New amp needed? Better musical sound wanted.

[dh140770]

I've been thinking about changing my av amp.

ive currently got a denon 1610 running monitor rx6, rx centre, rsw12 sub and a pair of bipole rears.

It sounds ok ish but then I heard my friends proper hifi, Denson power amps and harbeth speakers and was blow away by power, clarity and control.

It then got me thinking about my system and what is wrong with it.

i find I'm having to adjust constantly between modes. Stereo, pro logic and Dolby digital. The bass levels are either nothing there or over powering. Will a good amp let me set levels per mode?

Also on my friends system, the low volume performer impressed me. Mine you have to wind it up to feel the power otherwise it sounds at bit wimpy.

We use a qnap for music and ripped DVDs, a cheap DVD player and Bt vision.

Its really the the music performance I would like to see the dramatic improvement. The Av sounds reasonable.

i like the idea of modern features as we have spotify premium, iPhones etc so streaming and dlna appeal.

What are my options that are the right side of £1000.

happy to answer any questions as I realise this might it be completely clear what I am asking

Thanks

Dave

 

[philandsue]

I'm not sure what price bracket you are in, but I had a similar problem of being happy with AV but stereo Hi-Fi was lacking.

I ended up getting a Marantz NR1504 AV Receiver that has pre-outs and a Music Fidelity M3Si that has a unity gain input. Best of both worlds.

 

[CnoEvil]

Has your amp got Pre-Outs?....if so, a £1k dedicated stereo amp will (IMO) be more successful at giving you what you are after.

 

[Derbuckle]

I'm not sure what price bracket you are in, but I had a similar problem of being happy with AV but stereo Hi-Fi was lacking.

I ended up getting a Marantz NR1504 AV Receiver that has pre-outs and a Music Fidelity M3Si that has a unity gain input. Best of both worlds.

What's the NR1504 like for music? I've been tossing up between the NR1606 and last year's SR5009. I also have a tube (Single Ended Triode) amp I can slot in after the pre-stage but it's a bit of a faff.

 

[ROB2009]

Hi, I bought the NR1606 and am very pleased with the sound, both for movies and music. My main reason for buying was limited space, so the slimline profile was ideal. I'm running a REL T7 which is also connected into the main speaker terminals as recommended in the manual, this backs up the bass of my Monitor Audio Radius speakers. My preferred music mode is multi-channel stereo, which fills the room with a really nice warm sound.....Recommended! I purchased the NR1606 from Exeptional AV and got a great deal, worth a call.