USB DAC Decoder XMOS Optical Coaxial: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Steve/bluewizard