Dear all, as promised, I'm back to let you know my final set up and how it works:
Marants PM6002: great amp although, with 45w.. it's not loud at all, but what a great sound. It suits my smallish lounge, 17 feet by 10.
Speakers: B&W 685 (found a great deal, £300, Tottenham Court Road, London). I love every bit of them, thay sound great with the Marantz. I am thinking of pairing my 685s with a set of smaller speakers and was thinking of the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1... or the Tannoy Mercury F1 Custom, which have great review as Marants companions. Any opinions?
Tuner: Denon TU - 1800DAB. I have mounted the internal antenna provided and I get all channels instantly and very clear. Great sound. But,,the FM is problematic and takes ages to tune. I don't really use it, but still..
CD:....well, here's where I failed..or maybe not... I bought the tuner and CD...well, DVD at Richer Sounds. I had infact reserved the Marants PM6002, but as I was also interested in a DVD, when I asked their view, I let myself be convinced in buying a DVD, the Cambridge Audio DV99 AND a Cambridge Audio DacMagic. I was told that that combination would have out performed the Marants CD6002 by itself. As I didn't plan to buy the DVD at the same time, not the DacMagic, I had to save somewhere... The annoying thing on the DVD99 is that you must use the remote control as there's no RW and FFW buttons on the front panel. it plays CDs very well to my hear, but the real incomparable difference it's made when it is pugged through the CA DacMagic. Read below
Cambridge Audio DacMagic: What a piece of machine!!!!! I have plugged both the Denon tuner and the CA DV99 into it. When both separates are not connected, they sound good...but once plugged in it's day and night!! The sound really comes alive, it's much clearer, vibrant. Suddently it's like having live music in my lounge. So, don't know if the Marants CD6002 would have been better, but what I can hear makes me smile and my Denon is also smiling! Tiny downside is that having my tuner and DVD/CD plugged through the DacMagic, means that I cannot use the amplifier remote control to operated them. Too many remote controls, but my lounge is small, 17 feet by 10, so I don't really mind. At the moment I have my PC connected to the CD input of my amp as i haven't found a 1.5m USB cable yet. I can't wait to be able to hear the difference of my PC digital music!
Cables: Cambridge Audio optical cables £20 each to connect the tuner and DVD/DC to the DacMagic and Cambridge Azur 0.75 silver cable £50 to connect the DabMagic to the Amp (all provided and suggested by Richer Sounds staff..I haven't done my homework on that, so I still don't know if that was a good advice..)
I have shopped around to get a good deal, which saved me over £200. With just over £1100, including the amp, I have a brand new system that makes me, my partner and friends VERY happy.
So, thanks for all of your past inputs. I love you!! Please feel free to discuss and leave comments on the above, it would be interesting. Lxx