Upgrade from Denon AVC-X8500H?

[mrapbp]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice.

I have the Denon for about 18 months and it has served me well in that time. Used it a lot and with a variety of sources (UHD, Sky Q, Streaming etc etc) and for the price I paid I really cant ask for more. Superb piece of kit and honestly I am always impressed at what it delivers at that price point! I am getting the nasty old upgrade bug knocking on my door and wanted to get some advice on some directions to look at.

I have a 7.1.4 setup up with the following speakers:

1 x Pair B&W 702 S2 – Front

1 x B&W HTM71 S2 - Centre Channel

2 x pairs of B&W CCM664 – Ceiling/Atmos

2 x Pairs of 707 S2 - Rear and Side

1 x SVS PC4000 - Sub

Really happy with the speakers and no plan to change them.

I want something that can handle the above and maybe get more/the best out of my speakers, something with more power and better for music listening (I got rid of Naim Super Uniti amp when I bought this and the Denon is good but just isnt anywhere near as good with music and I miss the Naim)

I have been looking the Lyngdorf MP-40 with a power amp of some sort. From what I can tell this would be a significant upgrade for me and is probably all the amp I would ever need. The only thing is the price, by the time I have bought both I am looking at around £11k which is a huge amount of money and a massive increase from the £3k I paid for the Denon, I can probably justify it/afford it but it will take some serious man maths!!

Anyone have any other suggestions? Is this the kind of money I need to spend to get an upgrade worth doing? Is there something that will cover the upgrade bug and give me the performace I am looking for for less money?

All thoughts greatfully received!!

 

[gibbsy]

You certainly have top class speakers and they may very well be let down by the Denon's stereo music performance. Going down the Lyngdorf route may very well give you a better performance but it's a lot of money to spend and can really only be answered by a home audition. Difficult as you also have to get your hands on power units. It's just too much to pay for blind on asking for the opinions of people on a Forum.

There are a few members who run the Lyngdorf TDAI-3400 in tandem with their AV amps and use RP for the stereo music improvement. That will obviously give power to your fronts and the remaining connected speakers to the Denon will benefit from that share of the saved power.

If you like some raw power the Rega Aethos will drive those 707s beautifully. Plenty of good amps with HT by-pass for you to use and will be a cheaper option than the MP-40. One limitation of the MP-40 is it's three HDMI in ports. Then there is the tricky question of how you're going to power the processed signals. I use a Rega Elicit-R alongside my Denon X6500 because I don't like the Denon's music performance.

You will be basically starting from scratch. Could be an interesting journey.

 

[Deleted member 39241]

As above, why not just get a nice stereo integrated amp to use for music listening and integrate into the system via a speaker switch or the AVR pre-outs.

 

[Steve356]

Hi All,

Looking for some advice.

I have the Denon for about 18 months and it has served me well in that time. Used it a lot and with a variety of sources (UHD, Sky Q, Streaming etc etc) and for the price I paid I really cant ask for more. Superb piece of kit and honestly I am always impressed at what it delivers at that price point! I am getting the nasty old upgrade bug knocking on my door and wanted to get some advice on some directions to look at.

I have a 7.1.4 setup up with the following speakers:

1 x Pair B&W 702 S2 – Front

1 x B&W HTM71 S2 - Centre Channel

2 x pairs of B&W CCM664 – Ceiling/Atmos

2 x Pairs of 707 S2 - Rear and Side

1 x SVS PC4000 - Sub

Really happy with the speakers and no plan to change them.

I want something that can handle the above and maybe get more/the best out of my speakers, something with more power and better for music listening (I got rid of Naim Super Uniti amp when I bought this and the Denon is good but just isnt anywhere near as good with music and I miss the Naim)

I have been looking the Lyngdorf MP-40 with a power amp of some sort. From what I can tell this would be a significant upgrade for me and is probably all the amp I would ever need. The only thing is the price, by the time I have bought both I am looking at around £11k which is a huge amount of money and a massive increase from the £3k I paid for the Denon, I can probably justify it/afford it but it will take some serious man maths!!

Anyone have any other suggestions? Is this the kind of money I need to spend to get an upgrade worth doing? Is there seomething that will cover the upgrade bug and give me the performace I am looking for for less money?

All thoughts greatfully received!!

I currently run a Lyngdorf TDAi 3400 in combination with an Arcam AVR850 and have been very happy with it. For me in my room and system, it was a massive increase in quality for stereo music. I find the combination of Arcam and Lyngdorf to be very good for surround sound too, but I only run a 5.1 system. The Arcam was very good on its own for surround movies, but I never liked it that much for stereo music.

In 2019, I tried a number of different AVRs with both the Lyngdorf 3400 and 2170 as I had both on home loan at the time. I tried a Marantz, Denon 8500 and an Anthem 1120. I thought that the 8500 performed very well with the Lyngdorf amps. I'd go as far as to say that if I was to replace my Arcam AVR with another AVR, it would be the Denon as I liked many of the features it had.

In 2020, I had a home loan of the Lyngdorf MP40 processor along with 3 x SDA2400 amps. It was superb in my room and I was very close to buying it. What stopped me was that I really wanted to pair a MP processor with the forthcoming SDA8400 amp and that was delayed. It's due to be finally released later this year (I hope), at which time, I'll try it all again.

You really need a home loan of the Lyngdorf equipment and it can usually be arranged in the UK.

Note that there is now also a lower cost stereo unit that supports many of the features that its bigger brothers have, namely the Lyngdorf TDAi 1120 and I'd think it could drive your speakers well. There are various Lyngdorf threads dotted around on these forums with a number of satisfied customers in a similar situation to yourself.

 

[mrapbp]

Thanks for the responses.

I would for sure get a home demo before spending anything. I am just looking to see if there is a route I hadn’t thought of , maybe one of the new Denon processors (although they seem like a mess right now) or anything else. It occurred to me that there can’t be just one route for me that happens to cost £11k. That is a big step up, maybe it ends up being the right one but thought I would ask the question.

Also, I am not just looking to just improve on the stereo performance, I think the AV side could be improved as well and something with a bit more oomph (I like loud music, have no neighbours and fancy something new!)

 

[gibbsy]

and fancy something new!)

Obviously a case of upgradiatus. Afflicts many of us. My wife cured mine. A frying pan behind the left ear did it for me..........but I can feel myself slipping off the wagon.

Keep the Denon and audition a quality five channel power amp to take the burden away from the most highly used speakers. No loss if you go down replacing with a processor as you would need that amplification anyway. I'll not make recommendations for power amps as I never needed them and I don't want a lump behind my right ear as well.

 

[mrapbp]

Definitely going to upgrade the Denon I think. The Lyngdorf is looking like the way ahead at the moment. No point going half way I guess.........

The only thing is that I am not sure I am good having to use a work around for the HDMI input limitations with the MP-40 and the MP-60 seems expensive in comparison!

 

[petetherock]

As above, why not just get a nice stereo integrated amp to use for music listening and integrate into the system via a speaker switch or the AVR pre-outs.

+1 on this.
I've used my Marantz PM 11 with HT bypass to improve on the 2 channel performance.
The current Model 30 looks good too - I'm using the N30 SACD streamer.

 

[mattmarsden]

This is where I am as well do I go for a MP60 setup which will be probably be getting on for 10x more expensive than getting the Denon 8500, I don't listen to much music through it so is it money well spent?

 

[mrapbp]

I ended up going for the MP-40. It was definitely a huge step forward with both AV and stereo listening. Was it worth it, not sure really. It’s a lot of money to spend and it isn’t 5x better, depends in available budget and how strong the urge to upgrade is I guess!