Amp or receiver??

[MrNo]

Hello,

I'm buying a pair of Triangle front speakers (Magellan Cello SW2) worth £6700. I currently have an Onkyo TX SR 706 at home, with B&W 600 series 5.1 speakers setup. I was thinking about adding an integrated amp (Marantz PM-15S2) to the system (and sell B&W front speakers) so that I could use the Triangle speakers for hi-fi and the full system for surround movies.

My dealer told me that it's not possible to use the Onkyo as a pre-amp to connect to Marantz. In fact he said I either should have a complete different system for hi-fi, or I have to buy a very expensive receiver to drive the system (he offered a £3500 Arcam AVR 600).

I was actually quite happy with the home cinema experience, I just wanted to upgrade the cd music performance.

So any suggestions as to what I should do? I am not very familiar with what is pre-amp / power amp etc, but I just want to have one system for both hi-fi and home cinema, powerful enough to drive the Magellan Cello speakers and offers good performance with my surround B&W speakers.

 

[tyranniux42]

Hello MrNo,

just a quick question if I may, is there a particular reason you are getting the Triangles?

The reason I ask is that for the quoted £6700 you could have a stormer of a system comprising of Amp, Cd player and speakers each costing rougly £2200 each. I sure I as well as many others here could recommend our favourite systems in this price bracket, most if not all of which would likely outperform a budget receiver or amplifier with very highly priced loudspeakers. The amps simply would not do them justice IMHO.

What is the rest of your kit? do you have a CD player currently? I would think that most people here would say that a budget CD player and AV receiver driving such high quality loudspeakers is a very skewed system.

Just my thoughts and hope they do not come across in the wrong way. I would very much like your money to be spent as efficiently as possible . Oh and before anyone else says so, you need to audition with your own kit when spending this sort of money especially!

Kind regards

Dan

 

[MrNo]

Hi,

I want the Triangles because I am very impressed with the demonstration I had in the hi-fi shop, and they will make an exceptional deal Also a friend of mine has a previous version (Celius ESW) connected to an Onkyo AV receiver and it sounds much better than mine...

My CD player is Denon DCD 710AE.

I agree that my current receiver won't do justice to the Triangles, that's why I wanted to buy an Amp as well. The question is can I buy a power / integrated amp as an addition to my AV receiver (i.e. use my AV receiver as pre-amp for these two speakers) or do I have to buy a complete new more expensive AV receiver? I also saw control+power amps with 7 channels, seems ideal but quite expensive..

I guess I'm not the only one who wants decent performance in both stereo and surround from one system Any thoughts welcome.

 

[BenLaw]

If you're set on the speakers and getting a good deal, then fair enough. I wouldn't have thought any HC amp, including the Arcam, will get the best out of them. Definitely consider improving the source (£300 CDP -> £7k speakers at the moment).

As for amps, your Onkyo's spec sheet here indicates it does have pre outs. So you have a number of options - the amp can be used to play in stereo as well as multichannel / you could add a power amp and use the Onkyo as a preamp, connecting the power amp to the pre-outs of the Onkyo / you could an integrated stereo amp or a pre / power combination, connecting the integrated or pre to the pre-outs of the Onkyo and setting the Onkyo to pure direct / you could have a separate stereo set up with your new speakers and an integrated or pre/power amps.

Those should be in ascending order of sound quality. You'd need to give an idea of budget / music preferecnes / room size etc etc for anyone to give you specific recommendations.

 

[the record spot]

With the greatest of respect to the OP, you're off your head if you're running a £300 CDP with speakers costing £6k-plus. Your answer is not in £6k speakers but in working out what kind of sound you want and researching which products thereafter would be best suited to the job of delivering that sound. Throwing your money around like that won't result in the experience you had in the demo room (where, let's face it, it's not going to replicate your living room really is it?).

Part of me thinks that this is a joke thread, but in case not, first suggestion is to ditch this plan. Then decide what you like to hear, read up a bit, get some demos booked and take it from there. Job done in significantly less than £6k and you'll probably be just as pleased.

 

[MrNo]

Hi BenLaw,

Thanks already for the answers, I am preparing a list of what I want to try to send it as a list to the hifi shop so that they can prepare the room for me with my options. These suggestions are helping me set up this list, as of course I am in no mood to spend so much money if the result is not worth it

For the Amp, I was considering Marantz PM-15S2 (£1700) or Vincent SV-236MK (£1900) and their matching CD players, if I connect this to the pre-outs of my receiver, do you think that would do justice to the speakers?

My total budget is around £8000, I prefer to listen to jazz / blues, definitely appreciate detailed sound (hence biased towards Triangle), my living room is about 50sqm.

The price quote I got for the Triangle Magellan Cello is £4300 , I will also try Triangle Genese Lyrr (£3300) and B&W CM9 (£1760).

Any suggestions as to what else I should ask them to prepare for me to try is very welcome.

 

[MrNo]

Hi Record Spot,

Thanks for the answer already, indeed not a joke thread, just collecting information from experts before spending so much money.

I tried to summarize my preferences in my previous post, so right now I told the store that I will send them a list of equipment for them to prepare for my demo session. I do really hope that I can spend less of course for the same enjoyment

Any suggestions for a setup that can deliver good surround and very good hi-fi?
My current shortlist is as follows:

New Speakers (Sell current front Bw600 pair):

Vincent LS-310 (Piano finish)
Triangle Genese Lyrr
Triangle Magellan Cello
B&W CM9
Comparison base (closest to my current): B&W 684

OPTION A: Add Integrated amp to the current receiver:
Vincent SV-236mk
Marantz PM-15S2 (£1700)
Marantz PM-KI Pearl Lite

OPTION B: Sell current receiver and buy a new one:
Pioneer SC-LX83 (£2000)
Onkyo TXNR 5008 (£2400)
Denon AVR 4311 (£1900)
Denon AVR 4810 (£1900)

Comparison base: Onkyo TX SR 706 (£600)

OPTION C: Sell current Receiver, buy a Home Cinema multi channel Amp + Controller
Onkyo PA-MC5500+PR SC 5508 (£3500!!)
Marantz AV7005+MM 7055 (£2100)