B&W DM 601 S2- Amplifier recommendation

[TomasCZ]

Hello, I just bought B&W DM 601 S2 in beautiful condition,

I'm looking for an amplifier to match their character. I have them in a room with an area of 13 square meters.

For now I’m considering Arcam A85 and Arcam A19, but I’m a bit lost and would need help with choosing!

Size and looks don’t matter. I prefer a physical volume knob. My budget is around ~600 EUR, but I’m also open to second-hand options. If there’s anything really interesting or a true “game changer,” I’m willing to stretch the budget a bit for it.

Thanks

 

[Svend P]

Anything with room correction. Wiim Amp Ultra comes to mind.

This is the frequency response according to sound and vision. The area from 500 Hz to 1500 Hz would probably need to be lowered.

 

[voodooless]

I'm looking for an amplifier to match their character

Amps don’t have character. Any half decent amp will do fine.

What features do you need?

 

[TomasCZ]

It would also be great if it had a decent built-in phono preamp for a turntable. I assume none of these amps have HDMI ARC, so I’ll handle that separately with an external DAC.

Amps don’t have character. Any half decent amp will do fine.

What features do you need?

 

[voodooless]

There are amps that offer phono and (E)ARC, just not that many. What’s the budget? Do you value looks, size? Any other things?

 

[TomasCZ]

There are amps that offer phono and (E)ARC, just not that many. What’s the budget? Do you value looks, size? Any other things?

Size and looks don’t matter. I prefer a physical volume knob. My budget is around ~600 EUR, I’m open to second-hand options. If there’s anything really interesting or a true “game changer,” I’m willing to stretch the budget a bit for it.

 

[TomasCZ]

Anything with room correction. Wiim Amp Ultra comes to mind.

This is the frequency response according to sound and vision. The area from 500 Hz to 1500 Hz would probably need to be lowered.

View attachment 532946

Thanks for the tip! The WiiM Ultra is definitely an option, but my setup involves both a turntable and a TV (connected to a PS5). This means I need to handle correction/EQ for both digital and analog sources.

However, I'd prefer to use either a dedicated external phono preamp or one built into an amplifier (not the WiiM), and pair it with an external DAC like the SMSL DL100 or Topping E70 Velvet.

My current setup:

• Digital: PS5 HDMI LG OLED C2 HDMI ARC
• Analog: Nordmende RP 1400 turntable 2x RCA output

It looks like this won’t stop at just choosing an amplifier, but will involve picking the right combination of other components as well.

That being said, can anyone suggest a setup where I could fit an external DAC, an amplifier, an external phono preamp, AND a dedicated device for room correction (like a miniDSP)? How would you route the routing/chain to make room correction work for both sources?

 

[Svend P]

You could get a Denon AVC-X3800H. I has everything you need and they are bound to become cheaper now the X3900 has been announced.

The idea of using separate components for each part is just over complicating things with no gains in sound quality.

 

[TomasCZ]

The search is over!

I’ve finally made my decision and I'm going with the Marantz PM-17 MkII + WiiM Ultra.

Excited to try WiiM's RoomFit, and eventually going UMIK-1/2 + REW for advanced room correction.

 

[TomasCZ]

Anything with room correction. Wiim Amp Ultra comes to mind.

This is the frequency response according to sound and vision. The area from 500 Hz to 1500 Hz would probably need to be lowered.

View attachment 532946

Thanks for the info and the graph. I ended up going with the WiiM Ultra for my digital setup and room correction.

For the analog side (turntable), I want to keep using the phono stage of my Marantz PM-17 MkII instead of the WiiM's phono. I know about miniDSP, but I'm not sure how to integrate it elegantly to get room correction for both digital and analog.

Would you solve this using one device or two?

 

[Svend P]

If you use the Marantz for analog sources, just connect it to the Wiim's analog input, and you can then use the Wiim room correction on all sources.

 

[TomasCZ]

If you use the Marantz for analog sources, just connect it to the Wiim's analog input, and you can then use the Wiim room correction on all sources.

I don't really understand how to route it all properly, but I noticed my Marantz has a separate/coupled switch with pre out and main in slots on the back.

Should I flip it to separate, run a cable from the Marantz pre out into the WiiM analog input, and then loop the WiiM output back into the Marantz main in?

 

[Redacted]

Yes.