I'm looking for advice on a new amplifier purchase, budget of about $1,200 USD. Here is some background that will help explain what I am looking for...
I have recently purchased the oppo HA-2 DAC/Amp and the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 (wireless) headphones. I connect the oppo to my iPhone and play Spotify using extreme quality. The oppo connects by lightning to USB so the DAC in the oppo is being used (which is waaay better than the DAC in the iPhone). I then connect the Sennheiser cans to the oppo headphone out, and I do not use the Sennheiser's ANC unless I am on an airplane. The sound of this setup (without ANC) is just superb. I mean absolutely fantastic. I just can't pull myself away from it, experiencing hours of bliss going back and finding all the old albums I used to have decades ago, plus new stuff. I listen to jazz, R&B, classical, Indian Classical, accoustic, lots of variety. This setup allows me to hear new details in albums I have listened to for 35 years. It's amazing!!!
I love the sound quality of my new mobile hi-fi setup, and my home stereo is just not keeping up! So I need help selecting an amplifier. My home setup is an Onkyo TX-8511 with a pair of Paradigm Titan v3 speakers plus a Paradigm PDR 8 v.3 subwoofer. I have the A channel going to the Titan speakers, and the B channel (both left and right) going to the subwoofer. This allows me to easily disable the sub when playing LPs, or if otherwise not desired. It also seems to give better sound than other connection methods of the speakers and sub woofer that I have tried.
If I connect the line out of the oppo HA-2 into the Onkyo the sound is good, but not great. The separation is okay but not stunning. The bass (no matter how well I tune the sub woofer in terms of cutoff and volume) is still missing clarity and punch. The upper mid range sounds kind of tinny or metalic. The sound stage is just not black either - there is a noticeable (to me) hiss during moments of silence, which of course means the clarity suffers in general.
My plan is to get a new amplifier of much higher quality, even if it is of higher quality than these Paradigm Titan speakers justify. That way I will be able to upgrade the speakers at a later date and move these to my exercise room. But I believe that these Paradigm speakers are much better than the Onkyo is giving them credit for. I have looked at a bunch of different amps and I am interested in the Marantz PM 6005, or the Rega Brio-R. My budget for this is around $1,200 USD, but I could go higher.
I like the Marantz because it has an integrated DAC, and it looks like I could connect my iPhone to it by Bluetooth and play Spotify music through it, and the DAC would then be performed in the Marantz rather than by the iPhone. This would be a very convenient setup for me. But it looks like the Rega has even better sound quality, but it does not have Bluetooth and does not have an integrated DAC.
Can anyone please recommend a product that has top notch sound quality (first priority) and also has an integrated DAC with Bluetooth? The integrated DAC and Bluetooth is second priority because I assume that I could buy an external DAC/Bluetooth component, or just a Bluetooth component that connects by digital and allows the amplifier to do the DAC. But it would be great if I could find an amplifier with integrated DAC and Bluetooth, plus phono input. My turntable is a $1000 Audio Technica which is really good but my collection of about 500 LPs have been played a million times each, so a phono amp is third priority or lower, but it needs to be there anyway.
Thanks so much in advance for your advice!
I have recently purchased the oppo HA-2 DAC/Amp and the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 (wireless) headphones. I connect the oppo to my iPhone and play Spotify using extreme quality. The oppo connects by lightning to USB so the DAC in the oppo is being used (which is waaay better than the DAC in the iPhone). I then connect the Sennheiser cans to the oppo headphone out, and I do not use the Sennheiser's ANC unless I am on an airplane. The sound of this setup (without ANC) is just superb. I mean absolutely fantastic. I just can't pull myself away from it, experiencing hours of bliss going back and finding all the old albums I used to have decades ago, plus new stuff. I listen to jazz, R&B, classical, Indian Classical, accoustic, lots of variety. This setup allows me to hear new details in albums I have listened to for 35 years. It's amazing!!!
I love the sound quality of my new mobile hi-fi setup, and my home stereo is just not keeping up! So I need help selecting an amplifier. My home setup is an Onkyo TX-8511 with a pair of Paradigm Titan v3 speakers plus a Paradigm PDR 8 v.3 subwoofer. I have the A channel going to the Titan speakers, and the B channel (both left and right) going to the subwoofer. This allows me to easily disable the sub when playing LPs, or if otherwise not desired. It also seems to give better sound than other connection methods of the speakers and sub woofer that I have tried.
If I connect the line out of the oppo HA-2 into the Onkyo the sound is good, but not great. The separation is okay but not stunning. The bass (no matter how well I tune the sub woofer in terms of cutoff and volume) is still missing clarity and punch. The upper mid range sounds kind of tinny or metalic. The sound stage is just not black either - there is a noticeable (to me) hiss during moments of silence, which of course means the clarity suffers in general.
My plan is to get a new amplifier of much higher quality, even if it is of higher quality than these Paradigm Titan speakers justify. That way I will be able to upgrade the speakers at a later date and move these to my exercise room. But I believe that these Paradigm speakers are much better than the Onkyo is giving them credit for. I have looked at a bunch of different amps and I am interested in the Marantz PM 6005, or the Rega Brio-R. My budget for this is around $1,200 USD, but I could go higher.
I like the Marantz because it has an integrated DAC, and it looks like I could connect my iPhone to it by Bluetooth and play Spotify music through it, and the DAC would then be performed in the Marantz rather than by the iPhone. This would be a very convenient setup for me. But it looks like the Rega has even better sound quality, but it does not have Bluetooth and does not have an integrated DAC.
Can anyone please recommend a product that has top notch sound quality (first priority) and also has an integrated DAC with Bluetooth? The integrated DAC and Bluetooth is second priority because I assume that I could buy an external DAC/Bluetooth component, or just a Bluetooth component that connects by digital and allows the amplifier to do the DAC. But it would be great if I could find an amplifier with integrated DAC and Bluetooth, plus phono input. My turntable is a $1000 Audio Technica which is really good but my collection of about 500 LPs have been played a million times each, so a phono amp is third priority or lower, but it needs to be there anyway.
Thanks so much in advance for your advice!