Stereo amp match for B&W 685 s2

[pgmcw161]

Hello all,

This is is my first post on the forum and I'm hoping you can help me out.

I've recently landed a nice wee tax rebate and plan to reward myself by updating my current hotch-potch sound system - 15 year-old Eltax Monitors linked to a Yamaha AV receiver (HTR-5630). About time I had something nicer!

I'm pretty set on B&W 685s speakers - my brother owns a set and they're just terrific.

Where im a little lost is the amp. I'm not interested in making a cinema out of my front room so I've settled on stereo sound. I don't want to spend much more than £400 here and originally shortlisted the Marantz PM6005, the Onkyo A9010, the NAD D3020 and the new Denon PMA-50.

The Denon looks absolutely stunning and has great digital options; the NAD is nice and digital-friendly too, but I'm worried that neither would allow the speakers their fullest expression.

Where the Onkyo has zero digital inputs, the Marantz has at least some digital flexibility, though not a usb.

I'm really keen on making the most of the evolving digital market but I don't want to buy a product that will be out of date in 2 years, and I don't want to sell those wonderful speakers short. I suppose my ideal product would be a more powerful version of that beautiful Denon amplifier

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Kind regards,

Paul

 

[Al ears]

Hello all,

This is is my first post on the forum and I'm hoping you can help me out.

I've recently landed a nice wee tax rebate and plan to reward myself by updating my current hotch-potch sound system - 15 year-old Eltax Monitors linked to a Yamaha AV receiver (HTR-5630). About time I had something nicer!

I'm pretty set on B&W 685s speakers - my brother owns a set and they're just terrific.

Where im a little lost is the amp. I'm not interested in making a cinema out of my front room so I've settled on stereo sound. I don't want to spend much more than £400 here and originally shortlisted the Marantz PM6005, the Onkyo A9010, the NAD D3020 and the new Denon PMA-50.

The Denon looks absolutely stunning and has great digital options; the NAD is nice and digital-friendly too, but I'm worried that neither would allow the speakers their fullest expression.

Where the Onkyo has zero digital inputs, the Marantz has at least some digital flexibility, though not a usb.

I'm really keen on making the most of the evolving digital market but I don't want to buy a product that will be out of date in 2 years, and I don't want to sell those wonderful speakers short. I suppose my ideal product would be a more powerful version of that beautiful Denon amplifier

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Kind regards,

Paul

It's the DACs that are evolving rapidly, to keep up and offer plenty of inputs I would look at an external DAC to attach to a decent basic stereo amp. The Marantz you have listed.

When you buy an amp with integrated dac they are obviously cutting costs somewhere.

 

[gasolin]

Denon is not to power full only 25-30 watt in 8 ohm but it has a sub out like the nad amp

The nad amp most say sound best analog and has bluetooth

Onky might be under the 3 other amps performance vise and is the cheapest,most power full amp BUT it's only 3 db more more then the marantz amp so to be considered because of power difference there should be more then 3 db in difference, it's an all analog amp with no digital input but thres a phono stage

The marantz amp i have is cheaper then the denon,nad amp, has a phono stage and dac (no usb) the dac is the same as in the CD5005 and CD6005 so i cut costs to use the same dac in atleat 3 products where the CD6005 is the budget cp player in its price class so the dac can't be that bad, have seen the amp for up to 450£ but can be had for as low as 250£ (less then the amp from denon,nad)

Seen (youtube) the marantz PM6005drive speaker like Procac Responce D1 (PM6004), Focal chorus 716/71´26,proac response d1, epos m16i so the amp can handle big and expensive speakers althought i feel some of them focus much moe on speakers then amp since the have a budget amp and expensive speakers