New to forum - A little advice needed

[admin_exported]

Hi Guys i am new to the forum and wondered if anyone could suggest an integrated or pre/power amps to replace my existing ones.

I have an arcam cd192 as source with monitor audio silver s2's wallmounted. Currently driven by a bargain rotel rc-850 pre-amp and rb-850 power amp that pre-date the invention of the wheel. I have had many happy hours listening but feel that my amplification is the weak link, so am looking to upgrade.

I am looking for somethin around the 500 pound mark, and would rather buy decent second hand kit thats been looked after than have shiny new kit thats not as good.

I look forward to hearing any suggestion

thanks

Matt

 

[Anonymous]

How is it a weak link if you enjoyed it so much? Started malfunctioning or something? Lack of power? What if YOU were the one having that well taken care of older kit anybody would gladly pay a lesser price for? What do you use for interconnect and speaker wires? Do you have a subwoofer, and if so, passive or active? If it all sounds great, perhaps you should just save some more money and change the whole thing later on, when the first of them will give up... Another thing to look at, perhaps only one component really needs to be changed? What if you pre-amp, or power amp, can still do quite a good job? An integrated amp might not be necessary than... though a couple of them can be used as pre-amps.

If you really have to change... Yamaha AS-500 is not bad... With the Arcam CD player it should match quite well...

You might wanna try Marantz PM6004...

If you like Rotel, there's a couple of ones too you should hear...

I would suggest Arcam A-18, would be great with silver S2, but a little out of your budget mark. Mind you, it's not necessary to go there, neither. Just saying it does marvelous things with stand mounted Monitor Audio... as would the PM6004. Didn't hear any wall mounted, though... do you use port bungs?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to reply.

My apologies for not replying sooner, i have had a busy week and completely forgot about my post. In answer to your questions, no i do not run a subwoofer as i find the monitor audios more than adequate in the lower frequencies and have to consider the other people that i live with. I did run an Elac sub for a while but could never get it set up right, due partly to the shape of the room. I run the monitor audios with bungs as i find the bass too boomy when wall mounted.

I like the idea of the A18 or older a85, any idea which might be the better option? I was also considering the naim nait 5i if i could afford one. I suppose my real question to you is, do you think that i would hear a massive improvement? or am i just spending money for the sake of it? I guess everyones idea of perfect sound is different, so i may have to borrow some amps to demo.

Matt

 

[matthewpiano]

The A18 is average at best. Nicely built but struggles with all but the easiest to drive speakers and lacking in dynamism.

Try to find a used A28 if you can. Far better amp than the A18. Alternatively see if you can find an A32.

Aside from Arcam, take a look at Rega's Brio-R or a used Naim Nait 5i. Both excellent amplifiers and, IMO, more versatile.

 

[plastic penguin]

Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to reply.

My apologies for not replying sooner, i have had a busy week and completely forgot about my post. In answer to your questions, no i do not run a subwoofer as i find the monitor audios more than adequate in the lower frequencies and have to consider the other people that i live with. I did run an Elac sub for a while but could never get it set up right, due partly to the shape of the room. I run the monitor audios with bungs as i find the bass too boomy when wall mounted.

I like the idea of the A18 or older a85, any idea which might be the better option? I was also considering the naim nait 5i if i could afford one. I suppose my real question to you is, do you think that i would hear a massive improvement? or am i just spending money for the sake of it? I guess everyones idea of perfect sound is different, so i may have to borrow some amps to demo.

Matt

The A85 is a really good amp and definately suit your CDP and speakers.

Contrary to Matthews comments about the A18, I think the A18 is a decent amp. Sure it struggles with half tricky speaker loads, but I've never heard a 50 watt power house, with the possible exception of the Nait 5i (if that is 50 watts you can call me Batman). If your speakers are around 88-91db (as most MAs are) shouldn't have any problems with the A18 unless you try and blast the walls down.

 

[Anonymous]

Matthew may be right about the Arcam, not the best buy for the money, and not the best amp out there, but as I said, it DOES marvellous things with stand-mounted Monitor Audio. From the Monitor series M1 to Silver RX1, it was perfect, getting the best of them all. RS would be quite amazing, as it is.

Naim could be a good buy... same target price than Arcam, though.

Plastic Penguin and I seem to think alike on the Arcam subject. Many, many people think like Matthew, though... so you should try and demo it before.

Good luck!

 

[plastic penguin]

The Arcam brand, certainly two channel, has largely built a reputation, wrongly IMO, of being insipid or gutless. This is mainly entry-level models, and they will sound okay... just okay with most speakers. However, feed them the right monitors and they can sound amazing. I've always crowed about Arcam and RS6s, and I've yet to hear a better combination for the money.

The A18 easily slots into that niche.

To be fair to Matthew, he likes some Arcam amps and doesn't like others. That's very reasonable. If you've made as amps as Arcam over the years there's no way one can hit the ballseye everytime.