Advice please on adding stereo amp to AVR.

[Skiman]

Hi everyone - hope this is in the correct forum category,

I'm very happy with the sonic performance of my system (see signature) when watching a BR or Sky but would like to improve 2 channel music

playback if possible so am seeking advice/information from anyone who can help.

I currently have the UDP player linked by HDMI into the AVR and when playing multichannel SACD's the sound is, in my opinion, quite stunning

but when playing standard CDs find it palatable but slightly "wooly" and was wondering if I purchased a separate stereo amp and connected

it via the AVR pre-outs would render paplable returns in sonic clarity. Currently when playing 2 channel discs I have the sub woofer enabled to add

bottom end grunt - I realize that the speaker package is my system's weak link but their replacement is a non starter.

1) Would an integrated or power amp be more suitable?

2) If a seperate amp was used would I have to alter connections for signal output from the UDP for 2 channel playback and retain the HDMI

connection for multi channel playback and BR use? If so how would I integrate both amps for film/SACD multichannel playback?

3) Should the new amp also be a Denon unit to retain a unified sonic signature when 5.1/7.1 playback is in use?

4) As the AVR HAS 7.2 channels of amplification for (new) £1000.00 - therefore simplistically £111.00 per amp channel would I have to look at

stereo/power amps at £200.00+ per amp channel to achieve a worthwhile improvement? Is this theory pertinent?

5) If I were to go down this route would a seperate amp with bi-amping capabilities be beneficial as my L/R speakers are capable of this.

Any advice, comments or information about the above would be greatly appreciated and if any reader has done something similar with Denon

equipment your experiences would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Stefan

 

[abacus]

Before adding or changing anything, I would connect the analogue outs of your Blu-Ray player to the analogue inputs of your AVR and use the analogue out for CDs to see if this sounds better, this way you are bypassing the Denon AVR processing which can have a detrimental effect on CDs.

If there is still no improvement, post again and we can look at alternatives.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Skiman]

Thanks for the reply - seems a very obvious thing to do and potentially very cheap. I've got some spare interconnects and will try to do this over the

weekend and report back.

Regards

Stefan