Best budget receiver for music?

[admin_exported]

Given that any AV receiver will do what it says on the tin and give a great performance when in its primary role as AV Amp, which amp, in your experience, is the best budget receiver for music playing?

I have chatted to a few different shops on this matter and have been given quite contradictory advice/opinions.

Anyone bought/using an AV amp for music? What is your experience?

 

[coolaboola]

I'm yet to hear a budget a.v amp that cuts the mustard in pure stereo mode and I've tried a lot of budget amps.Even feeding them with a dedicated c.d player as source helps over say your d.v.d player or ipod dock but results are still poor.My next a.v amp will defo have pre- outs so i can use a dedicated stereo amp to drive the front speakers.Even a £200 budget stereo amp will trump an A.V amp costing twice as much for music.

 

[Anonymous]

Thats exactly my worry and dilema.

Do i spend the money on an av amp and sacrifice a little to music quality or do i spend the money on a decent stereo setup and sacrifice on movie surround?

 

[d4v3pum4]

There are a few deals going at the minute on Arcam AVR280 and Cambridge Audio 640R. Neither of these will do audio over HDMI so if that is a requirement look elsewhere. What about the Marantz SR4003 or SR5003?

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure if i need the HDMI thing, if i can't find an AV amp with a decent 2ch offering then i may have to go for a dedicated 2ch amp.

Anyone had experience of the Yamaha DSPAX with 2ch stereo and CD?

 

[Big Aura]

*paging the what hi-fi team*

Andrew - is this the basis of a supertest? a look at all the budget home cinema amps purely from the perspective of how well they handle music, compared to some very good budget stereo amps?

I might even subscribe if you did such a thing...

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, sounds like a plan.............

 

[professorhat]

jakeblues68:Do i spend the money on an av amp and sacrifice a little to music quality or do i spend the money on a decent stereo setup and sacrifice on movie surround?

Surely the easiest way to decide this is to decide which is more important to you, movies or music. Of course you can get the best of both worlds by getting an AV amp with front pre-outs and hooking up a decent stereo integrated amp to this. If both are equally important to you, this is the route I would go. On the other hand, some of the more expensive AV amps can perform more than adequately with music. I'm very happy with my Onkyo 905 in Pure Audio mode (especially since I've upgraded the mains cable for it as trevor79 will tell you!).

 

[Big Aura]

Prof - upgraded the mains cable to what? (and how much?!).

I have a tacima [http://whathifi.com/Review/Tacima-CS929/], what benefits could an upgraded mains cable bring?

 

[professorhat]

In the end decided on the Clearer Audio Copperline Alpha - as I remember it was about £40. The main advantage was when playing music. There was another thread I started a while back which said that I preferred music on the Stereo setting with the Onkyo, whilst others swore Pure Audio was better. After I upgraded the cable, purely by accident when I was playing around with the settings, I suddenly found the Pure Audio mode was now definitely superior to the Stereo mode. So basically, it was an incremental upgrade through upgrading the mains cable.

Since you can get all the Cleareraudio cables on a 60 day money back guarantee (which I've used to send back the Silverline as my system just couldn't make the most of it), it's definitely worth a pop.

 

[Big Aura]

Ta - currently I'm happier with standard stereo playback (but maybe that will change when all my music has been re-ripped as lossless or at 256kbps).

Now for the stupid question -

does the clear audio cable fit every amp?

do I need something similar for my ipod dock, dvd player etc?

If I have that tacima thingy, do I really need another "cleaner"?

It's £34 on Clear Audio's site - they don't seem to be sold by anyone else?!

(Thanks)

 

[professorhat]

Well, it's a standard kettle lead connection which, as far as I know, most AV amps work with - make sure you order the correct fuse rating for your amp if you do go for it. I didn't actually upgrade the power lead for my CD player as it's a fixed line in to it so it would involve cutting the cable to do it which I'm not really up for. I also use the Tacima as well, basically the mains lead stops further interference getting into the signal from the Tacima to the Onkyo (cue lots of people arguing this is scientifically impossible etc. etc.

).

I don't think anyone else sells them, Darren from Cleareraudio frequents the forums sometimes so he may be on to post something at some point! Great service though, can't fault them as a company.

 

[Big Aura]

thanks for the advice. I take it you had the tacima and noticed further benefit from this. I seem to recall that my amp as a 3 pin connector, rather than the standard kettle two-pin (but I could be entirely confused). Will have a think. Cheers.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, three pin for me is a kettle lead (as opposed to the figure of eight two pin). Guess it depends what kettle you have!

Just to be clear, looks like this (although not a QED one obviously!):

 

[Big Aura]

Ahh, that's what I have.

...and my dirty non-tea-drinking secret is out...!

 

[professorhat]

I couldn't live without me tea...

 

[Anonymous]

Talk about hijacking a thread fellas

 

[professorhat]

Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Though my original post was aimed for you!

 

[Big Aura]

Apologies! (but I did suggest to the editorial team that they devote an entire supertest to the issue!).

 

[clearer_audio]

professorhat:
Well, it's a standard kettle lead connection which, as far as I know, most AV amps work with - make sure you order the correct fuse rating for your amp if you do go for it. I didn't actually upgrade the power lead for my CD player as it's a fixed line in to it so it would involve cutting the cable to do it which I'm not really up for. I also use the Tacima as well, basically the mains lead stops further interference getting into the signal from the Tacima to the Onkyo (cue lots of people arguing this is scientifically impossible etc. etc.

).

I don't think anyone else sells them, Darren from Cleareraudio frequents the forums sometimes so he may be on to post something at some point! Great service though, can't fault them as a company.

Hello everyone,

Apologies I have not been able to get onto the forums recently.

Yes the Copper-line Alpha Power Cable comes with a Standard IEC (C14 type) which will fit most AV amplifiers. As Professorhat pointed out it is important to select the correct rating of fuse although most AV amplifiers require 13A fuses.

Presently you can only purchase our products directly from us. All cables are hand-made to order and then sent directly to the customer when ready. Delivery to Mainland UK is free of charge and we have a 60 Day Money Back Guarantee.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Darren