Best amp to partner MA RX1

[admin_exported]

Hi all

Looking to partner a pair of Monitor Audio RX1's with a suitable amplifier. Budget is aroud £500-700. Any suggestions and advice much appreciated.

 

[richardw42]

Got a Roksan candy k2 with GS10s. Pretty special. The new Marantz PM6004 might be worth a demo. Lots of change too.

 

[plastic penguin]

Heard the RX6 and GX100 with the new Cyrus 8 and sounded pretty good to me. Clearly the 8 is ouside your budget but the 6 may not...

Take a look at Naim Nait 5i and perhaps the new Marantz 6004. The latter is well within your budget.

 

[Inter_Voice]

It depends on what kind of music you like. For rock music you may consider NAD C355 or 356.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice so far, the music I listen to is mainly Jazz Fusion.

 

[edplaysdrums42]

I used to have a Cyrus 6XP with MA RS1's and it sounded superb.

The Cyrus is a great amp and a second hand/ex demo would just about be within budget.

Cheers Ed

 

[Bebeboy]

Same here mates, Just got an rx1 too, currently paired with my denon pma 2000. Will the nad326 be a better amp for my rx1 or i'll stick with the denon?

 

[manicm]

The RX1 is a smooth, warmish speaker so my knee jerk reaction would be to not partner it with NAD or Marantz. It's very different to its predecessor. I would imagine it would work quite well with a 2 or 3 year old Cyrus for example.

 

[plastic penguin]

The RX1 is a smooth, warmish speaker so my knee jerk reaction would be to not partner it with NAD or Marantz. It's very different to its predecessor. I would imagine it would work quite well with a 2 or 3 year old Cyrus for example.

if the RX1s are warm sounding then Nad and Marantz are probably the one to avoid. Both those amps are warm. Warm + warm = sonic soup.

 

[adamrobertshaw]

I have a pair of larger RX2 which were originally single wired from a Marantz PM6003. Sounded OK.

I then had them bi-wired from an Audiolab 8200A. Sounded better but that's the amp.

They were also tried bi-wired from a Cyrus 8XPD QX. That's where I heard their limitations.

The RX1 has a smaller mid/bass driver. WHF seems to think smaller MA speakers should be single wired to retain "coherance".

They are also 6 ohm so will run a bit louder but with a touch more distortion than 8 ohm speakers (which is what I prefer).

I'm a firm believer that any speaker should be demo tested with the amps you're considering.

My RX2 are now successfully partnered with an RX center from a Marantz HD AV amp. As I've noticed a few other posters pointing you towards a PM6004, perhaps try that and the new PM6005.

 

[manicm]

The RX1 is a smooth, warmish speaker so my knee jerk reaction would be to not partner it with NAD or Marantz. It's very different to its predecessor. I would imagine it would work quite well with a 2 or 3 year old Cyrus for example.

if the RX1s are warm sounding then Nad and Marantz are probably the one to avoid. Both those amps are warm. Warm + warm = sonic soup.

 

[manicm]

They were also tried bi-wired from a Cyrus 8XPD QX. That's where I heard their limitations.

Please elaborate. What were wrong with the RX2s?

 

[danrv]

Hi all

Looking to partner a pair of Monitor Audio RX1's with a suitable amplifier. Budget is aroud £500-700. Any suggestions and advice much appreciated.

I used the RX1's with a Rotel RA-01. Very nice sound as the amp's fairly neutral in presentation and the RX1's are smooth sounding. I'd say one of the new Rotels, Cambridge Audio or Roksan Kandy which I have now.

 

[adamrobertshaw]

The RX2 has an 8" driver which makes it sonically different to the RX1.

Therefore it has the ability to produce more bass / lap up more power than the RX1.

But it is also rear ported which promotes the risk of chuffing (that's my opinion)

The 8XPD QX has a fine DAC and more oomph than my other amps. The RX2 produced too much bass with the Cyrus with meant that the mids were trounced. I also didn't want to stuff foam in the ports to try and sort this out.

I prefer front ported speakers like the B&W 685 (old design but with slow timing now) and my current speaker of choice, the PMC twenty 22.

You can only take my advice with a caveat; my ears are not your ears; my prefrences at that ... mine.

But to my ears ... the RX series needs ample breathing room at the rear. High power amps will just make it lose control of bass at higher volumes. Therefore they are more suited to transparent 40W to 50W amps like PM6004 and PM6005.

As they're 6 ohm they'll draw more current so you may find it difficult to find a low listening volume that lets the speakers output cohesively on all frequencies; or at a high volume that doesn't make the speakers chuff and spoil bass.

Again I say try and demo the speakers with as many amps as you possibly can. But I think the RX and Marantz PM600x are a good match.