Marantz-B&W combination?

[admin_exported]

Im looking into the possibility of the Marantz PM7001 amplifier, the Marantz CD6002 player, and a pair of B&W 686 speakers.

I listen to mostly beat driven music (massive attack, moby etc) and would like a balanced system that produces nice bass, good with voices and a generally exciting listen...am i along the right lines?

I will demo the said components before making a purchase, but would like an idea of where to start.

regards

mali

 

[d_a_n1979]

I listen to a lot of Moby, Morcheeba, Massive Attack, Layo & Bushwacker, Leftfield, Underworld, Hed Kandi etc and absolutley love B&W speakers but i dont think your music tastes and the B&W speakers will gel with Marantz separates.

I find that Marantz can be clinicla sounding and lack in well timed, deep bass when it comes to this type of music.

I think that Rotel would be good, more so with the B&W 685 speakers as would the NAD C352 amp or the newer NAD C355BEE amp. The NAD C352 amp and NAD C542 CD player can be bought as a package from www.superfi.co.uk at a very good price and this set-up would sound fantastic with the B&W 686/685 speakers with good mass-loaded stands and either QED Silver Anniversary speakers cable with QED Quenex 3 interconnects or the Chord Carnival speaker cable with the Chord Crimson interconnect.

Another possibility could be to go for 2nd hand separates via Ebay. Arcam goes very well with B&W and Monitor Audio speakers. My system consists of Arcam and M/A as you can see below and as i said above, i listen to alot of the same music.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.....

NAD seperates are out of the question, as the other half is insisting on something SHE likes the look of, which brought me to the Marantz setup, or the other option albeit more expensive is a denon combo consisting of pma1500ae and the dcd1500ae which is expensive but could stretch to it if its worth the money.

any ideas?

 

[d_a_n1979]

To be honest im not a fan of Jap technology at all... (well apart from Honda... )

For your type of music and the speakers that youre looking at, i was say every time, NAD, Arcam and Rotel.

Cyrus could be a possibility as well as some very good 2nd hand Musicla Fidelity separates but they can get pricey.

If i were you i'd take your other half to the auditions and get her to listen to the music as well as looking at the separates. Once she hears the clairty and detail, as well as feeling the sublime bass with Massive Attack's Karmacoma...

 

[drummerman]

[quote user="d_a_n1979"]To be honest im not a fan of Jap technology at all... (well apart from Honda... )
For your type of music and the speakers that youre looking at, i was say every time, NAD, Arcam and Rotel.

[/quote]

Yes, good old english Rotel

 

[Anonymous]

rotel is british designed and you can tell by the styling.

I hate the styling of most of the jap stuff, they mostly look very gimmicky with over crowed fascias and they all look very simular. I dont understand how your wife likes the unclassy look of the marantz over nad.

 

[drummerman]

[quote user="matt444_2000"]rotel is british designed and you can tell by the styling.[/quote]

Do you mean the styling that has'nt changed for about 10 years and the products that sound more Japanese than most japanese products. Can't fault the chinese production quality though

 

[Anonymous]

i think rotel kit looks pretty nice even if hardly changed in 10 years. I love the smooth minimilistic look of cyrus, rotel,musical fidelity, arcam, nad, cambridge audio and most of the british kit. It looks really well built even at distance before you touch it.

I never have liked the sytling of sony, marantz, onkyo, denon, pioneer ect. they look cheap

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="matt444_2000"] I dont understand how your wife likes the unclassy look of the marantz over nad.[/quote]

Yeah. God forbid she may have different tastes to yourself........what is the world coming to??

 

[drummerman]

[quote user="matt444_2000"]I never have liked the sytling of sony, marantz, onkyo, denon, pioneer ect. they look cheap[/quote]

Well yeah, some of it does but it usually feels twice as solid. My favorite example ... Supernaits loose volume knob ...

 

[mattc76]

Have you seen this?

http://bwmedia.keycast.com/download/Libraries/3/HI-FI_World_686_Review_March_2008_PDF.pdf

Just persuaded me to buy some!

 

[Anonymous]

i remember the review. Great write up. Says careful matching needed though so try demoing first!!!!!

( i know they used Marantz source but different amplification) Let us know how they sound!