Marantz HD1amp

S83 Trike

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How good is this amp and what would you say the sound from this amp is, neutral or sweet sounding? Anybody advise on an alternative maybe sweet sounding amp with a built in DAC under £800?
 
Although floorstanders tend to be more efficient, they also tend to be more demanding on the amplifier in terms of the sort of control needed. Floorstanders generally produce deeper bass, so need that control from the amp, but if you start asking too much of the amp, it’ll struggle, ending up in all sorts of negative characteristics that just won’t be enjoyable, or at the very least you won’t be thinking you’ve spent your money wisely. Personally, I’d stick to a good standmount speaker with the Marantz. If you really want floorstanders, look for something meatier.
 

newlash09

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The tannoy's floor standers need more power than the 35W that the marantz can muster. The marantz was debuted with b&w diamond floorstanders. And by all accounts its supposed to have sounded superb. But marantz are the dealers for b&w in Japan, hence the pairing I guess.

To be on the safer side, better to look for atleast 50W in the amp. But that marantz is supposed to have an excellent head phone amp too. So if that is important to you, then you can audition the marantz and see.

Otherwise there are lots of good amps below 800 pounds. Do pop into the closest richers sounds and audition your options.
 

drummerman

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It has superb reviews here and elsewhere. Able in very expensive systems.

Some superb valve amps have far less power.

I would put the bijou Marantz very high on my audition list.

Different from the usual subjects and Marantz know a thing or two about HiFi.
 
drummerman said:
It has superb reviews here and elsewhere. Able in very expensive systems.
This is why I’ve asked about the speakers being used. A customer of mine has LS50s, and was looking at this when it was released. All reviews seemed positive, and it looked the perfect amp he was looking for, particularly as one reviewer used it was some crazy expensive speakers. Having bought one and tried it with his LS50s, he didn’t think the Marantz was quite up to the job. That’s nothing negative on the Marantz, as most sub £1,000 amplifiers aren’t up to the job.
 

drummerman

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davidf said:
drummerman said:
It has superb reviews here and elsewhere. Able in very expensive systems.
This is why I’ve asked about the speakers being used. A customer of mine has LS50s, and was looking at this when it was released. All reviews seemed positive, and it looked the perfect amp he was looking for, particularly as one reviewer used it was some crazy expensive speakers. Having bought one and tried it with his LS50s, he didn’t think the Marantz was quite up to the job. That’s nothing negative on the Marantz, as most sub £1,000 amplifiers aren’t up to the job. 

Not up to the job in what way? If you want loud with an inefficient small standpoint you need 200 watts.

At normal levels quality is more important than loudness.

Maybe the amp is crxxx and the reviews are wrong?

Who knows.
 
drummerman said:
Not up to the job in what way? If you want loud with an inefficient small standpoint you need 200 watts.

At normal levels quality is more important than loudness.

Maybe the amp is crxxx and the reviews are wrong?

Who knows.
He'd tried a few amps with his LS50s, and was being very careful about what he bought to go with them. He described what he wanted the amplifier to do, and how he wanted the KEFs to sound, and judging by what he said, it sounded like he just wanted them to be driven properly. He read some guy's review about using it with some $10k speakers (?) and thought that if they could drive those, they'd drive the LS50s easily. At that point I'd not heard the HD1, but based on what he told me about the review, I can see why he wanted it, and told him that so far, the best amps I'd heard with them were Class D.

He's not a raver or party monster - he just wanted them for normal levels. If an amplifier can't properly control a loudspeaker, this is evident at all volume levels - playing them loud just exaggerates the issues.
 

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