Whole kit upgrade help

[jamescfyfe]

Hello I currently have bowers and wilkins 684 marantz pm6005 and marantz cd6004. I have had the 684 for a year now but have never for some reason warmed to them, I have no idea why I just really regret buying them, they replaced my 685 I had for a month and also did not like. My question is what do people recomend I upgrade my kit with? My headphones are the bowers and wilkins p5 series 2 with a portable amplifier which sounds great I just wish my hifi could sound the same. Thanks in advance

 

[Reijer]

Hello James.

Do you know what you are looking for? Do you have a budget? What is your roomsize?

Maybe a stupid idea but is it in your interest not the best to go to your local hifishop and get a listen to some speakers to make up your mind and reflect on your wishes with the salesmen?

 

[jamescfyfe]

Thanks for the reply I do not have a budget in mind just nothing extreme, my room is 25m2 and I am going to try the cm8 and new 684s2 tomorrow morning but just wanted people's reccomendstions as additional help thanks

 

[MeanandGreen]

What is it that you feel your headphones give you that your speakers don't? I'd be inclined to think that maybe your room/speaker layout may not be at it's best for listening purposes.

With good headphones you are listening to the music, with speakers you are listening to the room.

 

[davedotco]

Thanks for the reply I do not have a budget in mind just nothing extreme, my room is 25m2 and I am going to try the cm8 and new 684s2 tomorrow morning but just wanted people's reccomendstions as additional help thanks

Ok, let me get this straight.

You have tried 2 different B&Ws, neither of which you liked with your amp.

So you think the answer is, to try more B&Ws with the same amp?

Let us know how it goes......*good*

 

[jamescfyfe]

Nope as the title states whole kit upgrade not just speakers

 

[jamescfyfe]

Oh and also not that it makes much difference I had the pm6004 now I have the pm6005 the newer slightly upgrade version

 

[davedotco]

Nope as the title states whole kit upgrade not just speakers

Ha, my mistake......*dash1*

In this case I would look to make radical changes, I would worry about B&Ws, even different ones, having just enough of the sound I don't like for me to be comfortable.

My favourite sub £1000 amps are, for different reasons/applications the Creek 50a, Peachtree Decco65 and the Croft Integrated. These are not the easiest products to audition but they each have qualities that, in different ways 'draw you in' to the music.

If you can find any of them to listen to, ask the dealer for speaker recommendations to try and be prepared to try something a bit different.

BTW, what are you using as source(s), just the CD player?

 

[jamescfyfe]

Thanks for the reply, yeah I'm really not sure what I don't like but I'm just not happy a pathetic but also quite major thing is how ugly the 684 is and they are just so big with tiny drive units, I just feel they really have to work hard for moderate sound and it sounds forced not nice smooth and precise. The 685 was great just lake bass and again it felt like they would struggle to fill the room. My sources are yes mainly CD player it also has an iPod usb connection I use for Apple lossless quality music and also for quick and easy not bothering about quality I use Apple TV through the optical input for AirPlay music through spirit for example.

 

[davedotco]

Thanks for the reply, yeah I'm really not sure what I don't like but I'm just not happy a pathetic but also quite major thing is how ugly the 684 is and they are just so big with tiny drive units, I just feel they really have to work hard for moderate sound and it sounds forced not nice smooth and precise. The 685 was great just lake bass and again it felt like they would struggle to fill the room. My sources are yes mainly CD player it also has an iPod usb connection I use for Apple lossless quality music and also for quick and easy not bothering about quality I use Apple TV through the optical input for AirPlay music through spirit for example.

Ok, that would pretty much rule out the Croft which will be too basic but you could add the Nad D7050 to the list instead.

First thing I would look at would be the Peachtree, see if the functionality would work for you, it has a full asyncronous usb input rather than the simpler iPod style input, that may be an issue for you.

With all the different ways now available to play music functionality is becoming increasingly important, the Nad has great functionality but is not particularly powerful in conventional terms. However the amplifier is fully digital, so it's capabilities might surprise you. I would love to try the D7050 with a pair of Q Acoustics Concept 40s, never had the opportunity.

You need to think what you really want, a bigger Marantz or Rotel amplifier with better B&Ws is a 'conventional' solution, there are plenty of others. Personally I think you can do better, but it means searching out less well known equipment and trusting your own decision making capabilities rather than conventional wisdom. Up to you.

 

[ID.]

My initial thought was that the amp is way underpowered for those speakers. As others have mentioned, if you had the 685s and didn't like them, then upgraded to the 684s which you didn't like either, I'd be looking at brands other than B&W.

It's great that you like your headphones, but the sound quality you get for the amount of money paid will always be far superior for headphones. You'd need to spend multiple times the price of the headphones and amp to get anywhere near that performance from a hifi system. I'm not sure I could name a specific multiple. Could be 10x or more, but it all depends on your approach, priorities and tastes.

 

[steve_1979]

.

 

[davedotco]

If you're after a pair of speakers that sound like your headphones check out AVI. One of their USP's is that use good quality headphones as a reference when desiging them. They aim to get the sound quality and clarity to be as close to good headphones as possible and I can confirm that they manage to come quite close to my HD700's, more so than other speakers that I've heard.

Another option for 'similar to headphone clarity speakers' are Quested monitors. Lovely sounding and never fatiguing. They're a bit pricey but it's worth looking out for a second hand pair.

Either of these speakers have a very clear and natural sound and should be about on par with your B&W headphones for sound quality.

I was a bit reluctant to stick my head up on this but steve is spot on.

Use the CD player as now with the usb facility and the Apple tv, take optical outs from each into a nice pair of ADM9RSS.

Except of course you can't, there aren't any, b*ll*cks......!

 

[steve_1979]

If you're after a pair of speakers that sound like your headphones check out AVI. One of their USP's is that they use good quality headphones as a reference when desiging them. They aim to get the sound quality and clarity to be as close to good headphones as possible and I can confirm that they manage to come quite close to my HD700's, more so than other speakers that I've heard.

Another option for 'similar to headphone clarity speakers' are Quested monitors. Lovely sounding and never fatiguing. They're a bit pricey but it's worth looking out for a second hand pair.

Either of these speakers have a very clear and natural sound and should be about on par with your B&W headphones for sound quality.

 

[steve_1979]

I was a bit reluctant to stick my head up on this but steve is spot on.

Use the CD player as now with the usb facility and the Apple tv, take optical outs from each into a nice pair of ADM9RSS.

Except of course you can't, there aren't any, b*ll*cks......!

IME most speakers fall quite a long way short when compared directly to good headphones. The DM5's and Quested's small two-way monitors still fall a bit short compared to my HD700's but at least they're still in the same ballpark which is a lot more than can be said for most speakers.

From memory when I auditioned the B&W P5 and Sennheiser HD700 headphones on the same day the HD700 was easily the better sounding headphone for clarity and naturalness (though the P5 had more bass which I liked). Based on this experience I recon either the AVI or Quested speakers should be about on par with the P5's.

 

[jonathanRD]

Hi James, it would be interesting and very probably useful to know how you went about purchasing your current equipment. Did you buy online (blind) or from a local shop/dealer. If from a local dealer did you demo them first both in the shop and at home. If you have a local dealer/s - what brands do they stock? The reason I ask is that a local dealer is probably the easiest and safest first step to listen to different options (unless you have already).

 

[jamescfyfe]

Thanks for the replies, the 685 I got from Harrods which I tried there and sounded great but when I got them home they just didn't sound the same they really lacked bass even after 30 + hours of running in, my 684 I auditioned at Sevenoaks which again sounded good I was toying with the 684 or keeping the 685 and getting a sub and yesterday I tried the new 684, cm8 focal 816 and 826 and the 816w with musical fidelity m3i which to my ears the focal sounded the best the standard 816 sounded good but my favourite was the 826, the only problem I have with those is size they are huge! Again I am stuck and am tempted to get the cm8 with the musical fidelity m3i or go for something smaller like the cm5 / cm6 and get a sub, way too many options!

 

[jonathanRD]

Take your time and once you've got a shortlist of just say 2 or 3, get each of them (or new combination) on home demo over night at least, or over a weekend. I organised to pick kit up from my dealer (7oaks/AudioT) on a Saturday teatime just before they were closing and returned them Monday morning - this way you can have a extended and relaxed listen.