Help a newbie pick the most appropriate amp

[dimisaki]

Hi everyone!

I am in the process of building my first Hi-Fi system. I currently have a pair of Vandersteen 1C speakers and a td309 turntable (no amp as of yet!)
My main use case will be listening to music (vinyl and some sort of streaming ideally). Movies are a nice plus.
After some looking around, I am now considering 3 vastly different amps. Below a list of said amps, together with some of my initial thoughts on them:

1. Lyngdorf tdai 1120 new at retail price ~2000
   • Pros: Feature-rich, supports pretty much all sources I may need, great reviews, room correction (room is 4x5 meters, with only a rug for treatment atm)
   • Cons: Price, lowest power of the 3, but should still be enough
2. Tsakiridis Aeolos ultra 4 x KT150 (http://www.tsakiridis-devices.com/integrated_amplifiers_aeolos.html) used, at 1200 EUR
   • Pros: Looks and feel, sound greek company so service should be easy for me (I am greek )
   • Cons: I would need a separate streamer and phono preamp, quite expensive
3. Cambridge Audio CXR120 display unit at a price of 450 EUR
   • Pros: Price, has almost all connections (would still need a phono preamp), can be used in multi-channel (for movies, for the future)
   • Cons: Sound in stereo? , cant really make any further upgrades

As you can tell by my shortlist, I am quite confused (high-tech digital amp, old-school tubes, and a receiver all in the mix!). Auditioning them with my speakers would of course help greatly, but is not an option sadly.

The unknown for me here is sound quality: how different would you expect these to sound - would you expect one of them to be substantially better than the others?


Thank you in advance!

 

[geek101]

If the speaker specs are close to accurate then you should try out Aiyima 07 https://www.amazon.com/AIYIMA-A07-TPA3255-Amplifier-Digital/dp/B08CJZGT6H

Upgrade the power supply to the amplifier later if you thought power was inadequate.

 

[Raxumit]

You might think @geek101 is joking, but he is making a good suggestion. I have two Aiyima A07's myself, and they are solid little amps. If you are really about to spend 1,000-2,000 €, then doing a small experiment with a budget amp for < 100 € is easy and reasonable. You may find it is entirely enough - try it!

I would spend 1,000-2,000 € on speakers before I spent much more than 500 € on an amp.

 

[Joe Smith]

Yeah, those speakers don't need a ton of power per their specs...and your room is not huge...I think you should focus on use factors mainly (separate boxes ok or want full preamp capabilities including a phono pre all in one, need for remote or not, etc.) One way to go is to use the Aiyima A07 with a good quality preamp for the source control. I was recently using mine with an older Nikko preamp and also a NAD one.

Another option for you would be a current all in one such as the NAD 316BEE v2 for about $500, or the next one up in their lineup for a little more power.

 

[dimisaki]

@geek101, @Raxumit, @Joe Smith

Thank you for your input - makes a lot of sense, I will keep to the more budget options.

In that direction, how do you feel about the crx 120? It is quite bit more expensive than the Aiyima, but I wouldn't need a preamp or a streamer, and I can add more speakers for movies down the line. Do you think it would be worse sonically, on account of being a surround receiver?

 

[Head_Unit]

how different would you expect these to sound

I'm a big believer in room correction-with a Focal 936 unavoidably in a corner, bass sweeps flattened out a LOT using Audyssey XT32 or now ARC Genesis. That would vote me to the Lyngdorf, or my favorites, Denon receivers.
- Some will opine receivers sound like crap. I suspect little of that is based on actual comparison of top units, and rather on a kind of class snobbery. From a Denon AVR-X3600H to Anthem AVM 70 + ATI 525NC, the receiver sounded just as good for like $6000 less. (There IS some difference to the sound, most likely due the Audyssey vs ARC. Image height and width and depth and [indescribable] have a different [shape?] but both sound fabulous.
- We have this version of the Aiyima https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CJZGT6H (which includes a power supply, many versions of these little amps don't!) using it as a power amp. Doesn't sound bad at all. But I'd still want room correction, and bass management for if I decided to add a sub. Watch out-stereo units with "subwoofer" outs often do not implement the highpass crossover which is stupid.

 

[JiiPee]

Have a look at Keces E40 and Quad Vena II. They are both available well below 1K € brand new. Both offer enough power plus decent DAC and phono preamp.

Get a Raspberry Pi based streamer with something like Volumio, or Moode for example and You will have access to Camilla DSP-based room correction for your streamed music.

Alternatively, if You want to get room correction also for music played from vinyl, You could consider DSPeaker Antimode X2. At around 600 €, It gives You a preamp with DAC and room correction. You should be able to find a used power amp for less than 300 €. Add a phono preamp like Schiit Mani 2, or Cambridge Audio Alva for example, and a Raspberry Pi based streamer, and the whole thing should cost less than 1500 €.