Stereo Amp for Monitor Audio Silver 10

astreix

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Just paid for a pair of MA Silver 10 speakers, getting them next week :clap::clap:

With these speakers I now need a new amp as the current one is probably not powerful enough (monitor audio airstream a100). Demo'd the speakers with Marantz, Arcam & Cyrus, of which I liked the sound of Marantz and Arcam but don't really have strong preference for a particular brand. I prefer slightly warmer sound and generally tend to listen to music at low to medium volumes. Music will be mixed but mostly classical/jazz type.

If you have these speakers what amp are you using?

Some of the amps I'm considering are - Marantz PM 8005 (£649), Arcam A19 (£649 - though not sure if this is powerful enough and I need to consider higher models which cost 1k+). Am also open to second hand and someone has offered me a Marantz PM 15ns1 for around 650 as well (can't seem to find somewhere to demo it. The seller has offered to demo them with B&W speakers).

Since most of the music will be played via streaming I also need to budget for something like a network streamer or Arcam irDAC/rblink, hence would ideally like to keep the amp under 1K.

Any suggestions/views gratefully received.
 
I struggled for a good sound with my RS series for along time, for music most I tried where tiring after 30minutes.... then I discovered Arcam/Monitor Audio, perfect match I have found. I still use my living room setup an Arcam 9 with MA-RS1's and it sounds really really nice. I bought the Alpha 9 and 9p power amp for £300 a few months ago, selling the 9p as not needed though. My pidac with qaudio dac was maybe £60 with case and a few cables, lets say £20..... well within your £1k if you are consider 2nd hand. you need a nas to run logitech media server also or even a sonos connect instead for £250.
 
Hey congratulations, I've just purchased the S8, I'm about to buy a Denon AVR x2100, I will only be doing 2 channel. Hope this helps.
 
I've not heard these speakers yet but have always liked the MA/Arcam combination. A friend of mine just got a pair of these and runs them with an Arcam Alpha 10 and seems pleased. In case you didn't know the Alpha 10 was the top range Arcam amp before the FMJ range came in. Replaced by the A22 and then the A32. Not sure what came after but I would say any of these would be a good option.
 
Many thanks to everyone who responded. I narrowed down my choices to either Arcam or Marantz as I liked both sounds and ended up buying a 3 year old Marantz amp from its reference series and an Marantz NA7004 from the forum here. The combo sounds very good to me.
 
Wasn't the Delta series the top of the end for Arcam before the FMJ? I thought Alpha was replaced by the Diva series.
 
The Delta range amps were replaced by the new Alpha range with the 9/9p being a pretty much identical replacement for the Delta 290/290p (although it didn't look half as good). The new Alpha range included the 10/10p which was a step up from anything in the Delta range. When the FMJ range came along, the top of range Alpha 10/10p became part of the FMJ range in the form of the A22/P25 and the Alpha 9 CD player became the FMJ CD22. The rest of the Alpha range was replaced with the Diva range but I've never owned any of that range, or indeed the lower models in the Alpha range so not sure if they were pretty much the same thing in new housing or redesigned completely. What I can say for sure is looks aside, there's little between Delta 290/290p and Alpha 9/9p amps, an Alpha 10 and an FMJ A22, a 10P and a P25 or an Alpha 9 CD and an FMJ CD22 as I own or have owned all of them.

I've been buying Arcam gear since the old old Alpha 5 cd player so I seem to know more about their history than I probably need to!
 
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