Help & Ideas Please

[Fisherking 145]

I would appreciate some advice on modernising an oldish set up (circa mid 90's).

I have a Yamaha RDv 640, Mision AV2 (I think, contains 731's), Audiolab 8000lx, Sony CD900e & Mission 733 floorstanders. What I would like to do is upgrade my cinema amp so I can take advantage of the latest digital sound, use it for stereo music, and make my system an all in one, rather than two seperate set ups.

Should I upgrade my speakers as well, or is what I already have good enough?

I don't listen to my music collection as much as I should/would like due to the seperate system set up, and have recently stuck the 733's on the front of the cinema set up, and added my CD player on to listen to music, but have been slightly disappointed by the results. However, my living room is much tidier, hence my request for some help.

 

[Messiah]

Fisherking 145:
I don't listen to my music collection as much as I should/would like due to the seperate system set up, and have recently stuck the 733's on the front of the cinema set up, and added my CD player on to listen to music, but have been slightly disappointed by the results. However, my living room is much tidier, hence my request for some help.

Hmmm, depends how much you are prepared to compromise??

A receiver will not sound as good as a dedicated stereo amp, as you have noticed. There are ways around this but it may mean sacrificing the tidier set up to improve the sound.

Otherwise you may have to sacrifice the sound quality for the aesthetics.

Decisions, decisions.....................

 

[Fisherking 145]

I know that I will have to compromise for stereo, but obviously I'm trying to get the best of both worlds. Forgot to mention I also have a Samsung le40b651, Xbox & a Sony hxd870.

Listened to a Marantz receiver recently, not sure which, but it was dated, rigged up with some Mezzo 6 floorstanders. I thought it sounded pretty good, music & movies, but the receiver was a fair bit more than I wanted to spend at around £650. Was very impressed with the Mezzos though. I currently have no subwoofer, and was hoping to spend not much more than a grand, but hopefully a bit less!

 

[HDNumpty]

The AV/stereo debate is one you will agonise over - I got round it (as did Gerrardasnails, post him) with an AV amp fed into a fixed-input stereo amp - in this case CA 840a. Sadly most AV amps at your budget will sound ever so slightly dissapointing compared to a dedicated stereo set-up. Some users have reported being very happy with their high-end Onkyos (£1400 retail, available for less) and anything from Arcam will probably satisfy, but this is well above your budget.

 

[Fisherking 145]

After much reading around this forum, I have decided to up my budget a little, and am currently thinking about getting either a Marantz sr6004, Denon 2300 or a Yamaha 2065. Do you guys think the Marantz will be better musically? I've decided to stick with my current speaker set up, and see how it sounds when I get a new receiver, and possibly upgrade as I go along. My local dealer can be very helpful, but also can seem indifferent at times, it just depends who I get to talk to when I go in, so I'm hoping you folks on here can give me some valuable input with your thoughts.

Here's hoping, cheers.

 

[Messiah]

I think the key will be to demo. Arrange to take your fronts down there to see if you can hook them up to each receiver to see how they sound in stereo. You are going to need to get the helpful guy!

For surround I think they will all be fine.

 

[Cofnchtr]

Hi,

If you get the helpful guy, he should allow you a home demo. You may need to pay some sort of deposit depending on your relationship with them but they should be OK with sale or return sort of thing.

If you can't get a home demo, at least take some of your own CD's with you so you have familiar toons with you. Take a favourite DVD or two also to check movie surround tracks.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.

 

[Fisherking 145]

Thanks for the help folks, gonna go with the sr6004, after a good discussion with the helpful guy, if only all sales staff were this good.

Now for a blu-ray player! Is the Sony 760 really £200 better than the 360? You can get quite a few discs for that money. Any opinions?

 

[davejberry]

go for the 360, more than good enough with a 40 inch screen and treat yourself to some BDs to go with it.