Ruark Prologue one - need help on amplifiers

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Hi I am new to the What Hi Fi forums, and after much searching I am still at a loss for what to do to rectify my current issues with my Setup, so I thought I would actively seek assistance

I have 2 pairs of Ruark Prologue Ones and Ruark Dialog One connected to a Yamaha DSP A2 amplifier for general Home cinema Duties, as sources I have a PVR, DVD Recorder and old CD player

As I have not bothered to upgrade my TV from the rear projection set I have used for 8 years the quality of the video sources is not that relevant

I have become quite disillusion with the sound produced by this system and from all reviews I have read it would suggest that the Ruark speakers should be good enough, I am therefore looking for an Amplifier that would be a good match, I am looking for more transparency through the mid range and better seperation.....Simple music such as Tracey Chapman sounds reasonable, but something more complex, Fugees 'ready or not' shows the system to be lacking with stereo steering. I am looking to get a stereo amp and use that to drive the front speakers in multi channel and stereo, using the main out on the Yamaha. Eventually I will upgrade the CD player and DVD player, for now I want a Good Stereo Amp

I have considered the Cyrus 6xp, the Exposure 2010s all the way down to a Rotel RA-05se, working on the premise that anything will be a great leap...question is how far a leap can I get with these speakers and a new amp?
 
Welcome to the forum, paulcurtis.

It's a bit tricky. I've not heard your particular Ruarks, but as you say, they were quite well thought of in their day. The Sabre III I heard and loved, so I'm assuming your Ruarks will have like-for-like character to the Sabres.

Yamaha A2 is interesting: this brand is highly thought of on this forum, and having heard the latest CDP from the company, I can understand why...

You will need a smooth - neutral sounding amp, so you need to audition the likes of Yamaha, Exposure, Creek, Arcam, Roksan. However, you'll need a thorough audition to determine where the weakest link is...

I can suggest a few variations, but I honestly endorse a complete demo with your current gear.

Good luck
 

AEJim

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I used to use Ruark Sceptre's on a Naim Nac92/Nap90 basic pre/power with an Arcam Alpha 9 CD player - was a fantastic combo, still one of the best I've heard (regardless of price, synergy is greater than the sum of the parts in most cases!). Worth a look.
 
A

Anonymous

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Thanks I have extended my net to include the Naim Nait amplifier now, good advice from both of you

Still keen to hear from anyone with experience of the Prologues, as I think the speakers need something quite open to allow them to work to their full potensial, I have found the low end to be good for such small drivers (5")

Paul
 
A

Anonymous

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After much research and auditioning of Amplifiers I have found that the Cyrus sound suits the Ruarks very well and have purchased an EOL Cyrus 6vs with a view to upgrading this through Cyrus and time goes on.

In the mean time I got a Cambridge Audio DacMagic and have found that this has been a great upgrade in sound (especially noticable from a laptop playing FLAC files)
 
A

Anonymous

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/*Update*/

The main reson for taking this approach was based on advice gained from various forums/web sites suggesting the improvement that can be gained by taking the Front Output from the Yamaha A2 and piping this into the aux socket on a stereo amplifier to use the Stereo Amp to drive the front speakers..........................

Once it was all connected up and after much scratching of heads I finally resorted to the manual for the Yamaha A2, trying to work out why there was no sound from the Cyrus when connected this way. It was then that I discovered that the output sockets (Center, Front and Rear) only become active when the linking bar between the pre and power amp is removed....so to use this configuration I would need to get 2 more stereo power amps to drive the rear and center channels.....so word of advice, check your av amp if this is what you intend to do

Now I am on a new track of finding a 2 amp to 1 set of speaker swich......................
 
A

Anonymous

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Hi PC. We have Ruark Prelude IIs acting as front speakers as part of our 5.1 AV system through a Roksan Caspian amp. This is linked up to the AV amp (Denon), having previously had this combo as a stereo audio only solution.

At the time, we looked at Naim, Cyrus and Roksan Amps as options. In the end, we preferred the overall quality and breadth of the soundstage from the Caspian with the Preludes over the other two - having tested a lot of speaker options with all three amps.

HTH
 
A

Anonymous

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Philip,

thanks for your input, I would have definatly considered the Roksan, if it were not for the sales people at Super-fi who could not say anything good about it...but wanted to shift their Rotel amps....me thinks they were a bit biased as I have heard it since and its great!!

/*Update*/

Sourced a much more elegant solution for connecting the front speakers of my A2 to the Cyrus, picked up some hi quality speaker to line level converters, I am sure many would agrue that these diminish the sound quality, but the system is only used this way when listening to films, so it gives me all the functions I wanted for around 20 pounds...these are easiest to get from car audio shops.
 

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