New Amp for up to £2500....suggestions?

[Sirguy969]

Hi all

Bit of advice needed. I've managed to fry my Denon AVR4308 (long story posted elsewhere). For the cash mentioned above what would you recommend to partner the kit in my sig? Not interested in 3D but the ability to drive two more front/high speakers does interest me.

I've run 7.1 for a while now but find it difficult to find many movies that actually use this, will the two front/high speakers be just as hard to find stuff encoded to get the benefit or does the sound come from an effect as opposed to how it is recorded?

Thanks

Cameron.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd buy the cheapest possible. Nothing to do with performance, but because of the risk of a) frying the amp again at your wild parties and b) the possible term of imprisonment if the Saudi authorities get to hear about them

 

[Sirguy969]

Helpful as ever Tarquinh............

 

[JohnHolmes]

2nd hand Yamaha Z11

 

[Anonymous]

Sirguy969:Helpful as ever Tarquinh............
More than you think, 969, more than you think.

 

[Sirguy969]

I am sure that you usually are and have helped many posters on here. Would be good if you could extend me the same courtesy....

 

[Anonymous]

Come now, 969, I'm trying to help prevent your appearing in Daily Mail headlines, what more do you want??

Take your fried amp back to the Denon dealer but don't, under any circumstances, explain what actually happened to make it stop.

 

[Sirguy969]

Fair one Tarquinh!

Maybe getting ahead of myself, but assuming the amp is kaput, a replacement suggestion?

 

[Anonymous]

the yamaha z7 is now around £1200 , get one of them and save some money ??

 

[Sirguy969]

maxxflinn

Does this support front/high speakers?

 

[Anonymous]

hmmm , i dont know , but i know that its a very highly regarded amp , and got 5 stars here at £2000...

its now fantastic value , someone that knows a little more about its spec should pick this thread up sirguy ..

rick or david ? who,s going to get in first

 

[Anonymous]

The Yamaha does not supports Dolby's Height Feature, however, it does have it's own height option, but in my opinion (having had a dendon 1910 & now a Yam 1065) it is no where near as effective.

In your budget was going to advise on one of the new high end pioneers, but I a not sure these would match well with your RS MA's.

I would advise one of the new high end Denon's maybe the 4311, that should do the job nicely or one of the Onkyo's poss 5007.

If you already have 7.1, you may need to ensure the amp has 9 channels of amplification to drive the height also (or pre-outs so you can use a seperate 2 Channel amp for the surround back), these are light on the ground, but I thnik the high Onkyos have 9 channel amplification.

On the Height processing question, this does not need any special encoding on the discs, it takes subtle information from encoding already in th 5.1 sound track and IMO is very effective with DD and DTS HD / True HD, not so useful on DolbyProlig i.e. 2.0 sources.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sirguy969]

Thank you all for your input. So the new Denon 4311 supports front height speakers as well as the 4 back speakers? If so and it sounds good looks like that'll be suitable.

Also grateful for the explanation regarding front/height speakers, sort of makes sense now.

 

[TKratz]

Sirguy969:

maxxflinn

Does this support front/high speakers?

Yes, the Yamaha DSP-Z7 supports front/high speakers.
I haven't tested this option myself and cannot say how well it works compared to the Denon option.

What I can say however is that I have tested Denon AVR-4308 and Yamaha DSP-Z7 head to head when I was looking for a new receiver. I found the Z7 to be superior in every way compared to the Denon (for my taste of music. The Denon faired best with classical music on my B&W speakers). For surround sound effects the Denon was simply no match for the Z7 and it's exceptional control and steering.

For music, B&W and Yamaha is an excellent match in my opion. I have not tested it with Monito Audio, but in general this is also regareded a very good combination.

My guess would be that you experience a big step up if you get a Z7.

 

[Anonymous]

Yamaha was the first to have front effect speakers more than 10yr ago ,but their option is proprietary and not the same as those by Pioneer , Onkyo Denon

Also you cant have front effect and rear back speakers at the same time on the Z7 , only the Z11 allows this

Suggestions - Demo a Pioneer LX82 , Yamaha Z7 and a couple of Onkyo's which are within your price bracket