Help to find a good match up pease...

[admin_exported]

1st post so go easy on me please

For some years my home cinema system has been my main pursuit. Now however I am leaning back towards appreciating some good old stereo music.

My setup for playing music is to put a cd into my pc and use my maudio revolution 7.1 sound card act as a DAC and output to my Yamaha RX V2500 av amp in "pure stereo" mode. I recently upgraded my speakers from mission 780's to 782's and notice a marked improvement.

But now I am thinking of getting a good second hand intergrated stereo amp and a cd player to see if the sound will improve.

I borrowed my dads old marantz cd52 cd player and connected to my av amp via analogue but preferred the sound from the pc!

I have looked at possibly and arcam 8 or 9 amp for starters. I have always had mission speakers but find they can be sometimes a bit harsh when with matched certain makes.

Any advice on whether it will be a great improvement by doing this or not and if so what cd player and amp?

Many thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the forum, well for starters, I own the Acoustic Energy Neo 3 floorstanders and NAD C352 amplifier, I use a beresford dac attached to my ps3. Of course it is the amplifier and speakers which are going to bring the best out of your system. The system sounds truly excellent (at least to my ears) lots of power, a very rich, warm sound but that doesn't impact on the midrange, deep bass, detailed vocals, plenty of slam.

Now if you wished to, Acoustic Energy are currently selling this speaker brand new on ebay for 201.00 (inc delivery) that is such a brilliant bargain and sounds terrific even at low volumes. You could consider getting a dac with a usb and connecting it to your pc, especially as you mentioned you prefer the sound from the pc.

The NAD C352 can be picked up on ebay for around 200.00, again this is a terrific bargain.

Hope this helps you!

 

[Anonymous]

Many Thanks for the reply...

Yes I did prefer the pc sound but i am pretty sure that some good s/h seperates will give me a much better sound.

Any suggestions for a cdp and amp to go with the 782's?

I am unsure! I listen to such a wide variety of music. I want to stay away from any over bright or harsh sounding seperates.

How about arcam cdp and amp? Some say cyrus 3 amp and cd7 cdp?

Please any suggestions??

 

[Anonymous]

This is contested but a beresford dac (again to my ears) is an improvement over many cd players cost 500.00 plus. Plus you have the great benefit of having all your music at the press of a button. Sorry, I misinterpreted you, I thought you wanted to get rid of the speakers, but as you want to keep them I would like recommend the NAD C352 amp, it's terrific.and works very well with many speakers including missions.

However if you do buy a usb dac, be sure to rip your cds to lossless i.e. wav or flac in order to hear the best sound quality possible from them. If you need anymore information, go to the search button on here and type in dac

 

[Anonymous]

OK.... so here is the latest

After listening to a few s/h cd players I bought a used Musical Fidelity A3.2 cd player. Its sounds a vast improvement on my previous listening experiences!

I am using it with my msiion 782's and am driving it with my AV amp, a Yamaha RX V2500. I then thought that I would look at getting a dedicated integrated amp to improve it some more!

So my mate came over with his amp, a Musical Fidelity A3 amp. But much to my supprise it sounded worse, not better as I thought it might. It had more bass but it was less controlled and was less dynamic/transparent to listen to.

Could this be because the 782's need alot of power to drive them?

Any reccomendations on integrated s/h amps to try? Possibly a MF A5 amp?

Thanks.....

 

[Anonymous]

bump!

 

[Anonymous]

bump

 

[the record spot]

Well, what's you budget for a start? Also, what kind of sound do you like? Forward, detailed, warm...? There's a ton of amps (integrated and pre/power) you could go with, but it all depends on you rpreference. Buying used gets you more for your money though and there are any number.

For me, I'd be looking at:-

Used Unison Research Unico integrated
Marantz SA8003 integrated
Used Eastern Electric Minimax amp
Used Eastern Electric M520 amp
Audiolab 8000S/8000M pre/power
Yamaha S-1000 integrated
used Linn Kolektor/LK85 pre/power