Hello ASR,
I've been reading the forum for some time, and being an engineer, really enjoy the focus on measurable facts and not marketing stuff/audiophile legends!
Sadly a while back my beloved 17 years old AVR (Marantz SR 5400 OSE -- supposedly "better sounding" version) stopped working and can't be repaired as the faulty part (standby transformer) is no longer available from Marantz. It was driving a 5.1 set of speakers from Focal (2x714, 2x705 and 1xCC700) with a Focal sub.
I started looking for replacement candidates with a focus on good sound quality (since our usage is mostly music and a little bit of movies) and a ~2k max price, and identified some candidates, ie. Marantz SR 6015, Nad T758i, Anthem MRX 540, Arcam AVR5, all praised by various subjective reviews....
Off course reading how they really perform here was revealing and led me to think the only reasonable choice would be a Denon x3700h (that I had not even looked at, in favor of the usual "better Marantz sound" -- what a joke!)
However seeing how it's always referred as being good "for an AVR" and our main usage being music, I wondered if I should just put surround aside and stick with good stereo; I then started to look at integrated amps with digital inputs (for a RPI streamer, BR player, TV settop box) and a few analog RCA inputs (phono preamp, tuner), such as the Yamaha RN-803D or Denon DRA-800H.... Ha, the irony: turns out these are just ripped off AVRs in disguise, they perform similarly or even worse!
So now I'm a bit wondering about options to look at:
- other, good performing, integrated amps (I didn't seem to find many tests for these), any suggestions?
- separate elements with eg. a good desktop DAC and/or a DSP (for bass management/subwoofer and maybe room correction), a HDMI switcher/splitter, an analog entry switch, and a good class D 2-channel amp. What about ease of use (multiple remotes, configuration of inputs...)? Performance of the combination? And total price close or higher than the Denon AVR...
- or simply go for the Denon AVR for its versability and on the basis that it would likely already be an improvement over the old one then later consider adding an external DAC for music and/or a 2-channel class D amp for the fronts using the AVR preouts?
I realize this is a long post, sorry but I tried to be complete .
Thanks for all your comments, ideas, suggestions... !
I've been reading the forum for some time, and being an engineer, really enjoy the focus on measurable facts and not marketing stuff/audiophile legends!
Sadly a while back my beloved 17 years old AVR (Marantz SR 5400 OSE -- supposedly "better sounding" version) stopped working and can't be repaired as the faulty part (standby transformer) is no longer available from Marantz. It was driving a 5.1 set of speakers from Focal (2x714, 2x705 and 1xCC700) with a Focal sub.
I started looking for replacement candidates with a focus on good sound quality (since our usage is mostly music and a little bit of movies) and a ~2k max price, and identified some candidates, ie. Marantz SR 6015, Nad T758i, Anthem MRX 540, Arcam AVR5, all praised by various subjective reviews....
Off course reading how they really perform here was revealing and led me to think the only reasonable choice would be a Denon x3700h (that I had not even looked at, in favor of the usual "better Marantz sound" -- what a joke!)
However seeing how it's always referred as being good "for an AVR" and our main usage being music, I wondered if I should just put surround aside and stick with good stereo; I then started to look at integrated amps with digital inputs (for a RPI streamer, BR player, TV settop box) and a few analog RCA inputs (phono preamp, tuner), such as the Yamaha RN-803D or Denon DRA-800H.... Ha, the irony: turns out these are just ripped off AVRs in disguise, they perform similarly or even worse!
So now I'm a bit wondering about options to look at:
- other, good performing, integrated amps (I didn't seem to find many tests for these), any suggestions?
- separate elements with eg. a good desktop DAC and/or a DSP (for bass management/subwoofer and maybe room correction), a HDMI switcher/splitter, an analog entry switch, and a good class D 2-channel amp. What about ease of use (multiple remotes, configuration of inputs...)? Performance of the combination? And total price close or higher than the Denon AVR...
- or simply go for the Denon AVR for its versability and on the basis that it would likely already be an improvement over the old one then later consider adding an external DAC for music and/or a 2-channel class D amp for the fronts using the AVR preouts?
I realize this is a long post, sorry but I tried to be complete .
Thanks for all your comments, ideas, suggestions... !