That's a question only you can answer!
It's a decent amp, just a bit overpriced unless you can find it discounted.
I'm using it in my small dining area with bookshelf speakers from KEF - works very well and the amp is easy to use and very reliable. Still a pity to see that it does not measure better.
Not sure about but will keep it for now.
That's the thing isn't it. If it does everything you require of it then all's well! I won't replace mine unless it dies. Although if the speakers die first I'd probably replace them with powered or active ones, which'd render the integrated amp redundant.
Amen.
Fits the bill for some limited applications but if you really need more, just get a preamp.
There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid -- an idea in psychology, proposed by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" -- is/was WRONG.
Within the original/revised versions of this pyramid, I don't see any mention of MUSIC in the lower-tiers.
I mean wanting high performance is really not asking for too much. Considering there were DAC chips 20 years ago that were capable of SINAD figures above that of CD Quality; I don't understand why any product sold today cannot even reach CD quality....
Well, we rather suspect that this 'new' amplifier is a pma520ae with a crappy old DAC and Bluetooth shoehorned in. The 520AE is Denon's bottom of the range budget integrated, and was released over a decade ago. Another poster reckoned the 520AE was in turn a recycled design from an earlier (budget) amplifier! Amir said he thought it was ok for a $400 amp, but I'm not sure I agree. It's a $200 amp really isn't it. You can buy the 520AE for £180.
Well it really depends on what speakers you plug into it.... with technology as it is today I EXPECT every device I purchase to have atleast minimum spec performance. In the world of audio today so many things sound like complete trash and this world of bluetooth has only made things worse. Only LDAC can sound okay; everything else is pretty much crap for anything but background listening in noisy environments...
Be interesting to know if NAD build quality has improved. Or what the Denon is like. I recapped my NAD 325bee recently and even with a vacuum desolderiing iron, fresh flux and temp as low as possible with contact time <3 seconds, many of the thinner traces and pads lifted. The pcbs are just craptastic with ultra thin traces and cardboard like substrate. The original caps were equally junk with all the larger ones including the filter caps bulging after a few years and a few now leaking. many smaller ones look swollen or measured very poorly when I pulled them to test. The transistors at least seen solid. But it was just a pain to replace the caps having to repair so many pads etc. after working on couple of these NADs, they have the worst pcbs have ever worked on. Far worse than even the cheapest pcbs from modules I have ordered off eBay. They are effectively cardboard with copper tape and disposable. I would not try to repair one again even though they sound and measure very well.
Well there is the Schiit Saga S for $300. Add the little fossi amp Amir reviewed recently for $80-100. And a great $100 DAC of you need it. Course you still need a phono amp if you well need one. But I suspect those with turntables already have one anyway. Seriously Denon could leave out the phono stage and put in decent dac.I'm with you but unless I'm missing something, the source selector is hard to fill, especially if you want a remote.
Why are preamps so expensive?
Help me better understand preamps. My understanding is that if you only have a dac as a source and you buy a dac with built-in volume control then you don't even need a preamp. Basically, a preamp is needed if you are using a power amp that isn't an "integrated amplifier" and you have more than...
Same here but with Vienna Acoustics speakers. What more do you need?
