Stereo amp for vinyl and AV

[admin_exported]

I am about to buy a new Hi-Fi & home cinema system and need some advice combining them into a single system.

I have not listened to decent Hi-Fi for some 10 years now since AV took dominance. This is mainly down to me failing to put a balanced system together. I went for a Lexicon (MC-1 + amps) front end hoping I could live with digitising vinyl. I was wrong. Brilliant cinema, so-so musically.

So I need to know which Hi-Fi amps, driving the main L&R speakers, can best be integrated into an AV system. I have read through some previous threads and it seems some amps offer an "AV bypass", dedicated AV line input, or "unity/fixed gain" facility. If I understand correctly this negates the need to have the volume control set to a specific level on the stereo amp. The amp needs to be analogue friendly with a MM/MC input as I would like to start enjoying my LP12 again. This assumes that an AVR will not give the quality needed for music.

I guess I would look at a budget of around £3-5k for amp, AVR and speakers (total, not each). This will then leave me a few £k for a projector.

If anyone could suggest which amps would suit I would very much appreciate it.

Thank you.

 

[matthewpiano]

The Cambridge 740A and 840A amps have the fixed gain feature and are well worth a look. They don't have a phono stage but you could add an outboard phono stage to solve that problem. For that you could look at the Creek OBH-18, Cambridge's own 640P, or (to really get the best out of the vinyl) a Trichord Dino.

 

[lcd4ever]

Easy choice for amp imo the Kandy K2.....even at it's new elevated price tag.....has the bypass video mode for the fronts to let your AV amp control the volume during movies.....also and this was important to me also it does have an excellent phono stage......you won't be disapointed.....

The Yam 1900 is also an excellent buy if you can find one......

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for the info.