New Speakers/Amp Required - Help.

[admin_exported]

I am newby to this site and though it may be worth a punt asking for some suggestions on some new kit.

Some background first, I have been into Hi-Fi etc for some time as a result of the father-in-law also being an enthusiast. Early last year I put a system together, which is a bit of a hybrid, using an Arcam CD73T, Onkyo 606 Reveiver, Monitor Audio BR5 Floorstanders and a cheap Samsung upscaling DVD player (using just the two channels), having had the kit for some time i have come reliase that the music side of the system is more important, so i have decided to ditch the receiver and by a stereo amp and some new speakers.

At present i have auditioned the the B&W 684's (Great impact and scale, but slightly heavy on the bass for my taste, I found my self distracted from the detail within the music), Monitor Audio RS6 (liked the speaker, bass slightly loose in comparison to the Mordaunt Short Mezzo 6), and the Mordaunt Short (really like these when tried with a roksan caspian amp, but when auditioned with my receiver they sounded a bit on the brightside, fully expected a vast difference given the price differential.

I was wondering on trying the Tannoy DC6T, any other suggestions???

The dilemma is that I want to change my speakers and amp, but was wondering waht sort of amp I could get second hand for reasonable money.

Cheers,

Jonny

 

[drummerman]

You have good ears (well, at least they seem to hear the same things as mine). Monitor Audios silver series are imo more HT speakers. I think the biggest problem are the cheap sounding tweeters which, while bright'ish, lack both refinement and extension and yes, the bass appears both underdamped and too soft. Example, put a pair of cheap MS20i's next to them and whilst lacking the weight of the RS6's they sound like a curtain has been removed and the room has extended in height. Both use metal dome tweeters but the difference is profound. I did'nt like the Mezzo 2's too much either. They have good treble but are not incisive enough for me. Also, the bass seemed to soft though not to the extend of the RS6's.

You have many options and I can't comment on the Tannoys but for a budget of around 1k I would audition Denon's PMA1500AE with some Kef iQ7, now available for silly money. Add a sub such as BK's minotaur for £130 or so and you have a lovely musical and revealing system where no aspects stands out and annoys.

If you can push a bit more try AVI's ADM9.1 at around 1.2k and add the above sub or similar later. A bit more money but a substantial step up and the equal of many a more expensive system.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers for the advice drummerman.

May well look into that, although i would like to try and stick to the 2 channels. The movie aspect is least important to me so i will concentrate on musical side. I was also thinking of looking into some stand mounted speakers.

Borrowing some Ruarks later on that belong to the father-in-law, so i will see what they sound like.