Hello,
I've recently been asking a few questions around whether a newer cheaper amp might be as good in terms of sound quality as an older more expensive one, and received a lot of useful replies, (thanks).
Having now bought a replacement for my failed previous amp, and demod quite a bit in the process, I thought I'd give a view based on my experiences.
The old amp was a Marantz SR6001, and notwithstanding the recent problems, I'd been very happy with this. It provided a rich detailed sound. The only minor dissapointments I had was that occasionally the bass wasn't quite as tight or punchy as I'd like, it didn't always quite make the high notes as obvious as I'd like, and I never really got a good setup for low-level listening, (though to be fair I couldn't tweak all the options as well as I'd have liked not having an HDMI display to see the menus; when I got one the amp broke!).
I've gone with a Denon AVR 1911, and I'm very pleased so far, though it's only been two days.
I've lost the metal construction, and a lot of inputs / outputs, but I didn't really use them. However, in terms of sound quality this seems at least as good. I think part of this is the Audyssey dynamic and volume equalisation, as I can now have more detail without turning the amp up which is great.
The bass also seems that bit tighter and quicker, which I already knew was good on the Denons, (I now feel the ripple when the skull talisman goes into the water in POTC 1 without big volume). Also, details seem a bit more obvious, but I did deliberately got for a slightly brighter amp. The sound stage is plenty big enough, with good integration of the rears, and certainly doesn't feel inferior to the Marantz.
I think that part of the benefit gained is in being able to individually set crossovers, which wasn't possible on my old Marantz, (but is on newer ones). A flat frequency response has also been easier to set up with a lower sub crossover than with the Marantz, (but not sure if that was part of problems appearing as the crossover needed did seem to rise toward the end!).
It may not be directly the amplification as such, but in combination with better processing and so on it's certainly seeming the sound at a price point does improve over time.
I'm certainly not disappointed, and glad I didn't go the full extent of my budget at the moment, as the higher models will be cheaper in the future if I feel the need to upgrade, but I'll feed back more as I have more experience of the amp.
I'll also try to summarise my thoughts on the various demoing I did as I tried a few receivers, in case it's of help to anyone.
I've recently been asking a few questions around whether a newer cheaper amp might be as good in terms of sound quality as an older more expensive one, and received a lot of useful replies, (thanks).
Having now bought a replacement for my failed previous amp, and demod quite a bit in the process, I thought I'd give a view based on my experiences.
The old amp was a Marantz SR6001, and notwithstanding the recent problems, I'd been very happy with this. It provided a rich detailed sound. The only minor dissapointments I had was that occasionally the bass wasn't quite as tight or punchy as I'd like, it didn't always quite make the high notes as obvious as I'd like, and I never really got a good setup for low-level listening, (though to be fair I couldn't tweak all the options as well as I'd have liked not having an HDMI display to see the menus; when I got one the amp broke!).
I've gone with a Denon AVR 1911, and I'm very pleased so far, though it's only been two days.
I've lost the metal construction, and a lot of inputs / outputs, but I didn't really use them. However, in terms of sound quality this seems at least as good. I think part of this is the Audyssey dynamic and volume equalisation, as I can now have more detail without turning the amp up which is great.
The bass also seems that bit tighter and quicker, which I already knew was good on the Denons, (I now feel the ripple when the skull talisman goes into the water in POTC 1 without big volume). Also, details seem a bit more obvious, but I did deliberately got for a slightly brighter amp. The sound stage is plenty big enough, with good integration of the rears, and certainly doesn't feel inferior to the Marantz.
I think that part of the benefit gained is in being able to individually set crossovers, which wasn't possible on my old Marantz, (but is on newer ones). A flat frequency response has also been easier to set up with a lower sub crossover than with the Marantz, (but not sure if that was part of problems appearing as the crossover needed did seem to rise toward the end!).
It may not be directly the amplification as such, but in combination with better processing and so on it's certainly seeming the sound at a price point does improve over time.
I'm certainly not disappointed, and glad I didn't go the full extent of my budget at the moment, as the higher models will be cheaper in the future if I feel the need to upgrade, but I'll feed back more as I have more experience of the amp.
I'll also try to summarise my thoughts on the various demoing I did as I tried a few receivers, in case it's of help to anyone.
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