So, I have a few questions for you before I start down a specific direction:
1. Is the type/quality of room correction, such as Dirac or ARC, a required item?
2. Is the quality of the analog audio circuit important?
3. Is upgradability an important factor? (if so, then NAD is really the only option within your budget).
4. Would you consider buying used? Or do you want only new equipment?
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Okay, I'm doing an approach based on your budget as well as my own preference. I am not one who likes room correction systems, so my approach is fully based on sound quality alone. First, I would look at picking up a Marantz AV7703 or AV7704 HT processor. These are just the recent generations. They will only be less then a couple years old and they will also support 4K and many of the newer features. The reason I recommend this is that the Marantz processors (as well as the upper end receivers), are the only items at this price level that have fully discrete analog output circuits (instead of op amps like everybody else). They are excellent sound quality, but are on the warm sounding side, so I would also recommend upgrading the internal fuse to something like Hi-Fi Tuning "Supreme" or "Silverstar" fuses. These are silver fuses and will increase the high frequency resolution. You may also find that you need to upgrade the power cord to have something like silver-plated plug/IEC connectors or even silver plated copper wiring (I generally don't advise silver, but in this case I think you will need it). The AV7703 and AV7704 can be easily found on ebay between the $700 and $1200 range.
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This leaves a great portion of your budget for amplification. The B&W really need a high resolution amp with lots of current. There is a Krell S-1500 on audiogon for $2800 that would be an excellent candidate. There is a Classe Sigma Amp5 for $3000 that could be another good choice. I would avoid warm sounding amps like McIntosh, Adcom, B&K, Acurus, etc. If you can find a used Emotiva XPR-5 or even XPA-5, those would work great.
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If you are going the receiver plus amp route, the higher end Marantz may be a choice, but only if you do a fuse/powercord upgrade. Otherwise, the Anthem MRX receivers are about the highest resolution receivers for sound quality. Then find a very high resolution 2-channel amp.
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If you get a stock Marantz receiver or HT processor and do not do a fuse or power cord upgrade, then a super fast Bryston amp could be a very good match to the "warm" sounding Marantz.
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I do think Denon doesn't have great sound quality and sounds just like every other conventional receiver, such as Onkyo, Integra, Sony, Pioneer. The best receivers, in my opinion, are Marantz (warm), Anthem (best resolution), and Yamaha is not bad sounding either.
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Relating to your fuse question. Fuses are a way to tune the sound of your system/equipment, and most all of upgraded fuses are going to be better than stock fuses. However, the choice of fuse depends entirely on what you currently have and system synergy. So.... I have 3 types of fuses that I generally use:
Furutech rhodium - this is my standard fuse and has excellent resolution and detail (but an incredibly long burn in time). Made from pure copper and uses rhodium plated end caps. However, in some cases, too many of these can slow down the sound too much. It depends.
Hi-Fi Tuning "Supreme" or "Silverstar". The "Silverstar" is 100% silver all the way through". The "Supreme" uses a 99% silver / 1% gold mixture. These are very fast conducting and can be used to increase the resolution and attack/detail of the sound. But in some cases, it can cause the sound to become too bright/fast.
Isoclean or Hi-Fi Tuning "Cu". These are all pure copper and gold plated. They will warm up the sound and have rolled-off highs. Great for a system that is too bright or fast or harsh.
So, I have found use for all these fuses in different systems. My computer audio system uses Furutech fuses all the way through and has excellent sound.
My main system uses B&W speakers with Parasound amps. I have JC1 for left/right and I had to load these fully with Hi-Fi Tuning Supreme because the JC1 was just too warm and did not have fast enough resolution.
My surround speakers are older Focal and the Parasound A21 amp had to be loaded only with Furutech. If I put just one Hi-Fi Tuning in the amp, the sound became a little too bright edged and lost body.
My Emotiva XPR amps uses 2 Furutech fuses for the best sound.
I have had a cheaper Yamaha receiver that I had to load with one Furutech and one Hi-Fi Tuning Supreme to get the best balance.
A very fast Bryston amp would use an Isoclean or Hi-Fi Tuining "Cu" gold plated fuses to calm down the fast bright/harsh sound. |
I have tried several different HT Processors and also tried room correction. I had a Theta processor that did Dirac room correction. No matter what I did, the Dirac was very intrusive to the sound and did funny things to the phasing - it was like the sound was at my head/ears (like headphones) instead of far out in front of me. The sound also became too smooth and it removed the micro details/textures. For bass, Dirac over equalized the spots where I had bass nulls and caused the drivers to peak out. I also did a Yamaha YPAO calibration in another theater and it just sounded better and more natural with YPAO turned off. I have found that you get better sound in the end if you just do acoustic room treatments instead of using room correction/EQ. I am probably an exception to this, as many others here say that room correction is great.
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I don’t know about the "Marantz not like they were 20 years ago". I have been following what Marantz has been doing for many years. They made a big jump since they upgraded/modified their original HDAM circuit years ago. This started with the AV7702 and AV8802 processors (the AV8801 had the older/slower circuit). They have excellent power supply design and, of course, a fully discrete analog output stage. I recently had a friend bring a brand new AV8805 processor to test my in system. We all were very impressed for a processor at the $4500 level. It had excellent sound quality and impact/fullness of sound, but it does have a slightly warm character (slightly rolled off highs) - which is why I said that this Marantz should be upgraded with silver fuse and/or silver power cord.
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I have owned several different Emotiva amps over the years. Emotiva is a very good amplifier "for the money". Just like the Monoprice Monolith. We had a discussion on this in another forum - the Emotiva may be more refined than Monoprice, but the current generation Emotiva uses a switching power supply (Gen 3) and does not have quite as much bass authority as the Monoprice. The older Emotiva amps with their huge transformer and power supplies would probably do better. However, these amps are not better than stuff like Rotel, NAD, Parasound etc.
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Oh , out of those amps, probably the Rotel would be best. Then Emotiva/Monoprice
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I cannot really say anything about "Vietnam being worse than japan/china". I really don't have any knowledge regarding this. However, I have ordered individual electronic parts (capacitors, op amps, etc.) from digikey/mauser and they always come with a packing slip that indicates the origin of that batch. I have had parts that came from Japan, Malaysia and even Mexico. So even though it's "manufactured in Vietnam", the individual parts could come from anywhere. The electronics industry is now a world market.
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I can really only tell you how I believe a particular piece of equipment is going to sound based on the circuit design, personal experience, and youtube videos. So if you feel nervous about buying something made in Vietnam, by all means go buy something you feel comfortable with!
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I don't think there is really a firm "rule" when choosing fuses. It is a tool to tune sound, just like power cords, interconnect, speaker cable. They all affect the end result in some fashion or another. If you want a good cable brand, my usual recommendation are Audioquest and Wire World. Audio quest is mostly solid core (except for the cheap stuff). Wire World is not quite solid-core, but it's close. Then pay attention to the types of terminations and wire (copper, silver-palted, silver, etc.) and choose based on how you want your equipment to sound.
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Parasound is an excellent amp, but it is voiced warm with softer highs. The fuse combinations all depend on what kind of speakers you have - as I said, with my B&W D3, I had to use all silver fuses in the amps. However, with Focal, which is a much faster responding speaker, I could not use a single silver fuse and had to use all Furutech rhodium fuses.
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In my listening and opinion, Anthem amps have a weird sort of compressed sound to them. It's hard to explain, but they don't seem to have very good high resolution "air" and seem to compress or create a messy like signature in the mids. Other people may have different opinions, but this is what I hear with the Anthem amps. The Anthem MRX receivers do not seem to have this sonic signature.
The Rotel would probably be the best fit among the brands we have mentioned. I heard Rotel amps at RMAF and they are very refined and actually sounded very good. They are not as "warm" sounding as Parasound or NAD and have more resolution than Parasound/NAD/Anthem.
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Are you willing to do some DIY work? Audioquest NRG-2 power cords can be had for less than $75. Then chop the ends and cut/strip the conductors and clamp them into a new Furutech FI-11-N1 (Ag) silver or a (R) rhodium IEC connector. For male plug, you can do Furutech FI-11M-N1 (R) rhodium or the Cardas 3455R. Many people don't realize that the connector plugs are a significant element of the sound quality.
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Don't forget about the Hi-Fi Tuning Supreme/Silverstar SMALL 2A fuse for the Marantz!
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Oh, if you got a different HT Processor, you might consider how the synergy would work with the amp, but the Maratnz is so warm sounding that I think you really need silver/rhodium on the IEC plug (probably silver is best).
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That Audioquest NRG-2 is about the minimum I would suggest for a DIY project. The Audioquest NRG-4 and NRG-5 cables are much better. The NRG-5 actually has the best copper but it is 14awg. The NRG-4 still has very excellent copper, but it is larger at 13awg. All of my cables are Audioquest NRG-4 that have been chopped and terminated with Furutech FI-28 rhodium plugs. Each one is pretty much a $400-450 investment, but I think it will outperform many other manufactured cables that are a lot more. The NRG-4 and NRG-5 cables are more expensive, of course.
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You don't necessarily have to replace the IEC inlet on the Marantz. You can if you want, but you really have to look inside to see what the stock inlet is like. Sometimes they are attached/mounted directly on a circuit board and you cannot do anything with this. If it's a standard inlet with wires attached via clips, you can replace it. Furutech makes several IEC inlets and some have a built-in filter. I would recommend the rhodium, as gold-plated will increase the warmth and roll off the highs on the Marantz.
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The fuse is something that you only have to buy if it blows. It does not require any sort of maintenance. However, stock fuses are not always the best sounding. I recommended the Hi-Fi Tuning silver fuses because the Marantz is so warm and needs all the "silver" you can get to increase the speed and resolution. Of course, if you want to see how the Marantz sounds "stock", that's totally fine. You might feel just fine with the sound. If you do get the fuse, be aware that it has a 12-14 day burn in (you need to keep the Marantz turned on 24 hours a day for about 2 weeks). The fuse will go through all sorts of changes, from sounding bright/harsh in the midrange to very warm/mushy.
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I will also agree with caphill that you should NOT get any Rotel amp that is a Class D circuit. They will sound weak and anemic and will not have bass impact or be engaging at all! The normal Rotel Class AB amps are very excellent, however.
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The NRG-5 is an older cable and is no longer made.
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The problem with the Rotel Class D is likely because of the switching power supply they use. Also, not all Class D circuits are the same or act the same. If you are interested in getting a Class D solution, the ATI amplifiers (AT52x and AT54x) are much better designs that use a full linear power supply and the latest "nCore" amp board technology. There are other manufacturers as well. My impressions of Class D is that the amp can sound extremely clean with excellent separation of insturments and clarity. However, it lacks that very high frequency resolution or "air" that adds life to the music. Many people love their Class D amps, but I prefer the Class AB type.
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I think Audioquest cables are pretty decent because they all use a 21awg solid core conductor. I think 20awg is the sweet spot, but 21awg is just fine. You then have to look at how good of copper you want and what kind of terminations (either gold-plated or silver-plated). The more expensive models have the DBS battery thing which I have never tested. Wire World also has very excellent cables.
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For Toslink, don't even try to use them because the are the worst digital transfer, but if you absolutely have to , Lifatec cables are the best for the money.
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For digital COAX, if you are on a budget, get the Beldon 1694A from Blue Jeans cables and minimum 6 feet for any digital cable. If you have money, then spend $230 or so on DH Labs D-750 cable. Or somewhere in between with an Audioquest digital COAX. For USB/Cat6, I don't know, but I do know that silver or pure silver is the best for any digital cable.
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I usually recommend a 2A slow-blow for HT processors like that.
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Parts Connexion is selling out the Hi-Fi Tuning Silverstar fuses for 60% off. The SMALL are $15.98 each. Otherwise, I usually try to buy from VH Audio, unless he is out of stock. The Cable Company also sells fuses, but sometimes the price is a little bit higher.
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Silverstar is discontinued by Hi-Fi Tuning, which is why Parts Connexion is selling them out at 60% off. Parts Connexion still has 1.8A and 2.5A SMALL slow blow fuses in Silverstar line. You will probably be fine with either. Otherwise, you can choose Supreme if you wish.
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I have used both Silverstar and Supreme. Silverstar is 100% silver and is very fast/bright. Supreme is 99% silver, 1% gold. Supreme is not quite as fast (probably about 95% as fast sounding as Silverstar) and I would say that it is just a tiny bit warmer (but it is still fast like a silver fuse).
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1.8A is fine. That's enough for 216 watts of A/C power, which the HT Processor will not come close to using.
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Best I can tell, the Acurus/Mondial amps are a slightly colored / slightly liquid type of sonic signature - much like the liquid/lush cleaner type "Class A" amps, such as the older Krell (or new Krell iBias) or even a little like Levinson (though, not nearly as liquidy sounding as Mark Levinson is). If this is the sound you're after, you could give it a try, but I suspect the warm sounding Marantz may create somewhat of a mush/mess with this amp. If you got a very clean HT processor, such as the Anthem, then the Acurus might have been an interesting "coloration" on the sound. The Acurus is not completely clean/clear when compared to other amps. I would take that "200 hours" with a huge grain of salt! lol.
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The Rotel amplifiers are going to sound a lot cleaner and clearer and they mate well with the B&W speakers. There is an Emotiva XPA-5 "Gen 1" on audiogon for $699 OBO. The Emotiva is a very fast amp, but if you load it with Furutech fuses, it sounds quite good. It may be a good match between Marantz processor and B&W speakers.
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There is a Rotel RMB-1582 for $699. It's only stereo, but you could start with that and then look for another good resolution 3-channel amp.
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Just ideas.
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B&K - I had a B&K 7200 a long time ago. It was a very nice amp, very powerful. However, in the end, it was just too warm sounding for me. Nice amp, though, if you like the warm sound.
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Sunfire Cinema Grand - I also had one of these. The sound was pretty good, but ultimately it wasn't that interesting/exciting. Good resolution, but the circuit was much like a class d circuit (patented downconverter). It sounded rather boring. Others have different opinions.
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Classe - the older Classe Audio amps and equipment were a LOT warmer sounding than the new stuff. Nice, but warm, lol.
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Parasound HCA and Classic - these are lesser refined versions of the Halo A21 stuff. Very good for the money and can pack a lot of power. Parasound is on the slightly warm side of neutral, but not as warm as B&K. However, pairing warm Parasound with the warm Marantz may lose too much resolution.
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Bryston - this is the one amp out of the list that is different from the rest, lol. Bryston is extremely fast and high resolution. The older first generation stuff was somewhat dull sounding, but they got better and better as time went on. The SST2 version is probably the oldest I would buy right now. It is very fast and high resolution, but I think it was a little sterile. Not bad at all. It might work out very well with the stock Marantz processor (without the fuse upgrade). You could try the Bryston amp and do a Furutech fuse upgrade internally - that might make it sing better. The Bryston is likely a little faster and much more refined than the Emotiva XPA amp. I've heard people who had Marantz processor with a Bryston amp and they were very happy. |
Bryston is a very good device. I tested the latest 7b3 monoblocks in my system. They were just about the highest resolution amplifier I have heard, but they were not a good match. The Bryston amp is extremely fast and high resolution. The problem is that it's too fast for my Krell preamp and rhodium plated cabling. The sound was just too lean in the midbass and too thin in the midrange. The Bryston would likely pair very well with a warm preamp and gold-plated terminations on cables. That's why I put a positive slant on the Bryston with your Marantz 7704. If you did go with Bryston, I would try it out "stock" first, without any fuse upgrades in either the Bryston or Marantz. If the sound is good, then you're fine. A Furutech fuse in this scenario would increase the midbass and midrange body and give you better depth. A silver fuse with Bryston/Marantz could be too fast and too bright/thin.
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Based on googling, the Lexicon branded Bryston amps were the older second generation. The following shows the entire list of versions for the Bryston 4B amp:
4B ==> 4B ST ==> 4B SST ==> 4B SST2 ==> 4B3 (cubed).
I don't know anything about Lexicon today.
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