New Marantz to replace Sony amp or not...help please

[admin_exported]

I have a Sony F442E amp playing a Sony CDP 790 player through a pair of biwired Mission 751's. I feel the bass is just not deep enough and would like your advice on any worth in changing to a Marantz 6004 based system. The set up is in an averaged sized lounge. Is there a weakness in what I have and which would be best to go/stay with? All help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Gareth82]

Hi bluesnappa, if you like the way you system performs and sounds and it is only deep bass that you crave then have you considerd possible adding an active subwoofer to your current setup?

There are many factors that can affect bass response with a Hi Fi system from speaker positioning to room acoustics etc, you can sometimes fine tune things if you amp has got tone controls and of course you can always go down the upgrade path but that may need t take careful system matching etc but if you really like your system and are only missing bass then maybe a active subwoofer could solve your problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gareth, I had thought about that and the Sony amp has no bass control as it is a 'straight through' amp. As for a sub unit, would that be wired via the speaker B outlet with the biwired Missions though the A outlet and the amp then set to A+B?

 

[Gareth82]

That is correct. Have you Missions wired to ''Speaker A'' and then wire the Sub to ''Speaker B''. When you want the Sub to work then all you have to do is have ''Speaker A+B'' selected on the am''Speaker B'' will then feed a signal to the Sub the Sub volyme will change when you use the Sony Amps volume control. As long as you buy an ''Active'' Subwoofer then you don't need to worry about the Amp powering the Sub as it will just take the signal from ''Speaker B'' and then use it's own built in Amp to do the work.

If you do decide to get a Active Subwoofer make sure you fine tune the settings as you don't want it overpowering the music, so many people just turn the volume up to max and it sounds terrible, Subs need to be seen, not heard.

Out of interest, have you tried just Single wiring the missions as Bi-Wiring doesn't really bring that much improvement.

I guess it comes down to your budget, a subwoofer could be a nice cheap solution, if you do fancey upgrading our speakers or amp then you would really need to have a demo. Quiet a few people use Subwoofers with their set ups and they can make alot of difference, depending what style of music you listen to it could well worth adding a sub, you may be surprised at the results it can bring

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers Gareth, really helpful and given me thoughts. Any Marantz experts with a thought about the amp though cos for £250 it seems a bargain. I will get a demo but I know what a shop will suggest!