Add a stereo amplifier or will an A/V receiver do
Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: And the rest
Forum Name: Audio System Set-Up
Forum Description: Discussions about getting the best from your system (Digital section now moved)
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2559
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 4:28am
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Topic: Add a stereo amplifier or will an A/V receiver do
Posted By: Fuzzy
Subject: Add a stereo amplifier or will an A/V receiver do
Date Posted: 17 May 2015 at 9:57pm
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Hi, The answer to my question (if it is at all a good question) may be obvious to most out here, but it is far from clear to me what I should do :-) I mean, I have a rigg that is focussed on (SA)CD and Blu-ray listening and watching, via a budget Pioneer A/V-receiver. My Project Debut carbon with Denon DL160 cartridge will very soon be connected to that receiver via a Gram Amp 2 SE, which will hopefully give a noticable difference. But I was wondering if upgrading (by adding or changing elements in my set up) is possible, and if yes, how? I mean, are there (half) decent A/V receivers that are also good stereo amplifiers, or would I have to completely change the set up? I do have a budget that can be stretched a little (say beyond £1500), but not too far ;-) Thanks, J. |
Replies:
Posted By: Gary
Date Posted: 17 May 2015 at 10:27pm
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From past experience I'd say an AV receiver will be nowhere near as good as a stereo integrated amp of the same price. If I wanted a combined AV and music system I think I'd be looking in the Arcam direction, but I don't think that would compare to a Majestic, Proprius setup. ------------- Solo ULDE, CuSat50, Spatia Links |
Posted By: miT
Date Posted: 17 May 2015 at 10:42pm
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Hi Fuzzy, I'm not quite sure I understand what you are looking for... Are you after a stereo only (i.e. 2-channel) system or a full surround sound system? What speakers are you using? What is the main focus/usage of your system, music or films? Deciding on the direction you want to go should help others to advise you but in my experience with AV receivers above and below your budget, a good stereo amp will be in a league of its own for 2-channel music and the Proprius will be untouchable. Tim |
Posted By: Fuzzy
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 12:50am
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Hi Gary, Hi Tim, Well, I do have a full surround sound system, but I have a turntable connected to it via a phono preamp. (I'm getting a Gram Amp 2 SE for audition soon.) My A/V receiver has of course an 'analog direct' setting when listening to LPs (which uses probably not a great ADC, to put it mildly, right?). I use a set of Monitor Audio SR6 floorstanding speakers. As of now, the turntable feels kind of an appendix to my setup, but I wish to give it a more prominent role. I think I understand correctly that there is not a way that I can connect my turntable to my floorstanding speakers via for example a Majestic/Proprius setup and at the same time keep those floorstanding speakers connected to my receiver? I mean, I would have to buy separate speakers for a stereo setup for my turntable if I were to use a dedicated stereo amp setup? Sorry if I am not making myself very clear. It is my ignorance. But I hope to learn :-) Jan. |
Posted By: DaveG
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 8:30am
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Hi Jan I had a similar problem some years ago when I used to have an A/V set up that I ran in tandem with my 2 channel, with separate amps. My solution was to run a 2nd set of speaker leads to my mains & swap them over depending on what amp I was using. Not really satisfactory and too many boxes. In the end I ditched the AV setup, I decided that watching movies in stereo was good enough for me. I guess it depends on whether you watch a lot of movies? I would think your MA's are pretty good speakers no? So they're probably not the weak link If you really want to upgrade it may be possible to find a receiver within your budget that performs well with music and movies, but I don't know enough about them to be able to recommend one. Arcam as suggested above would probably be a good starting point. I'd take it one step at a time, I would expect the Gram Amp to be a big improvement on the NAD. Try it out & see first if you can hear an improvement through your system. If you can, and decide to buy one, then see how much vinyl listening you do over the next few months, compared to other sources. That might give you a better idea what to target for future upgrades. It can get expensive if you don't have a plan and try too many different things (I know, I've done it  )Good luck.... and welcome to the forums!  ------------- Dave Michell Gorbe + HR PSU -> Cadenza Bronze -> SME V -> Elevator -> Accession -> Proprius -> B&W CM6 s2 | Cusat 50 & Spatia cables -> 
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Posted By: miT
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 9:00am
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Wise words from DaveG. I agree that the best course of action is to plan it out first after analysing your usage. And maybe keep in mind the option of a headphone only music system (if circumstances permit) as that would be well under budget with a set of Ash's HD540s? On the AV receiver side of things, Arcam aren't known to be the most reliable according to AV biased forums. I tried Rotel before and while very musical a GSP system would easily beat it, but I guess how critical you are of music plays a big part too. If you can live with the extra boxes, it maybe worth separating your TT/music system from your AV system and keep swapping the speaker cables over. Even if you could join the two, the less you have in the chain, the better. I'm confident you couldn't beat the GSP music reproduction with an AV amp of any cost, and I've heard some costing over £100k. But then Graham hasn't started making AV receivers yet...
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Posted By: JamesD
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 6:37pm
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If it helps I was in a quandary over music (stereo) listening and surround sound film watching but I started with a stereo system first. I didn't want to have any more main/front speakers in my living room (5 or 7 channel surround means enough speakers are in there as it is) and didn't want to have to be plugging/unplugging wires. Neither did I want to compromise when it came to stereo listening which is what I listen to most of the time. The result was that I bought a second-hand Yamaha AV receiver that had pre-outs (line-level outputs) for all the 5/7 channels required for surround sound. The front two pre-out channels are fed into my stereo integrated amp which means the AV receiver's own amplifiers for the front two speakers are redundant. The AV amp only powers the centre and rear/surround speakers. In this way my stereo amp is always used to power my home-made (and very good IMO) speakers regardless of whether I'm listening to music or watching a film. To calibrate the surround sound I just set my integrated amp to a certain moderate volume level ("30" on my setup) and then run the AV amp calibration tool with the microphone as usual. Then, when watching movies I always make sure the volume level on the integrated amp is set to that same volume level ("30"). The remote control for the AV amp can then be used as usual to adjust the volume of the whole setup. Despite the Yamaha amp having good reviews (in What Hifi etc) I don't find the amp anywhere near as good as my integrated stereo amp. The FM receiver in the AV amp is particularly poor in comparison to every other FM receiver I have. ------------- Aren't ears brilliant |
Posted By: discrete badger
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 8:09pm
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I do the same thing as JamesD, with a slight extension. I have a pair of cheap unobtrusive speakers, Monitor Audio Vector V10s, on the speaker outs of the Denon AV-amp. There's certainly no comparison whatsoever with the big electrostats for serious music listening, but for normal, everyday TV use with typical low quality soundtracks they're adequate. This avoids the need to power up the 2-channel system and burn hours out the of finite lifespan of the panels in my electrostats when the source material doesn't really warrant it. But I also have the front pre-outs running into an aux-in on the 2 channel system, so when a high-quality soundtrack is available on blu-ray or DVD, I can simply mute the V10s and set the 2-channel volume to a precalibrated fixed level and control the volume on the AV amp. The high-pass, time delay and room correction settings on the AV amp are all calibrated for the big speakers, not the small ones. The added benefit in this scenario is that with the bass management in the AV amp, the bulk of the bass goes directly to the subwoofer, rather than to the electrostats, meaning that they can be played at crazy cinema levels without their panel protection circuitry activating. |
Posted By: miT
Date Posted: 18 May 2015 at 9:50pm
| Nice one guys. I wondered if something like this would be an option but wasn't sure... Glad to hear from more experienced ones. |
Posted By: Fuzzy
Date Posted: 19 May 2015 at 12:34am
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Hi guys, Thank you all for your advice! I will certainly take it one step at a time and see what satisfaction that gives me, and if that will do (for now). I mean, I hope the Gram Amp 2 SE will already cause a pretty improvement. But the different solutions you have found out are certainly interesting, and something to slowly get my head around first :-) I guess I will indeed have to take my time, set my priorities, and know when I have reached a level of satisfaction that will suffice, at least for now. Thanks again for making things clearer for me :-) |
Posted By: morris_minor
Date Posted: 19 May 2015 at 4:22pm
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My solution to an AV system that plays music well was to ditch an AV amp and get an AV pre-amp - in my case an Audiolab 8200AP which in AV terms is very basic, but built for good audio. A pair of Proprius handle the front channels, and because AV is rather a secondary function for me a little T-amp does the rear speakers (no centre speaker). Analogue inputs are set to "direct" to bypass any sound processing and the sub only operates in AV modes. The Proprius amps drive some PMC Gb1i speakers. Music sounds great, and actually AV is pretty awesome, as well as SACD/DVD-A multichannel. ------------- Bob Majestic DAC/pre-amp Accession MC/Enigma, Accession MM, Reflex M, Elevator EXP, Era Gold V Solo ULDE, Novo, Lautus USB and digital, Libran balanced, CuSat50 2 x Proprius + Spatia/Spatia Links |