PM6005 or PM8005 with Mission model 70 mkII

johnnymaelstrom

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I'm a complete novice trying to learn about hifi and buying the best I can afford bit by bit. I'm just setting up a new system and am trying to decide on one of two amps. The Marantz PM6005 and PM8005.

I've got both at home and I'm trying them out. The PM8005 sounds much better to me with one exception, the bass seems to boom and is a bit muddled in the low end. Particularly bass on jazz or bass sounds/beats on electronic music. I'd like to see if it's my speakers not responding well or if it's my personal preference for bass sounds. Conversely although the PM6005 sounds clear, it lacks bass.

I'm using Marantz CD6005 and some old Mission model 70 mkII speakers. It expect the speakers are the weak link. I hope to keep the speakers until I can afford a turntable and speakers later in the year, but could keep the PM6005 and spend the difference on new speakers (Zensor 3s?).
 

jonathanRD

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Hi johnny - welcome to the forum. It all depends on how much budget you have both now and in the near future, and how much patience you have to wait. The PM6005 will match your CD6005 and adding speakers such as the Zensor 3's (or others around that price range) and a turntable will give you a nice system that I'm sure you will enjoy for many years. But if you have the amps at home, can you get some new speakers home to confirm your speakers are the problem. Also this will give you more opportunity to compare the two amps. You may decide that the 6005 is enough for you or you may decide that you've got to have the 8005 - just take your time and demo as much as possible. If you get the 8005 it is likely that you will start looking at upping your budget for better speakers to match it - and then other price/performance matched components too.
 

Covenanter

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IMO the speakers are the weak link. Matching a nearly £1000 amp like the PM8005 with cheapish, old bookshelf speakers isn't really sensible. Listen to your current kit with some new speakers, size and type dependent on yoru room, musical taste, etc. and you will find something really good. For the money you seem to have available you will have a very wide choice.

Chris
 

johnnymaelstrom

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Thanks for the reply, it helped me a lot. I would probably be able to afford new speakers in the next 12 months if I stuck with the PM8005 or immediately with the PM6005. I'd like to think that whatever I stick with will be my base for a long time, which was why I went with the higher spec amp.
Until I started playing them both I wasn't sure if my speakers would last a while or not. It is probably a very good idea to think about speakers now. If I could get some to test should I try any set or match to a particular amp? I would guess that better speakers would play well on both, but lesser speakers wouldn't. Would the Zensor 3s be okay or should I try better ones like KEF Q100s/Q300s or the What hifi recommended B&W 685 S2s.
 

jonathanRD

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The two amps are at different price levels. Generally you would match the 6005 with £200 - £500 standmounts, and the 8005 with £500-£1000. So if you are going to go with the 8005 you need to accept that it will need better/more expensive speakers that will do justice to each other. See if you can get some 'better' speakers home for a demo so that you can decide whether the extra outlay is worth it.

If it was me and I had decided I could be patient and build the system in stages, I would base my system around the 8005 as it would be less likely I would want to upgrade after a year or two.

Demo as much as you can before you decide on your plan.
 

johnnymaelstrom

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I agree. I think I need to be patient so I don't make costly mistakes with my set-up. So far I've been trying to get everything right first time in a bit of a hurry because I was so keen to move in to the real world of HiFi and one amp wasn't a loan so I had a fixed period to return it within.

I'm going to try out some high-end speakers with the PM8005 and build around that. I can live with the sound as it stands, it's not terrible, but not perfect. When I initial wrote I was panicking, but you've helped me understand further and I feel comfortable with this and that I'm in this for the long term.
 

ID.

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jonathanRD said:
If it was me and I had decided I could be patient and build the system in stages, I would base my system around the 8005 as it would be less likely I would want to upgrade after a year or two.

Demo as much as you can before you decide on your plan.

+1

I wasn't impressed with the 8003 and 8004 (with the matching CD players, as well as some other players), but recently listened to the 8005 paired with the NA8005 and was impressed. If I were buying an integrated amp from scratch it would be a prime candidate. It can definitely handle some much better speakers.
 

Covenanter

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If you are firm on the 8005 then I would definitely listen to the Kef R series with it. The Q series are good, I used to have the Q500s, but the R series is better. If you have a big room then the R700s are great but they are very large. The R500s are also lovely.

If you decide on the 6005 then the Q series matches very well IMO.

Chris
 

emperor's new clothes

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I am delighted with my PM8005. As it now offered on sale, would be a worthy long term investment and allow a wide-rangeing choice of speakers in the future. IMHO, you will certainly appreciate the difference with more capable speakers.
 

DIB

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Check out the Hot Deals section regarding pricing. Basically, Peter Tyson Online are selling both the PM8005 and SA8005 for £649 at the moment, quite a drop from their near £1000 original price.

.
 

johnnymaelstrom

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Great comments from everyone. Thanks for the welcome and not making me feel like a chump of a newbie. I look forward to sharing the rest of my purchases with you as I build things up. Speakers first, then network player, then turntable.

I did some more testing and moved the speakers around and I ended up with the same problem in both amps and I think it's the room placement of the speakers. I haven't eliminated it completely, but didn't have enough time to do so, yet I can consistently see the same problem with both. Some advice I got elsewhere suggested that and although I'm now chasing my tail about optimum placement it solves my problem of amplifier and moves it on to speakers, which I need to sort out eventually anyway - both purchase and placement.

This leads me to the PM8005 as the choice. Booming sound aside it's clearer and richer in sound and more of what I want. I actually got my version from Peter Tyson - thanks for that tip - so a nice discount.

The KEF R-series are more expensive than the Q-series. What would you expect me to see as an improvement between, say, Q300 and R300 when paired with the PM8005? (I prefer standmound speakers currently - I already have stands and currently that suits my room layout)
 

Lukam01

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Why not to try Monitor audio GX100? You can find xe-display for around £650.Great speakers IMO

Marantz PM8005 is a great amp for money.
 

johnnymaelstrom

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Taking the PM8005 as the base I think we've moved on to a short list of speakers to trial:

KEF Q and R series - I'll listen to some floor mount, but probably will still with standmound to reuse my existing stands (assuming they aren't too small for some of the speakers)

B&W 685 - What HiFi award winning so worth a look based on that
Monitor Audio GX - what I can afford that is.
 

johnnymaelstrom

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I've not seen or heard Dynaudio before, so will look them up before commiting to a list. When originally spec'ing my set-up Dali Zensors were on the list, so maybe some Ikons are a good bet.

The hunt continues, I'll have a listening session tomorrow if a shop has some in.
 

johnnymaelstrom

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I managed to get to a Richer Sounds in some limited time I had recently and tried

KEF Q300 - there were no R series available and these sounded okay, but nothing amazing. I can see why the R would be better.

Focal Chorus 706 - these were really nice. Definitely something to put on the list.
 

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