Amp purchase

[admin_exported]

1st post so be gentle (but helpful!).

My system details are:

Living room:

NAD C521BEE CD player

Marantz PM66SE amp

JBL control 1B

Paradigm sub (using a crossover to split the control 1's from the sub).

Dining room

same source

ancient amp

JBL control 1s

I am considering buying a new amp and ditching the ancient one. Ideally I would use the Marantz to power the JBLs in the dining room and buy a new amp for the living room.

Thoughts:

Happy to spend ~£200 mark and am looking for the best buy. Not fussed about looks etc just want quality amp. A lot of the new amps support 2 pairs of speakers (which would make my Marantz redundant. Do these amps really support 2 pairs of speakers or do they just work best with 1 output? Should I consider second hand?

Cheers

Mark

 

[matthewpiano]

At £200 not much is going to give you a significant upgrade over the PM66SE. It is still a quality amp.

 

[Anonymous]

At £200 not much is going to give you a significant upgrade over the PM66SE. It is still a quality amp.

I agree; if you were to go for a new amp

However if you were willing to go 2nd hand then you'd do a lot better than the new market.

Are you able to up your budget at all? The likes of an Arcam Alpha 9 or 10 and even the NAD C355BEE can be bought for c£250-£300 etc...

 

[Anonymous]

I am still very happy with my Marantz. However, I would be keeping this to drive the speakers in the dining room. Could potentially up the budget but at the moment I am just scouting around for ideas. I don't particularly want to spend my money in Richer Sounds and am looking for other options. A typically enjoy not going for the mainstream option...

Some ideas of where to go etc would be handy. I am still at the research phase - hence the question here...

Cheers

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

eBay & google (and on here as well)

Sorry to be blunt but for what you need; I'd say 2nd hand all the way

The likes of an Arcam Alpha 10 (which was a £1k multi award winning amp in its day - c10 years back) is still very hard to beat now with new amps up to and around/just over the £1k mark IMO

At closer to 105/110wpc and with 2 sets of speaker terminals (and an A & B selector) you can drive 2 sets of speakers with ease and with no worries!

That's just an example

 

[Anonymous]

Fair enough - I'll check it out. There isn't a classified ads page here though is there - or do people just off load stuff directly on this forum?

Thanks for your advice

Mark

 

[Anonymous]

Buying & selling doesnt happen on here; yet!

The likes of eBay, AVForums, hifiwigwam, Pinkfish, 2ndhandhifi etc... are all good places to start; eBay being probably the best with the most choice etc...