ADVICE ON NEW SYSTEM PLEASE

[ayjaycee]

Having
lived with my current system for a number of years, it’s time for a
change and upgrade.

My
current kit comprises a Marantz PM4004 Amplifier, Marantz CD4400 CD Player,
Cambridge Audio DAB300 Tuner and Mordaunt Short MS902 Speakers. However, DAB
reception on the tuner (with an internal aerial) suddenly turned lousy (ie. non-existent)
last year and since then I have been using a cheapo Tesco own label DAB radio (£25)
with a lead from the headphone socket into the the tuner inputs on the amp which
works just fine for Five Live, my main radio station. I have checked elsewhere
in the house and the DAB300 works fine – just not where I have got the
hifi set up – I am assuming it is down to the sensitivity of the tuners and
that a more modern tuner would be OK.

Rather
than go for separates again, my attention has really focussed on a Micro System
and, in particular, either the Denon DM37DAB (£190), Marantz M-CR502 (£350) or
Cambridge Audio One (£300), any of which would be coupled with a pair of either
Tannoy F1 Customs (£100) or Wharfdale Diamond 10.1s(£200) – the total
budget is £500 and I am assuming that I would only get a negligible amount if I
tried to ebay the current gear.

Aside
from it needing to sound better than the current system (otherwise, what’
the point?), the only essentials for the new system is for at least 2 sets of phono
inputs to cater for a Cambridge IPod dock and the front two channels from my
Cambridge Azur 540R AV Receiver.

Any
opinions / advice please?

 

[ayjaycee]

Can anybody help please? As an alternative, suggestions for other upgrade options would be much appreciated. For instance, would it be worth replacing any single element of my current system?

As before, any advice much appreciated especially if it is borne out of first hand experience with any of the kit in question.

 

[matthewpiano]

What particular improvements in sound do you want to make, and what music do you listen to?

 

[the record spot]

ayjaycee:
Can anybody help please? As an alternative, suggestions for other upgrade options would be much appreciated. For instance, would it be worth replacing any single element of my current system?

As before, any advice much appreciated especially if it is borne out of first hand experience with any of the kit in question.

No experience with it, but the Musical Fidelity V-DAC is highly rated pretty much across the board and if your CDP offers the means to accommodate the connection to it, you'd be looking at a decent improvement. £130 incidentally but performs way above this level by all accounts.

As far as your music playing goes, I think this is worth considering - there's no major improvement going to happen with the all-in-one mini systems you have selected. Different sound maybe, but your original Marantz gear was never too shabby to start off with. If the CDP can't accept the output to the DAC, then the Denon or the like come into play again.

Alternatively, try out the budget kit currently out there - Harman Kardon HK990 is loaded with good features and would last an amp upgrade or two (if you can land it on a deal, this would be a good step-up, normally £500 but seen it for half price recently) or the usual suspects around the £200-300 mark, NAD, Marantz, Yamaha, Harman again, etc.

If you have to buy a new CDP, or choose to go down that route, then I'd suggest you might also look at Harman's (yet again!) HK3490 receiver, sadly non-DAB, but excellent for FM and AM and comes loaded with Harman's own Bridge II docking system for your iPod. 120wpc and a good phono section if you need it. £300 or less for the 3390 which has a similar spec but with a mere 85wpc - that ought to be enough! Just plug your DAB radio into the amp via a phono interconnect (see Computergear's site for an excellent lead for £7) and your away.

Harman are woefully overlooked in the UK but have boosted their range here of late and I'd be shortlisting some of their kit if I was shopping around at this price level.

So, DAC first, if that fails as an option, update the amp with a receiver and change the CDP in time, or go down the all in one route you have already mentioned. Failing all of that, there's the computer audio option and I'm sure will have their views and hints on this to come (if not already).

 

[Anonymous]

ayjaycee:Having lived with my current system for a number of years, it's time for a change and upgrade.

My current kit comprises a Marantz PM4004 Amplifier, Marantz CD4400 CD Player, Cambridge Audio DAB300 Tuner and Mordaunt Short MS902 Speakers. However, DAB reception on the tuner (with an internal aerial) suddenly turned lousy (ie. non-existent) last year and since then I have been using a cheapo Tesco own label DAB radio (£25) with a lead from the headphone socket into the the tuner inputs on the amp which works just fine for Five Live, my main radio station. I have checked elsewhere in the house and the DAB300 works fine - just not where I have got the hifi set up - I am assuming it is down to the sensitivity of the tuners and that a more modern tuner would be OK.

Rather than go for separates again, my attention has really focussed on a Micro System and, in particular, either the Denon DM37DAB (£190), Marantz M-CR502 (£350) or Cambridge Audio One (£300), any of which would be coupled with a pair of either Tannoy F1 Customs (£100) or Wharfdale Diamond 10.1s(£200) - the total budget is £500 and I am assuming that I would only get a negligible amount if I tried to ebay the current gear.

Aside from it needing to sound better than the current system (otherwise, what' the point?), the only essentials for the new system is for at least 2 sets of phono inputs to cater for a Cambridge IPod dock and the front two channels from my Cambridge Azur 540R AV Receiver.

Any opinions / advice please?

The power from these micros may not be too far away from the 540R receiver. The receiver might actually have more punch in this case (rated higher, all channels driven), and might sound more coherent overall when playing movies (identical sound among channels). Unless you play a lot of concert dvds/bds, then it may make sense to use the micro for audio only (though hooking it up can indeed offload some work from the AV receiver).

In terms of audio output, the M-CR502 and the One are quite a bit better than the DM37DAB in my opinion. Try matching them with both the Tannoy and the Wharfedale, and choose the sound that you prefer. I'm not sure if they'd sound better than your old setup, as that'd be upto your ears to decide.

 

[ayjaycee]

Thanks for the replies.

Matthew - I listen to all sorts but mostly Jazz, Soul, Reggae and Rock. As to what particular improvement am I looking for, I sometimes think the bass is a bit 'boomy' (if that makes sense!) and could be improved upon BUT that might be down to the speakers and/or their positions - they are fixed to brackets about 6 feet up the wall, in the corners and facing inwards. The MS902s are ported at the back and to things have been slightly improved by bunging the ports with foam rubber. Speaker cable is QED Silver Anniversary and the interconnect between amp and CD is an Ixos - can't remember which one but it was about £50 for the 1M version.

Stagea - I did once try a direct comparison between my 540R Receiver and the Marantz amp using a PS3 and the Marantz CD player respectively and found the Marantz amp/CD combo sounded much better but that might have been down to the lack of quality of the PS3 as a CD player. I suspected that I would get comments about the M-CR502 and Audio One being much better quality and am not too surprised given the price difference between them and the DMB37DAB. That said, I have seen a lot of posts like that by Planejoker here

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/392396.aspx

and then begin to wonder how good the Denon really is. I have heard them all in the shop but the conditions were not really good enough for proper side by side tests.

I am now veering towards getting some new speakers which might not be so 'position sensitive' and trialling them before deciding whether any more new kit might be required and the test in the coming March issue of the mag might be really useful in that context. That said, further comments and advice would always be appreciated from the community out there.

Cheers and happy listening - look forward to hearing from you all.