Digital hifi amp

[admin_exported]

Hi I need a hifi amp with digital inputs for under £500. I need some serious advice on what is available in my price range.

Cheers

 

[the record spot]

You could try the Onkyo 9555 amp - currently down from £500 to £249 at Superfi. Well reviewed and is a digital amp itself, so would assume (but will happily be proved wrong) that it has a the inputs your seeking. You won't find much on it in WHF, but Stereophile has reviewed it and gave it a positive nod.

 

[Anonymous]

In short not much. I just recently, with the same budget tried to find the same thing. As far as I am aware the options are very limited if you want a stereo amp:

- Onkyo a5vl @ £300ish

- Standalone DAC + Standard amp

As a leftfield option there are a few CD players with digital ins that you could also go for:

- Harman Kardon HD990 CD player

- CA 740C CD player

Anything else seems to be well above £500

- Pioneer A-A9 (mk1 +2) £650 (usb only)

- Harman Kardon HK990 £900 (150W though!)

 

[Anonymous]

Hi out of interest what did you go for?

 

[Anonymous]

Although I liked the look of the huge HK amp (it's a bit of a monster at 20kg) I decided that it was too much over budget and resigned myself to buying the Onkyo A5VL. However after listening to it and a Marantz PM6003 there was no comparison; the Marantz just sounded much, much better.

So in the end I went for a Marantz PM6003 and a CA Dacmagic. Not the neat solution I wanted, but it does sound good. The HK amp does look good and has been highly rated in other publications so might be worth considering. I also believe the HK cd player is similarly highly rated, though like the amp I never went as far as arranging a demo.