Hifi blew up - chance for new AV amp? Suggestions please :)

[Fat Tone]

I have (had) a NAD 505 receiver (amp + tuner), about 9 years old, already repaired once, remote lost (child threw in bin?) and a NAD 705 5-disc CD player. They are in a nice peice of furniture in one corner of the lounge. The amp blew up on Saturday (first one channel went dead, then something smoked inside. Haven't looked yet to see what.)

At the opposite end of the room is my Hitachi 28" widescreen (with Dolby Pro Logic) and under that (apart from the VHS & digital Cable box) is my Scan SC2000 DVD player, which doesn't have 5.1 decoding, and in my opinion doesn't do a very good job of downmixing. For Example, Jurassic Park 2 has both 5.1 & Pro Logic tracks. The Pro Logic track seems much more detailed. As more and more discs are coming with only 5.1 and above this is becoming a problem.

So: Is this an opportunity to replace my amp with something that has a 5.1 decoder in it, and have my two systems combined? I'm already sharing the hifi speakers with the TV via a switch box to provide FL & FR.

Ideally the amp will let me continue to use my CD player, will be in the HIFI Cabinet, and will have an RDS tuner. I guess it is too early to go for digital radio. My budget won't be big.

TIA

T.

[Fat Tone]

Guess I should have visited www.richersounds.co.uk before posting such a newbie question. They have quite a few AV amps in the £130 to £180 range.

Any opinions on the Aiwa AVD58 (£150), or the Kenwood KRFV5050 (£170) or the Sherwood RD6103 (£180)?

T.

[dave m]

The Yamaha RXV520RDS at £179.99 from them is a nice price if it's TSP of £349.99 is true. I've got the 420 and am extremely pleased with it.

Dave

[Jammrock]

Don't know what you can and can't get in the UK compared to the US, but here are some manufactures that make good AV amps and DD/DTS decoders, and don't have astronomical prices:

Denon - Look at the AVR line. I have the 3802, which is very nice. The 2802 is a little less powerful, but should suite your needs and budget a bit better.

Marantz - Check out the SR line.

Yahmaha - Very good receivers at a good price.

Onkyo/Integra - On par with the rest in performance/price.

Jammrock

[Fat Tone]

Thanks Guys. I've just taken a walk to the local Richer Sounds shop, but the sales guy just tried to sell me the Sherwood model, dismissing the others. He did come clean and say it wasn't very good as a stereo amp.

dave m, the 420 is actually £215 from Richer S! Makes me wonder if a bigger number does equal a better model! What did you pay for the 420? I did find a very favourable review of it.

Any opinions on the use of these amps as a hifi replacement? Please bear in mind that my (front) speakers are Keff Coda 7s, my lounge room is ~4.5m x 3.5m excluding bays etc, and I don't have what you would call audiophile ears or tastes! I guess I just don't want to regret not having the NAD repaired when listening to music.

Cheers,

T.

[RichL]

I'd be interested in the answer to this question too! The biggest stumbling block I have to going DVD/Surround Sound is that I cant see a £200 box of AV trickery having the same sound quality as my old Rotel 920BX on regular audio.

I suppose you could do what I was thinking of doing, which is to add a seperate AV amp and a pair of cheap (£100 Mission 702) floorstanders in addition to my wallmounted Castle Trents.
But that assumes you have the space and the wife for it

[Fat Tone]

Originally posted by RichL
But that assumes you have the space and the wife for it

LOL!

I think the wife is quite shell shocked atm and will agree to most things We've spent quite a lot lately on the house & car, in preparation for another 5 years of poverty (2nd kid) so I guess another few hundred quid won't even be noticed

Seriously, it's a choice between £50 to repair an old, incomplete amp, or another £100 or so to get the 5.1 decoding I've always regretted not having in my DVD.

I like the mission 700 range though! Used to have a pair of the original model

T.

[dave m]

Tony, the 420 is a baby brother of the highly regarded 620, and is more than powerful enough to fill my 30 foot by 20 foot room. I hadn't heard of the 520 but assume it's somewhere in between. Note that the recommended selling price of the 420 is much lower than they quote for the 520, so the 520 probably is a higher spec.

I got mine from hifijunkies.co.uk before Christmas and I paid around £230 for it (they don't seem to stock it any more).

I've heard a number of stories of Richer Sounds trying to sell you their flavour of the month (often a Sherwood) regardless of what you went into purchase

I'm happy with the way the Yamaha sounds with music, but then we have the living room set up as a family listening room ie mostly home cinema. For serious music listening we kept our hifi and installed it in the study. The consensus seems to be that you can't get something for nothing and so a six channel 5.1 amp won't compete with a similarly priced 2 channel audiophile amp. I didn't compare it with the amp it replaced but am happy with the way it sounds. If it's something that worries you listen to music on the amp you're interested in before parting with your cash.

HTH

Dave

[fleabus2]

Hi:

I'd recommend a Denon AVR-3802. Leaps and bounds better in all aspects than the Pioneer VSX-901s Pro-Logic I used before.
I don't bother with a sub. With my fronts that would be silly. Cewin-Vega D9 (102dB [1W @ 1m]. Nothing "down there" that they don't easily get and the Denon reproduces all sound cleanly and easily with no obvious stress during peaks. I don't know what the dynamic headroom spec would be but I suspect it would be high. It performs fine in any form of surround and very well in two channel too.
It works great with what I have hooked up to it and functions well as an A/V switcher too. I route all A/V through it.

36" Sony FD Trinitron Wega XBR KV-36XBR400 NTSC
-Component & S-video
Denon DVD-2800 progressive scan DVD Player
-Component, S-video & Optical
JVC HM-HDS1U Hybrid HDD/S-VHS VCR
-S-video & analog audio
Matrox G200 Mystique (my G400Max died!)
-S-video
CL SB Live Full
-S/PDIF & analog audio
FM from analog Cable TV hookup

Happy trails,

[Jammrock]

The 3802 is very nice, but I think it's a bit out of his price range wants. The 2802 should be sufficient, especially if he keeps his Rotel amp (which you should)...what is your price range anyway.

For my HT rig, I use the Denon 3802 as the preamp/tuner/decoder and does amplification ONLY on the center and rears. To power my fronts I run through a Rotel RB-1080 2x200W amp. Although I like my Denon, it can't compare to the Rotel in sound reproduction.

The only major differences between the 2802 and 3802 is the number of input/ouputs and the power rating. The 2802 should be more than sufficient to power a nice center and surrounds. Use the preamp outs to the Rotel amp. Or on whatever receiver you get...just make sure they have preamp outs so you can use the Rotel.

Jammrock

Denon AVR-3802 | Rotel RB-1080 | Rotel RCD-1070 | Fronts: B&W CDM 9NT | Center: B&W CDM CNT | Surrounds: B&W CDm SNT | Panasonic DVD-310A | Panasonic 27" TV (guess what gets replaced next?) | Audio Quest Diamonback interconnects, LAT International SS-In Wall and SS-1000 D Bi-Wired speaker cable

[UncleJoe]

Yamaha RXV520 is quite qood and RXV620 too (620 does have better connectors for rear speakers).

[Fat Tone]

Looks like the Denon 2802 it a little out of my price range at ~£550. I think I can justify £200 if I say it quickly!
The best price I can find the Yamaha 520 elsewhere is £250 but it looks like the x20 range has been superceeded by the x30 range.

Dave - how do you have yours set up? The specs call it a 5-channel amplifier (http://www.yamaha.fi/kuvat/news/Yamaha_RX-V520-V420.pdf) but it does have a separate subwoofer output. Does that count as true 5.1?

T.

[dave m]

Tony,
All home 5.1 amps have 5 channels of amplified sound and a line feed to an active ie self amplified subwoofer.

Most, including the Yamahas, will let you send that signal to your main/all speakers if you don't have a subwoofer yet.

So yes, it's a 5 channel amplifier, with a subwoofer unamplified output, that's a normal true 5.1

I made the same mistake myself and had to persuade a significant other that I had to then spend even more on a Yamaha self powered sub. But you can feed the subwoofer output through your main speakers, it will be fine.

By the way, good luck in October, we got Charlotte (now six months) to fall asleep to low, womb-like rumbles from a Yamaha 205 subwoofer attached to the 420 amp

Dave

[Jammrock]

550 pounds for a 2802?!?! That's how much they cost USD (as in $550)!! Look into Yahmaha or the 1802. Seems like Denon is more expensive than usual over there.

Jammrock

[Fat Tone]

Dave - thanks for clearing that up. A sub would be a good addition when using stereo as the Kefs struggle low down. Actually the TV does a very good job down there, but that is disabled as soon as I use the external speakers
Thanks also for the extra justification for buying a sub

Jammrock - thats often the way here. Pounds for dollars. Best price I saw was £527+del.

How long an optical lead can I buy? In one configuration I'll need 0.25m, in another I'll need 10-12m. And what should they cost?

Tony.

[edit: typo]