Question for Matthewpiano (and others)

[Ernie]

Matthew I notice from past posts on this forum that you have also owned Denon seperates. My other half does not like the look of the Matantz all in one so will unfortunately have to rule that out. I am therefore looking medium term at purchasing a budget amp/cd. It's most likely going to be between thE pioneer a30 pd30 and Denon 720 combo. I am just interested in your views on these seperates to partner the Wharfedale speakers.

many thanks.

The Denon seperates are very good for the money. As a combination the PMA and DCD 720AE works very well, and my 12 months with the Denon amp was the longest I've kept an amp for some time. It's sound is a little less cleanly etched than the Pioneer but very persuasive and the touch of warmth does suit the Diamonds. At current prices I really don't think you can go wrong with the 720s and they do look extremely good together. I think my path would have been much cleaner if I'd stuck with the Denons and upgraded to the planned Consonance/Exposure/Audio Note system piece by piece from there. I have enjoyed the MCR610, and I'd say it is on the whole as good as the Denons, but it was a sideways move at the end of the day, purchased due to the attraction of the facilities. The Pioneer between them was also a sideways move, although it did pair better with the Dali Zensor 3s than the Denons.

I'm not sure how helpful that is. I hope it is of some use!

thank you once again. This is definately a good help, and very informative. The Denon combo can be bought for about £350 which seems great value, I can demo this locally so might give it a listen early next week, and who knows might even bring it home with me.

 

[Ernie]

So i set off on my audition today and listened to the Denon PMA & DCD 720ae. My intention was to spend 350-370 and pair the system with my Wharfedale 9.1s as a medium term (2 years) solution while I save for my dream system.

I listened to the Denons with 4 set of speakers (mistakenly as I should have just took my 9.1s and used them). They were 1) Wharfedale Diamond 121, 2) Dali Zensor 1, 3) MA bx2 and 4) Dali Zensor 3. I listened to them in that order each time with the same 3 or 4 songs. The 121's while goods were definately outshone by the Zensor 1 which just seemed to offer much more detail and lower volum control. The BX2 then provided a clear step up in quality and I just sat and listened to them for a while thinking that i may be able to buy them one day should i decide to postpone the future system upgrade for one reason or another. Finally the Zensor 3's were hooked up and I was left alone to play my music. I should not have asked to hear them. By the 2nd or 3rd song I was sending a text to my better half to see if she would be happy to spend a little extra (but no reply, most likely as she was busy at work). They were superb, and offered fantastic base control, great voice clarity and back ground detail that my current system at home didn't produce.

After a while the salesman cam back in and while chatting pointed out that the black components were more expensive than the silver, and only the silver were available in the promotional offers as seen online. Of course it was the black ones I wanted to match everything at home. So the amp and cd were going to cost £420. I asked for a price including the Zensor 3's hoping for a deal, but in any case I knew it was going to be too expensive. He went off and came back with a price and left me alone to listen to more of my music. After half an hour he came back in and I had a rush of blood and said i would take the amp/cd and Zensor 3's. I though the price he quoted (it was printed out) was a bit of a bargin. It was when I went to pay that we realised he had quoted a price for the Zensor 1's, totalling £570. But all credit due, after a few minutes he agreed to honour the price saying it was his mistake and I got the Zensor 3's for an extra £150 on top of the cd amp cost. I paid and left feeling very satisfied that I had got a good system for the money. The only downside is that they didnt hold brand new stock so it's getting delivered in a couple of days. I can't wait :bounce:

I would like to ask for one bit of advice. I haven't got a decent interconnect for the system yet. Is there any advice which one may complement the set up? I have noticed that cambridge audio do a 30cm lead, the AUD500. This appeals due to its small size (being neater) but I will purchase a longer cable if it will improve the set up.

Many thanks

 

[Cypher]

Congratulations with the nice system you bought. I wouldn't spend too much on a interconnect because they sound all the same but that's just my opinion

 

[Ernie]

Congratulations with the nice system you bought. I wouldn't spend too much on a interconnect because they sound all the same but that's just my opinion

Thanks cypher. Yes i have read a few threads about the interconnects. I dont intend to spend a lot of money on one, but having seen the supplied cable thought I would at least upgrade that as it looked very flimsy.

 

[Cypher]

I think the AUD500 will be a fine cable. It will definitely look nicer than the supplied flimsy cable

 

[slice]

Thanks for your reply. I suppose I sometimes feel I would like a bit more detail from the 9.1s, but in fairness I enjoy the feeling of "wholeness" from the 9.1s (I listen to mainly classical music), so maybe I can't have it both ways. I'm quite interested that the BX2s need more driving, as on paper I think the BX2s were more sensitive, and not being in a detatched house I don't go mad on the volume. Thanks for answering so quickly-just one more issue- I'm not ultra technically minded, but tend to look at the front ported issue as important as the speakers need to to be placed quite near the wall- am I wrong in this, do in fact rear ported speakers vary in their sensitivity to this issue? No more thread hijack after this post!

Thanks

What sort of distance from the back wall are we talking about?

The room is a sort of off beat rectangle of approx 13ft by 14ft.. It's hard to explain because the room is ergonomically difficult regarding placement of desks, tvs etc. At the moment onespeaker is 2 feet from the back wall and well away from a side wall, but only 6 inches in front of a computer desk which is between the back wall and the speaker, and turned in 30 degrees towards the centre of the room The other is 2ft 6in from the back wall but only 9in from a side wall and turned into to face the room by 30 degrees. If you add to that my usual listening position, they make a triangle with lengths 8 feet between the speakers and 7 feet between each speaker and the listening position.

I think front-ported is probably best in that situation but I would be cautious about the BX2s as I found them very sensitive to positioning.

I think the 'wholeness' you describe as a quality of the Wharfedales is rare with budget speakers. I was listening to Bernard Haitink's recording of Shostakovich 5 tonight on the Marantz and Wharfedales and it hung the whole thing together extremely well - enough so that I was simply enjoying the music and Shostakovich's skilful exploitation of the orchestral colours. They are so talented and I haven't heard another budget speaker that achieves the seamless integration that the Diamond 9.1s offer. I'm currently saving up for a pair of Audio Note AX-2s, but there aren't many speakers between these two that I could live with long term. I've found too many speakers to be tiring over long listening sessions. For this reason things like B&W 685s, KEF Q300s, and Monitor Audio BX2s just haven't lasted long-term with me.

Of course, the 9.1s aren't perfect and speakers like the Audio Notes, or the Sonus Faber Venere 1.5s, really do show them a clean heel in terms of musical tangibility and involvement, but in the sub £500 market I do think they have certain qualities that are hard to beat.

Thanks for your detailed reply and and also thanks to manicm for his comments also. If I do go upmarket I will need to have another think, there are a lot of interesting comments on this thread. I also like shostakovich, particularly his concertos!

 

[Johnno2]

thanks chebby. How do you find the cr603? And have you heard the 610 in comparison?

I love the M-CR603. Luckily - for my purposes - I don't need the wi-fi / gapless / 24 bit 192 kHz improvements that the M-CR610 brought with it.

I use ethernet and AirPlay so I have no problems with gapless because iTunes and AirPlay supports it (and I have no interest in downloads or rips beyond CD/Apple Lossless quality.)

I don't like the all-plastic casing (or the new look) of the M-CR610 either, so I won't be doing any comparisons.

If you like the looks of the M-CR610, or don't mind all the plastic, or need wi-fi, or need gapless playback from a NAS (for instance), or need 24/192 'HD' capabilities then the M-CR610 will be worth the extra £200 (based on Richer Sounds prices for both models earlier today).

The reasons I suggested the M-CR603 (or DM39DAB) were... (a) you didn't already have any the stuff listed above so probably don't need it now ... (b) to save you money towards your next system.

You forgot to mention the spotify capabilities, a massive boon over the MCR603 ! spotify streamed through this device sounds *almost* identical to CD,

Millions of tracks at the touch of a few buttons is a worth the premium subscription, the sound is excellent for a compressed streaming service, way ahead of DAB, LAST FM. NAPSTER, etc like I said almost near CD, hard to tell the difference with some tracks

no doubt the price will reduce in a year or two, its a little gem this one , and I like the gloss black slab, not to keen on the two tone