Quality Stereo Sound from an AV Receiver

[Pigin]

So I am finally looking to take the plunge into surround sound!

I am looking for an AV Receiver that will allow me to bi-amp my F/L and F/R and give me sound quality as good as (or better than) my Arcam A85 P80 set up!

A major point is value for money. I would consider an Onkyo 875 for example seeing as they get a good write up and are now going for around the £500 mark. I would also consider spending around the £1000 mark if it was going to give me significantly better sound quality.

It needs a minimum of 3 HDMI in and be capable of 1080p..........your views please.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Personally speaking ~ id say theres NO way youll get an av amp for under 1k thats going to sound anywhere near as good as your current set up in stereo.

Id buy an av amp and use the preouts to power the arcams

 

[Pigin]

Thats just cruel! It's taken me ages to pick up the courage to go front and back as well as side to side!

I dont have the space to keep the Arcams and an AV.

There must be someone who knows how to buy cake and then eat it!

 

[Anonymous]

Hello I've heard the Marantz SR5003 in stereo and I liked it too much, I'm not an expert but a lot of people consider Marantz receivers very good for music. I think it could be one of your options. For the budget you have commented i think you can consider the 6003 model too. I'm going to buy the sr 5003+ Mordaunt Short Avant 5.1 system this weekend.

I hope this can help you. Best regards

 

[Anonymous]

Pigin:
So I am finally looking to take the plunge into surround sound!

I am looking for an AV Receiver that will allow me to bi-amp my F/L and F/R and give me sound quality as good as (or better than) my Arcam A85 P80 set up!

A major point is value for money. I would consider an Onkyo 875 for example seeing as they get a good write up and are now going for around the £500 mark. I would also consider spending around the £1000 mark if it was going to give me significantly better sound quality.

It needs a minimum of 3 HDMI in and be capable of 1080p..........your views please.

I have achieved it with the Onkyo 875 but you have to feed it with a pure Mains supply and a good signal source.
At the prices that they can be bought now spending a few hundred pounds sorting the Mains out gives you the best of both worlds.

 

[Pigin]

Was it a direct comparision i.e. from one set up to the other or are you saying that you think the 875 will give me as good sound quality?

Thanks

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Pigin:
Was it a direct comparision i.e. from one set up to the other or are you saying that you think the 875 will give me as good sound quality?

Thanks

I'm not going to question Trevor as he knows far more than me and has modded his speakers as well. However, normally, a £1k receiver will probably give you the equivalent of a £250-300 stereo amp.

 

[smuggs]

i work with electrics so if i take 2.5mm T&E and wire a couple of sockets behind my tv and power my amp, xbox tv ect off its own breaker will that give better results. Or have i miss reed own power supply wrong. plus i only have a cambridge audio 640 h cd player will have an amp in about 4 weeks around the £500 mark and my speakers are monitor audio bronze range so are you talking about a change on £1000 plus stuff

 

[Anonymous]

Pigin:
Was it a direct comparision i.e. from one set up to the other or are you saying that you think the 875 will give me as good sound quality?

Thanks

Not quite sure what you are asking?

But I have had quality HiFi systems since the early 70's starting with Quad 303/33, Rogers LS6's, Thornes 160/Hadcock arm/Audio Tec Moving coil. Went on to modify them to the hilt.

So I have a good ear for music and am a bit of a perfectionist I suppose. My current system in its present form is 90% there (against £10k HiFi systems). I still have my Thornes deck (current retail about £1800 to buy now) but cannot really use it as I can't isolate it from the sound waves generated in the room, make do with the CD's put onto Hard drive in the Sony 970.

I never thought I would be able to achieve so much out of the system so that in itself has been another lesson. I know I will get the itch to do some more which will probably be building the speaker crossovers from scratch to achieve another touch of mid range depth.

Interestingly the Onkyo 875 has been left alone untouched, bloody amazing for me!

 

[smuggs]

people keep saying putting your av equipment on its own supply helps, so my above comment says i am thinking of wiring a couple of sockets off its own breaker in the fuse board does that make sense

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, if you are going to use your Consumer Unit (its not a fuse box is it?) put the spur (use 40A wire) on the 1st breaker nearest to the on/off switch. It will get a cleaner feed.

 

[Pigin]

Hey Trevor,

So you know my current amp set up is Arcam A85 and P80. These are feeding a set of Proac Response D25's. These speakers should show any weakness that the 875 might have.

How confident are you that the 875 will be at least as good as the Arcams as I am keeping the speakers an would bi-amp off the 875.

 

[Anonymous]

The new Rotel AV amps are quite good for music, and the Arcam AVR600 will probably be too, although I've yet to hear it.

Another HiFi mag - I forget which - undertook a technical review of the Onkyo N906 and quite liked that also.

Alternatively you could buy a small AV amp and use the existing Arcam for the fronts.

Don't worry about this mains cable nonsense. Listen to a few amps and decide if they match your existing system and that they are worth the outlay.

 

[Lost Angeles]

trevor79:Yes, if you are going to use your Consumer Unit (its not a fuse box is it?) put the spur (use 40A wire) on the 1st breaker nearest to the on/off switch. It will get a cleaner feed.

Surely the best way to get a clean feed for your hifi would be to take a second pair of tails from your consumer unit or 100 amp isolator and feed a second small consumer unit with this, totally isolating the main consumer unit from the hifi one. I know you would still then have to earth this somehow.
There are also different earthing systems in houses and maybe some are better than others for keeping the mains clean.
Trevor79 which earth system do you have.

Smuggs. Off a 40amp breaker you might need bigger than 2.5 T&E and the nearest breaker to the on/off switch should always be for the highest load so if you have a 45amp cooker supply the 45amp should be first.

I take no responsibility if anyone kills themselves you should not work on electrics unless you are qualified

 

[Anonymous]

Pigin:
Hey Trevor,

So you know my current amp set up is Arcam A85 and P80. These are feeding a set of Proac Response D25's. These speakers should show any weakness that the 875 might have.

How confident are you that the 875 will be at least as good as the Arcams as I am keeping the speakers an would bi-amp off the 875.

Well my set up is as good as a highly modified Cyrus 6/psx unit (not as musical as a Quad 303/33/PSX system) which are head and shoulders above standard Cyrus/Arcam.

A full class A Amp is in a different league, the problem that needs to be addressed is the massive interaction from the huge transformer feeding 7x200 watts off the power rails!

It requires a really smooth supply with surge protection, any ripples are magnified which has a horrible effect on the music.

 

[Anonymous]

Lost Angeles:
trevor79:Yes, if you are going to use your Consumer Unit (its not a fuse box is it?) put the spur (use 40A wire) on the 1st breaker nearest to the on/off switch. It will get a cleaner feed.

Surely the best way to get a clean feed for your hifi would be to take a second pair of tails from your consumer unit or 100 amp isolator and feed a second small consumer unit with this, totally isolating the main consumer unit from the hifi one. I know you would still then have to earth this somehow.
There are also different earthing systems in houses and maybe some are better than others for keeping the mains clean.
Trevor79 which earth system do you have.

Smuggs. Off a 40amp breaker you might need bigger than 2.5 T&E and the nearest breaker to the on/off switch should always be for the highest load so if you have a 45amp cooker supply the 45amp should be first.

I take no responsibility if anyone kills themselves you should not work on electrics unless you are qualified

Yes you are right, that's what I would do from the 100 amp isolator. But it sounded that he was wanting to use his existing CU. Yes the highest load should be at the top of the tree, but putting 1 x 20amp draw (40A wiring) above it on the bus will not give it any current issues in reality.
Houses built in the last 30 years have a true Earth at the meter which goes back to the sub station and all the properties connected to it will find the strongest path! This doesn't want to be your house, so in that situation I stay clear of Earth spikes! Older houses have a different earthing arrangement.

I always advise (and it is the law) a qualified electrician should carry out the work on fitting spurs etc as it needs doing safely.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed with the 875's stereo performance. It's really geared towards movies rather than music. It's not nearly a match for your Arcam combo. There are some good deals right now on the outgoing Arcam AV range, but that means doing without upscaling and HD audio decoding. AVR350's are going cheap. I've even heard of people picking up P700/P1000 combos for a little over £1,000.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Eddie Pound:

Don't worry about this mains cable nonsense. .

I used to use an Arcam A85+ myself (My dads borrowed it for the moment)

It was this 'mains cable nonsense' that made the biggest difference to the sound by far. Dont knock what you dont understand

 

[Vimeous]

I had been asking myself the same question for years - exactly when will AV receivers of a certain price be able to match my aging Arcam Alpha 9 for sterio?

The answer is still 'they can't' however as has ben suggested there may be other options.

I had to decide if an ex-demo or s/hand AVR350 without the all the features - but with similar sterio performance - was worth my £600

OR

if the combination of a modern Yamaha dedicated for surround use and my Alpha 9 would suit.

As you can see from my siggy I've chosen the second option. I've still not decided if my Alpha 9 will run the fronts in the surround setup as I'm happy enough to swap speaker cables when I listen to sterio.
The RX-V1800 is a recent purchase so I've yet to find the ideal setup (or get the CD-player back in the mix!). However my initial feelings are that the RX-V lacks the richness of the Alpha 9. It's no disaster - far from it - I've been enjoying a fair bit of internet radio (via Squeezebox). Using "Pure Direct" mode I've found it a brighter listen with decent clarity despite a 128k feed.
Still lots more wiring and testing to do!

My advice would be to find some more space and have both amps. Will a change in rack get you enough room to fit 2 amps for example?
As for which amp? Well I guess it depends on the character of your partnering kit. Until I test it I don't know how well the Alpha 9 driven 602's will integrate with the remainder via the RX-V. I'm fortunate in that the B&W's tend toward a richer quality which takes the edge of a more forward amp. A careful look at the reviews and hopefully some 875 owners here will help you shortlist amps to suit your Proac's.

Good luck!

 

[Pigin]

Some really good replies folks, thanks

It seems there is divided opinion about the quality of sound.

Looks like I will be buying a ticket on Saturday and having to spend a fortune on getting something that will fit the bill.

There is obviously a market for such an amp / receiver, I just wish someone would hurry up and get it produced at a reasonable cost.

 

[Anonymous]

What about NAD. I haven't read a thread on of anyone owning one of there receivers.Especially from the UK. They produce a great stereo sound. I've heard opinions that they better the likes of onkyo , the denons etc....

 

[Anonymous]

ukadvocate:What about NAD. I haven't read a thread on of anyone owning one of there receivers.Especially from the UK. They produce a great stereo sound. I've heard opinions that they better the likes of onkyo , the denons etc....

Good call. I haven't heard any of their recent AV kit but my first ever multichannel amp was a T750 / 750T or something like that. Mind you that one was analogue only. No DD or DTS, just Prologic. Sounded great though. ÿÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Well plugged into a crappy mains no wonder a budget stereo amp sounds as good as it does. (terrible to my ears)
Plugged into a clean mains supply an on board class A amp will be in a league of its own and 1/2 decent equipment will shine (Cyrus/psx).

Why do you think on high end equipment they use mono blocks and/plus seperate power supplies?

Go figure

 

[mgillespie05]

i would personaly go for the onkyo 906 ,it was put up against pioneer lx81 yammy 399 and a denon and it kicked ther assess from a well known hifi mag. plus i bought one and its the bllls

 

[Anonymous]

It's the same spec re power supply/pre amp sections.

Excellent