Which component next for better music playing?

[admin_exported]

Hi,

Last year I had a bit of a binge on my home cinema setup, and bought a Yamaha DSP-Z7 along with a Monitor Audio RS6AV speaker package - sounds great with movies, I love it - but for music I can't help thinking I'd like something... more...

So now I'm looking to improve my music listening... I'm currently using an old Marantz CD63-SE which I'd guess is pretty long in the tooth now, but don't know what to upgrade to?

Is it worth buying a decent cd player to run through the Yamaha amp, or would I be better off looking at something else to power the sound? It's all in one fairly large frontroom but I don't want to buy seperate speakers for music. Can I/should I just use the Yamaha amp as a power amp and buy a pre-amp to use with it for music? Should I just upgrade the cd player and be done with it? I'd be happy to spend between £500 to £1000 if needs be.

Any wise words appreciated!

Rob.

 

[The_Lhc]

A Pre-amp won't help much as you're still using the Yamaha's amp stage. The usual suggestion is get a seperate stereo amp, plug the front speakers and your CD player into that, take the front l-r preouts from the Yamaha and stick them in the stereo amp.

That way when you listen to music you just turn the stereo amp on, get the benefit of that, and when you're watching a film, you put both amps on, the yamaha now just powering the centre and surround speakers.

 

[brendonw]

off you go then Mr LHC...........

Just done this myself. Would definately recommend going down the stereo amp route. You won't regret it

 

[Golden Ears]

Have you changed the mains cable to the Yamaha? A decent silver mains cable can work wonders! I bought one a few years ago when I used my Yamaha A5 as my main source of entertainment and the enhancements were truely amaing! I did however have a problem with the workmanship of the cable after taking it in and out the socket to try other cables (way too many times) it became brittle and snapped the at the socket end ;( The Yamaha CDS2000 Get great reviews and would probably fit in very well! As for usiing the Yamaha as a power amp I'm sure if you're using the the pure direct ciruit you've got great potential! I had to route my CD player through the 5.1 inpuit to byepass tone controls on my old A5.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thanks for the information so far guys. No, I haven't changed the mains cable thus far, though it is all runnning through a mains conditioner.

I guess one of the problems I have is I'm not really sure just how good the Yamaha really is for music (using source direct). Since it was a 2k cinema amp, then what would I expect to need to improve on this for stereo? Not usre what price bracket I'd be looking at to compare it to - it certainly doesn't soound 'shabby' at all, but I think the soundstaging could be improved certainly. Also, if I added a stereo amp I guess I'd also need to look at something quite hefty to match the 125W coming from the Yamaha in each channel for movies?

Would you guys definitely be looking at amp before cd player for best music gains then?

Thanks,

Rob.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

TiredRob:
Hi,

Last year I had a bit of a binge on my home cinema setup, and bought a Yamaha DSP-Z7 along with a Monitor Audio RS6AV speaker package - sounds great with movies, I love it - but for music I can't help thinking I'd like something... more...

So now I'm looking to improve my music listening... I'm currently using an old Marantz CD63-SE which I'd guess is pretty long in the tooth now, but don't know what to upgrade to?

Is it worth buying a decent cd player to run through the Yamaha amp, or would I be better off looking at something else to power the sound? It's all in one fairly large frontroom but I don't want to buy seperate speakers for music. Can I/should I just use the Yamaha amp as a power amp and buy a pre-amp to use with it for music? Should I just upgrade the cd player and be done with it? I'd be happy to spend between £500 to £1000 if needs be.

Any wise words appreciated!

Rob.

I've used this amp with the RS6 speakers and it's a great match. Very powerful (especially for it's size and look), tight bass and a really articulate sound. The matching cd player is well thought of too. I doubt you could improve much at this price point. The new updated versions are £595 I think. The build quality is also very good - they look about double the price.

http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4282
http://www.audioaffair.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4284

 

[scene]

Just wondering, does the stereo sound still not sound so good when running in 'Pure Direct' mode? This is supposed to switch off all the unnecessary circuitry and run the amp in analogue mode for CD sound. I have this on my AVR250 ("Stereo Direct") and to make this work, you've got to have the source plumbed in via analogue connects, otherwise you get no sound. It makes a big difference to my Arcam and makes it sound like a "proper" stereo amp.

I will have to put up my hand here to having a vested interest, as I'm looking to upgrade my amp and was looking at demoing the DSP-Z7 as a contender, and stereo sound is very important to me.

 

[Anonymous]

scene:Just wondering, does the stereo sound still not sound so good when running in 'Pure Direct' mode?

That's definitely when it's at its best and is how I listen to music - but I a few years ago I used to run dedicated stereo amps only, and I feel I'm not getting quite the same feeling of being 'in' the music as I was back then - which I guess is down to better soundstaging

Having said that, I'm in a different (bigger) room and that obviously affects the acoustics big time. The Yamaha sounds better and better the louder you go, but I'm in a flat so I need something that will give me the feeling of being 'in with the music' but without being stupidly loud at the same time. Not sure if I'm making sense there! I'm finding it difficult to get that 'sweet spot' where you can't tell where the speakers are, you're just in the music. Does that make sense?

Don't get me wrong, it's not like the music I'm getting is rubbish, it's not like that at all - I'm just looking for the next logical imrpovement is all.

Oh and by the way, for cinema... this thing is amazing!

 

[scene]

No that makes perfect sense. My room's quite large too, 6.4x5.8m, so this is a consideration I have, and my (stereo) speakers aren't so different to yours... I'm definitely considering wiring my A85 into my next AVR, so that it powers the front pair, but in the back of my mind is the thought that it would be nice to keep it much simpler.

And with a lot of late night music listening (with 3 kids), loud is not really an option for me either

 

[Golden Ears]

I also have 2 seperate Mains units, The first is a CVT from Advance Electronics (they've dicontinued the ASR which I managed to buy. Also a mains conditioner that is also made by them, the CVT / ASR is rated at 100w and the PC is 1.5kw. I still find that a decent mains cable is required after the conditioning, the mains need the best conductors possible after cleaning up the mains it seems a bit silly to insert a bulk made cable that can introduce poor delivery to the equipment. I'm sure you'll get an improvement from changing this how much is hard to say as the power reserves damand a decent power supply to start with.