Integrated Amp - help

[hifi74]

Hi,

New to forum and would love some feedback.

Current set up

Monitor Audio RX6

Oppo 105

Marantz AV 7005 with airplay

Rotel RMB 1075

Linn 5110 rear speakers

Monitor Audio Radius 225 center

My room has wood floors and is 15 x 15.

Sound is pretty good as using dac on Oppo 105 via RCA outputs.

However looking to optimise 2 channel to get best sound. Although i use cd most of what i listen to is streamed via Oppo.

Question

Looking to change to Integrated amp and usually buy most of my gear second hand. However what is good match for oppo and monitor audio speakers

Looking to spend upto 2.5 k. What about

Exposure, Roskan, Krell, Primare etc. Sounds pretty good do will it sound a lot better?

Would it be better to get something like Creek 150 and then get better speakers.

I watch movies 30% and music 70% of time. I plan to sell rest of equipment except oppo and monitor audio. I like a warm sound which is why marantz and monitor audio work well.

Thanks in advance

 

[Vladimir]

Any integrated amplifier at 2,5k will be a massive downgrade from your setup.

 

[Esra]

Question is what are you missing or what is wrong?Should be just fine with your setup for movies and for stereo too I guess,don´t know the Oppo though but using ESS Sabre chip it could be maybe a little bright with your Rotel.You can do room treatment,adding carpet and acoustic panels and play with the position of your speakers first and see if you get things right as you wish.

Still not happy 100% with stereo? My advise would be Arcam A19 as a pre going into your Rotel for your RX6.

 

[drummerman]

Question is what are you missing or what is wrong?Should be just fine with your setup for movies and for stereo too I guess,don´t know the Oppo though but using ESS Sabre chip it could be maybe a little bright with your Rotel.You can do room treatment,adding carpet and acoustic panels and play with the position of your speakers first and see if you get things right as you wish.

Still not happy 100% with stereo? My advise would be Arcam A19 as a pre going into your Rotel for your RX6.

I try and not criticise personal opinions to much, they are after all just that, but your comment seems, imho, very questionable. That goes from the Sabre DAC generalisation to the advise of using an A19 as pre.

regards

 

[Vladimir]

IMO the speakers are the weakest link in the setup by far. I'd spend £3K on new speakers.

 

[drummerman]

IMO the speakers are the weakest link in the setup by far. I'd spend £3K on new speakers.

On the face of it, possibly.

However, with £2500 at hand (I assume it is GBP) plus perhaps funds from selling existing equipment, this will open the door to quite a selection of well reviewed products, from Cyrus Lyric's to Naim Uniti or supernait, depending on need of extras, to name just two of the usual suspects. Then there's active etc.

Thats a lot of money to spend on hifi so looking at it in a 'holistic' way ie. perhaps building a completely new system with the help of a good retailer.

I also wouldn't discount a good stand mount depending of preferences. 15 x 15 ft is not a small room but there are plenty of smaller speakers which would easily suffice for that space unless you need pa volume.

It really just depends on the OP's needs and preferences but I wouldn't just sink 2.5k into one component without looking at the other options.

regards

regards

 

[Vladimir]

Replace this:

+

With this?

Makes sense. Downgrade the electronics to have a normal performance balance with the £750 floorstanders.

 

[TrevC]

IMO the speakers are the weakest link in the setup by far. I'd spend £3K on new speakers.

Yep, no pont in changing anything else in that set up.

 

[drummerman]

A supernait looks more like

... this.

The Lyric is powerful for its size but these are just two examples.

I am not suggesting the OP should get rid of his amplifiers (or speakers) but if I had that amount of money to spend I'd take a good look at the alternatives ...

regards

 

[Vladimir]

A supernait looks more like

... this.

The Lyric is powerful for its size but these are just two examples.

I am not suggesting the OP should get rid of his amplifiers (or speakers) but if I had that amount of money to spend I'd take a good look at the alternatives ...

regards

Still a significant downgrade in performance.

And looks.

.

 

[drummerman]

lol

regards

 

[Esra]

Question is what are you missing or what is wrong?Should be just fine with your setup for movies and for stereo too I guess,don´t know the Oppo though but using ESS Sabre chip it could be maybe a little bright with your Rotel.You can do room treatment,adding carpet and acoustic panels and play with the position of your speakers first and see if you get things right as you wish.

Still not happy 100% with stereo? My advise would be Arcam A19 as a pre going into your Rotel for your RX6.

I try and not criticise personal opinions to much, they are after all just that, but your comment seems, imho, very questionable. That goes from the Sabre DAC generalisation to the advise of using an A19 as pre.

regards

You are welcome to criticise whatever you want.What I wrote is just an advise and my personal experience after having had demo over 10 devices, integrated,pre and amps at my home with just the same speakers as the OP.The speakers are just awesome allrounders when you get things right and find the right partners doing very well stereo as movies too at the same level.No need to change here imo. as long as Vladimir wrote you want spend 3k on a pair of speakers.But don´t forget you need 4 of them and a center ;-). Yeah with 7k invested in speakers there should be an improvement pretty noticeable.

I run my RX6 with an 8200 DAC,Arcam A19 to 8200MB Monos,at first sight pretty unusual for you too but I do know why I do so and spend the money for it (Arcam A19).Considering the OP´s hardware and keeping your hardware is easier than a fully exchange with money loss imo. it is more than logical to do room treatments first and then if still needed try to ad or exchange 1 device with minimum loss of money.

 

[Vladimir]

Despite my opinion that the speakers are the performance bottleneck, the OP wants a delicious integrated and I understand the appeal, I love them too. 'The Heart wants what it wants - or else it does not care'.

My vote goes for Creek Evo 50a with included DAC. Alternatively Arcam.

 

[Esra]

Dac Modul for Creek Evo 50 still not available,guess Sep/Okt..I heard it should cost between 350-500 Euros.Also the creek is a lot brighter with the RX6 and has smaller soundstage but looks better imo..

 

[chebby]

Can you resize photos to 400 pixels wide before submitting a post?

Sometimes we are reading these posts with mediocre 3G reception when out and about and the sites own resizing software can then take an age to catch up.

You only need to drag the corners of your photo until it's 400 pixels (it shows you the pixel count as you do it.

People can still right click and view in full size afterwards.

Thanks.

 

[Vladimir]

Cheb I'll improve on that in the future. Thanks for pointing it out. :beer:

 

[Vladimir]

Dac Modul for Creek Evo 50 still not available,guess Sep/Okt..I heard it should cost between 350-500 Euros.Also the creek is a lot brighter with the RX6 and has smaller soundstage but looks better imo..

I just read your reply to drummerman. You know the Arcam FMJ A19 is a good match with the RX6, so there we go. A propper recommendation from someones living room and happy ears.

 

[chebby]

My vote goes for Creek Evo 50a with included DAC.

No Ruby DAC module yet. (Unless they've announced it's production in the last couple of weeks since I last checked.)

I guess Creek and Westlake have problems or delays.

It's going to be well over £300 (more like £400) when it does eventually emerge.

 

[Esra]

My info is from my dealer who spoke directly with Michael Creek at the High end in Munich,that Ruby Dac is planed for july for the market.But as experience shows it´ll be more Sep/Okt 2014.Costs shall be around 500,- but I dont´t remember if Euro or GBP.

 

[jmjones]

Have you thought about just using a power amp? The Oppo can do everything for stereo and multichannel work. I think removing a Tag McLaren av32r from my system improved clarity. You could add a top notch set of speakers for the budget you propose.

 

[Esra]

The OP should also check screws at the back of his RX6 and tighten them carefully from time to time as they get loose and loss in precision .They should be tighten strong (stronger than it says in the manual) but be carefull not to overscrew.

Some stuff that underlines nothing is wrong with his speakers

http://www.stereophile.com/content/2013-recommended-components-loudspeakers

http://www.stereophile.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-rx6-loudspeaker-measurements

If the Oppo is up to this is certainly worth a try keeping the AV out for stereo.Could be that easy.+1

 

[hifi74]

Hi. I welcome the feedback. Maybe i was not too clear in my original post. Im looking at not having a 5.1 set up and just 2 speaker set. I will check all my screws on RX6 to mske sure everything is tight. i know Oppo is not too well know in UK but its an awesome machine. So from what i am hearing its not worth changing to an integrated amp and sell my marantz av7005 and Rotel RMB 1075? i thought as i only want 2 channels and using DAC through Oppo that buying a decent integrated amp would help it sound better?

 

[drummerman]

Hi. I welcome the feedback. Maybe i was not too clear in my original post. Im looking at not having a 5.1 set up and just 2 speaker set. I will check all my screws on RX6 to mske sure everything is tight. i know Oppo is not too well know in UK but its an awesome machine. So from what i am hearing its not worth changing to an integrated amp and sell my marantz av7005 and Rotel RMB 1075? i thought as i only want 2 channels and using DAC through Oppo that buying a decent integrated amp would help it sound better?

Why not go and listen to a few options? Thats a lot of money to just go by other peoples opinions (including mine).

regards

 

[Vladimir]

Rotel RMB-1075

Continuous Power Output (20-20 kHz, <0.03%): 5x120 watts /ch / 8 ohms

Frequency Response: 15Hz - 100kHz +0.5dB, -3dB

Signal to Noise Ratio (IHF A): 116dB

Power Consumption: 800 watts

I see absolutely nothing lacking here. Except for a pair of B&W speakers.

 

[drummerman]

My info is from my dealer who spoke directly with Michael Creek at the High end in Munich,that Ruby Dac is planed for july for the market.But as experience shows it´ll be more Sep/Okt 2014.Costs shall be around 500,- but I dont´t remember if Euro or GBP.

That seems like a lot of money seeing that the Dac Module doesn't need it's own power supply (or casing) which, normally, is a large part of the cost.

Of course I can't comment on how good it will be but the limitations will most likely be the amplifier itself once you add up cost.

Creeks 5350 can be found at prices close to the smaller amplifier and is said to be quite a bit better (and it should, given its RRP).

You'd loose the neatness of an 'all-in' though.

regards