New amp purchase. What to expect?

[RickW]

Guys,
I've been a long time lurker in this forum but until now, I had never felt the need to post.

I own the 685 S2s hooked to a Yamaha entry level av receiver. Main source is Spotify and some CDs played through a Samsung Blu-ray.

I want to further improve sound quality and Im thinking of pulling the trigger on the Marantz PM6005 or the NAD D 3020. I'm an expat and can't audition them.

What should I expect? Is there substantial room for sound quality improvement jumping from the Yammy to the Marantz? Or isn't just marginal and I might get more bang for my buck elsewhere?

Thanks in advance

R

 

[Al ears]

Guys, I've been a long time lurker in this forum but until now, I had never felt the need to post.

I own the 685 S2s hooked to a Yamaha entry level av receiver. Main source is Spotify and some CDs played through a Samsung Blu-ray.

I want to further improve sound quality and Im thinking of pulling the trigger on the Marantz PM6005 or the NAD D 3020. I'm an expat and can't audition them.

What should I expect? Is there substantial room for sound quality improvement jumping from the Yammy to the Marantz? Or isn't just marginal and I might get more bang for my buck elsewhere?

Thanks in advance

R

The Yamaha is no slouch in the sound department but I have always been one that thinks you cannot beat a separate amp when it comes to stereo listening.

They should offer better connectivity for the future as well. I don't think you'll be disappointed with SQ of either and it pretty much comes down to ergonomics. My thoughts, looking at what you currently use would be the NAD.

It will also be more transportable when you cease to be expat.

What are you using to access Spotify?

 

[Vladimir]

I'd call the Marantz PM8005 or NAD C 356BEE an upgrade, depending which Yamaha receiver you have.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Hi Rick and welcome to the forum,although I've not heard the marantz pm6005 for myself,I'm sure it'll be a decent step up from the yamaha receiver in outright Sq,also it's going to give you a half decent dac that you can connect that Samsung Blue Ray to,which again should be another step up,sounds like a no brainer to me,2 upgrades for the price of one.Those B&W's should sing more sweetly after that addition to your system.I used to own a yami entry level receiver and assigned it to music duties as well as movies,it was terrible,I changed it for a proper integrated(Cambridge audio a500) and never looked back.oh and the nad will be a fine amp also,I'm not sure if it has a dac like the marantz though which will help improve the br player's Sq.

 

[pyrrhon]

Guys, I've been a long time lurker in this forum but until now, I had never felt the need to post.

I own the 685 S2s hooked to a Yamaha entry level av receiver. Main source is Spotify and some CDs played through a Samsung Blu-ray.

I want to further improve sound quality and Im thinking of pulling the trigger on the Marantz PM6005 or the NAD D 3020. I'm an expat and can't audition them.

What should I expect? Is there substantial room for sound quality improvement jumping from the Yammy to the Marantz? Or isn't just marginal and I might get more bang for my buck elsewhere?

Thanks in advance

R

Personally I'd be very satisfied with a pm8005 and bleusound node 2. Spotify connect is a very good feature on many av receiver but rare on stereo amps, that's where the node would fill the void.

 

[philpot1001]

I recently upgraded from a Denon PM-350SE, which in its day was a very capable budget amp. Cost me £250, which taking inflation into account would be worth circa £450 in todays money. I decided i would need a pretty serious upgrade to notice any discernable difference. I plumbed for a Marantz PM8005 for numerous reasons, one of which was the price point it has fallen to recently. It is an improvement over my Denon, superior separation, more controlled deeper bass, and cleaner sound - however its not night and day. People on here were telling me these amps would destroy my Denon, for me thats just nonsense - that said, i am happy with the upgrade. So it depends on what you are expecting! If you upgrade from a bargain basement amp you will probably really notice the difference, if you upgrade from a very capable budget amp (which sounds like you are), differences will be subtle..............a PM6005 in my opinion will offer so little difference its probably pointless. Save up and go for something with a bit more meat, Creek Evo 50, Arcam A19, Marantz PM8005 - you will start to notice the subtle differences at this bracket.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

i would say the marantz pm8005 but you may have trouble finding a dealer who has one on a demo so you would have to take a risk on buying this amp but its a better upgrade then the pm6005 is but saying this a dealer will have a pm6005 for a demo for you to try the pm6005 is still a good amp for the money but if you want a very good upgrade then i would go for the marantz pm8005 prices £600 - £650 or try secondhand for around £500 on ebay

 

[splasher]

I wouldn't be too quick to buy a stereo amp. I think a few people above have picked up on some points to consider. There's no doubt that a stereo amp is better than an AVR for music as a rule, but the difference isn't night and day - in fact from one room to the other I can't really tell the difference. If you're going to have two different setups, then it makes sense to have an AVR for cinema and an amp for music. But I suspect the fact the B&Ws are fastened to an AVR currently and your source is a blu-ray player, that you use your existing setup for both.

That being the case, money spent on a stereo amp would improve your music but not your cinema, whereas money spent on an AVR would do both.

The other point I think is key is your sources. Assuming your blu-ray is conected digitally to your AVR, the quality of the music from it is a function of the quality of the DAC in the AVR, so again money spent on the AVR would improve the sound, but more importantly, lots of mid-range AVRs now come with spotify connect where the control is from your mobile device but the sound goes directly to the AVR, never touching the mobile device (and if you connect using a 3.5mm jack missing out the mobile devices DAC).

So it could be worth considering something like a Denon AVR-X4100 (available in the UK for similar money to the PM8005).

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_100004211376004]

Fair point and probably a good idea,from what I hear the av amps of today have come a long way regarding the quality of music replay,but back when I was trying to get a one box solution in the late nineties,early 00's a av amp that could do music well was a couple of grand,arcam and some of the higher end denons if I remember correctly.if I was looking for a one box do it all for movies and music today,I definitely would be having a look at the av amps in the £500-£900 bracket.but alas I don't think that the op's budget is quite at that level,hence the reason a good budget amp will outperform his current yami entry level one...but as others have said it ain't gonni be night and day.I'd wait until funds allowed for a better av amp if you want to continue with both good movie and music replay.Me?I just got a Sony htxt1 soundbase to go with the Sony w829b and ps4 and it does it's job just fine.

 

[splasher]

Fair point too, Mark, but the post had kind of morphed into people recommending the PM8005 so I guess I was thinking if the OP was prepared to spend 8005 money (which I accept he may not be), a damn good Denon or Marantz AVR could be had, particularly since AVRs change spec each year in a way music amps don't making the previous year's a bargain.

Using a dealer in Carlisle just as a reference, the PM8005 is £599 as is last year's AVR-X4100 but the second blows the first out of the water in terms of features and versatility while (IMO) running it very close in sound quality.

 

[RickW]

Guys,
Thanks for the inputs. I am currently using the Yamaha RX-V377 which I got for a $120 bucks and I'm using an Ipad with the Spotify Premium to stream music to the AVR.

I'd love to get the PM8005 but it might be an overkill for those speakers. I'm happy with the sound coming from the speakers as they are. Love the detail and clarity but I find it lacks imaging and depth which I would like to improve.

R

 

[Blacksabbath25]

The reason I said pm8005 is so you can use it for driving your front left & rights useing the pre outs this way you can have music quality and your current AV amp will do the rest . Now arcam of the 1990s the AV one that had a processing amp and a power amp I had one and yes it was very good at doing both music & films but back then it cost me over £2000 to buy to get both music & films to play top quality . Now the current arcam that will do the same but will cost you the best part of £5000 so from a budget point of view it's cheaper to add a amp to your current setup

 

[splasher]

The reason I said pm8005 is so you can use it for driving your front left & rights useing the pre outs this way you can have music quality and your current AV amp will do the rest . Now arcam of the 1990s the AV one that had a processing amp and a power amp I had one and yes it was very good at doing both music & films but back then it cost me over £2000 to buy to get both music & films to play top quality . Now the current arcam that will do the same but will cost you the best part of £5000 so from a budget point of view it's cheaper to add a amp to your current setup

i don't think this would work. Usually, to achieve this you would connect the preamp out of the AVR to the power amp in of the 8005 so that, after calibration, the volume control of the AVR would control all speaker levels for cinema and the volume control on the 8005 would control the volume for other sources connected directly to it for music.

The Yamaha doesn't have preamp outputs, only AV out "for connecting to a recording device such as a VCR". I think there will be two problems with this: first it will not be front left and right channels but a stereo blend (otherwise it wouldn't include dialogue from the centre on your recording), and secondly it will be a fixed level.

Not wishing to be rude, but the 377 is pretty basic. At this level, I really do think money well spent on a good AVR will give you a better all round result with no integration or wiring problems.

 

[RickW]

Yeah, I know the Yamaha is very basic. But will I get better soundstaging and image jumping from the AVR to the integrated amp? Or is that a function of the speakers?

R

 

[splasher]

Yeah, I know the Yamaha is very basic. But will I get better soundstaging and image jumping from the AVR to the integrated amp? Or is that a function of the speakers?

R

i wouldn't like to give a definitive answer, but in my experience the quality of the soundstage is a function of the speakers and the room. Huge improvements can be made by experimenting with position (proximity to walls, distance from each other, distance from you) and orientation (up/down and toe in/out). What better amplification will likely do is just provide raw material with less distortion for a given sound level. I'm sure others will disagree but that's been my experience.