I think it's a great choice for your needs it should pair well with the speakers and delivery what you want.
What stereo amplifier/receiver?
- Thread starter Pablo
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I'm in the have more than you need camp. In our home office/gym I use a pair of monoblocks that do 1kW/ch at 4ohms. They don't even get warm lol. Plus, all wattage ratings are not the same since so many use the ILS (if lightning strikes) ratings these days.That's an even more contentious and conflict ridden conversation than this one, lmao!!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Agreed! You can never have too much power, that's why I suggested he grab that Bryston amp, since it's a killer deal for a very capable piece of equipment.
How is this connected? What preamp output on the Marantz?
Phono stage I get. Totally separate
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Ewwwww, it doesn't have pre-amp outs... that's not good. That really limits what you can do with it.
My X4200W has a whole family of pre-outs, I just assumed it would have at least front outs:
No worries. I think I will be fine and if this doesn’t cut it I’ll live with it until I hit the pot o gold
Audio-video or home theater units are not built for best audio quality, if best sound quality is objective then skip AV and HT units. You will get stuck with AV units if you need more than 2 audio channels thou.
Absolutely true at the lower end
I think as you go up the food chain audio improves in AV stuff
That said I like separate
Did you grab the Ref Premier 600M when on clearance for $350 a pair?
I am also working on improving our TV sound. Just stereo mixdown. Got some clearance Martin Logan bookshelf's cheap and an ARCAM SA10 on clearance for $499. Not convinced about the ARCAM - Logan pairing.
I would prefer a REGA Elicit R, but hey, its for the stupid TV and my Wife watching Britbox murder mysteries with semi-intelligibe dialogue, Lol.
We both have hearing loss so the shelved up tweeter response on the Martin Logans will be beneficial to virtually unnoticeable (when above 10kHz,)
All of the new goodies are still in the box after a month has gone by. Can't get too enthused. Never heard good sound from Toshiba fibre link PCM and it's all I got for S/Pdif. Boo Hoo. Our little but brilliant Samsung LCD display is old and doesn't support a digital ARC.
p.s. Maybe if you are lucky the Marantz phono stage will have discrete FET/Bi circuitry (or HDAM2) rather than the usual one dollar op-amp implementation.
good listening!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
The mid to upper end units typically have a pretty decent DAC and the SQ is good when piped into a quality amp to feed the mains, provided you turn off all the room tuning voodoo designed for the home theatre stuff. For analogue, particularly phono, a dedicated high quality pre or phono stage is really a necessity, as it's an afterthought on this stuff. My Denon does a fantastic job with digital sources and is convenient for AirPlay. It's phono stage is complete trash, which is why I run a separate higher end pre with a quality one.
No on the speakers unfortunately
I probably should have asked on the Marantz phono stage
If you decide to get a dedicated phono stage, the monolithic one I posted holds its value really well for consumer electronics. They rarely come up for sale used so command prices close to new units. Even 10-15yr old ones are still in the 50-65% of new prices.
The Brits make (or at least made) great speakers. I have a pair of vintage KEF 101s. They're terrific bookshelf speakers. They were built for the BBC as studio speakers. If you added a sub you would have the complete package.
When I was looking for a sub about 35 years ago I couldn't find one that didn't interfere with the KEFs, so we splurged on the (admittedly huge) Mirage M1s to get adequate base. If we could have gotten a modern sub at that time we probably would have stuck with the KEFs.
Another good brand for vintage British speakers is/was B&W. But after several A vs B listening sessions we bought the KEFs. Got them as the demonstration set (at a very good price) at an audiophile show. They were demonstrating them with a 200 Watt power Amp.
When I was looking for a sub about 35 years ago I couldn't find one that didn't interfere with the KEFs, so we splurged on the (admittedly huge) Mirage M1s to get adequate base. If we could have gotten a modern sub at that time we probably would have stuck with the KEFs.
Another good brand for vintage British speakers is/was B&W. But after several A vs B listening sessions we bought the KEFs. Got them as the demonstration set (at a very good price) at an audiophile show. They were demonstrating them with a 200 Watt power Amp.
The Marantz PN7000N looks very nice. The speaker binding post look substantial. No big deal it doesn't have pre-amp outs. If you were to buy an amp, the pre-amp section of the Marantz would never satisfy in the long run. A dedicated pre-amp would best the Marantz easily. (One of the absolute best affordable (used $250-400) pre-amp I've personally heard is the Rotel RC-1550.) One thing I would absolutely do is upgrade the power cord. I think you did just fine going w/the Marantz. Be sure to use good cabling.
Sansui 5000 FTW!! I'm showing my age!
I'm still waiting to come across a good Sansui AU-7900, I like the looks, specs are good to me, they sound really good, many inputs and they accommodate 2 tape decks...
Yes the 101 were very, very good little boxes, I recall even better than the highly regarded LS 3/5a standard location mobile monitor. I have a pair of their bigger brother, the Reference 103.2 200mm 2-way. The crossovers gave up the ghost - some odd corrosion and shorting. I may just part them out as the hand poured and spun bextrene bass-mid driver is getting impossible to come by.
As a "20 something" in the 1970's I had a pair of KEF Corelli with the T33 tweeter - also quite good compared to most American chipboard boxes stuffed with "whatever" that were quite underdeveloped.
I powered the compact KEF with the excellent APT Holman Amplifier 1 and possibly a conrad-johnson PV4 tube preamp was in the mix. Was rotating through preamps, as it was quite difficult to find a very good preamp under 500 bucks in the 70s through 90's. The excellent Spectral DMC 20 and CAT SL-1 were out of reach.
Good memories of a fun hobby.
KEF Reference 101
KEF Corelli
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I’m no audiophile but after my Denon crapped out I have become very happy with the Sony unit I got.
I updated system about 5 years ago after I refinished the basement into the man cave instead of kids hangout. Kept my old JBL speakers added 4 JBL ceiling speakers got rid of the old amp went with a pioneer elite receiver 9.1 added two monoprice monolith 12" thx subs. Extremely happy price didn't kill me kept it simple but boy does these subs pound made watching movies great. Totally recommend the subs for the price. I have my old Technics turntable boxed I can't even guess how old it is I should dust it off see if it still works but not sure if the pioneer has a input for it
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Thanks for the comments. Seems to me the KEF 101s are actually a high quality version of LS 3/5a. They have gorgeous high and mid ranges and not such great bass. KEF 101s along with a high quality sub would be a very presentable combination. That's pretty good going for a bookshelf speaker. You still find them for sale as used vintage equipment.
They'll take a lot of power too. I wouldn't be concerned about driving them (to moderate volumes at least) with my Mark Levinson (200 Watt RMS/Channel) power amp.
Any waveform can be simulated with enough sine waves. And producing lots of sine waves take lots of power. Thus more power is better.
