Suggestion for best surround amp just for music under £1000

[gazzaworcs]

Ive currently got a Yamaha RX-V667 amp and I'm looking to upgrade. I only use it for 5.1 and 2.1 music so need recomendations for best sounding amp under £1000. Any help and direction would be recommended, I have heard Anthem make very good sounding amps but they look a little pricy

 

[kap'n krunch]

England, huh?..wouldn't know what to suggest. After living in Spain for a very long time I decided to pack my things and come to the USSR, i mean, the USA..needed a new amp and a friend and fellow member suggested a Marantz, which I did but it was a bit too much for me, so I looked for an earlier model, which i found online in "refurbished" condition for less than half its price..maybe you could look for a similar one.
BTW, welcome to the forum (we got fun and games)!!

 

[ubertrout]

Listen to AVRs and choose the one you like - at that budget you're not going to get something super fancy, but that's okay.

I don't know the UK market, but Sony ES receivers tend to be available for well below MSRP in the US if you look carefully because they're not generally marketed to consumers.

 

[jimfisheye]

Just FYI
You don't have to buy all channels of your surround amps built into the same box (eg. a "surround receiver"). You can simply use enough channels of stereo (or mono) amps and your own preamp.

I'm not suggesting this to make the setup more complex vs a traditional "receiver". More for the person that may have a few amps available or has found more bang for the buck buying separate pieces to avoid reinventing the wheel as it were. Another example along those lines is if you only need amplification but already have expensive DA converters. You sure wouldn't want to invest in more converters by getting a surround receiver (which includes DACs which are included in the price).

 

[MrSmithers]

That’s a tasty budget! I’d probably suggest the Denon AVRX4400. I’ve not actually heard it but I think it does everything you could possibly want?

I have a sub 500 quid Sony ST1080 and it works for everything I need. It does Multichannel DSD so I can listen to all my SACD’s from my computer over DNLA. The only bugbear is it doesn’t do gapless playback, which I think the denon does? If it the denon can do MCH dsd then I’d recommend it in a jiffy, without even hearing it!

 

[gazzaworcs]

Just FYI
You don't have to buy all channels of your surround amps built into the same box (eg. a "surround receiver"). You can simply use enough channels of stereo (or mono) amps and your own preamp.

I'm not suggesting this to make the setup more complex vs a traditional "receiver". More for the person that may have a few amps available or has found more bang for the buck buying separate pieces to avoid reinventing the wheel as it were. Another example along those lines is if you only need amplification but already have expensive DA converters. You sure wouldn't want to invest in more converters by getting a surround receiver (which includes DACs which are included in the price).

It's a good point I have looked at getting a 2 channel amp as a power amp for the fronts connected via pre outs from my existing AVR

 

[kap'n krunch]

Just FYI
You don't have to buy all channels of your surround amps built into the same box (eg. a "surround receiver"). You can simply use enough channels of stereo (or mono) amps and your own preamp.

I'm not suggesting this to make the setup more complex vs a traditional "receiver". More for the person that may have a few amps available or has found more bang for the buck buying separate pieces to avoid reinventing the wheel as it were. Another example along those lines is if you only need amplification but already have expensive DA converters. You sure wouldn't want to invest in more converters by getting a surround receiver (which includes DACs which are included in the price).

Great idea...only thing that would be missing(which may be according to the user's needs/tastes) is the synthesized/fake quad/mch thru DPLII, etc...

 

[ar surround]

It's a good point I have looked at getting a 2 channel amp as a power amp for the fronts connected via pre outs from my existing AVR

Using a separate stereo amp to drive the fronts is often a very good idea especially if the sensitivity of your front speakers is low, i.e. 87-88dB. The amp has its own power supply which should allow it to deliver its full rated RMS power within its distortion ratings.

With my first AVR, an HK rated at 125wpc, I used my existing Yamaha M45 (also 125wpc) for the front speaker amplification and the AVR's built-in amps for the center, surrounds and rears. Then I briefly tried just using the AVR to amplify all 7 speakers and there was markedly more "compression"...The AVR was not capable of delivering 125wpc with all channels driven by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[jimfisheye]

An understanding of the basic pieces of equipment is a good thing. That leads to recognizing them in combo devices (like a surround receiver which puts an audio interface, DA converters, preamp, and power amps in the same box). That leads to not purchasing duplicates of expensive items that you will never use!

Heh, buying a whole surround receiver for a few digital fx (synthesized surround, reverb fx, etc) might be the lowest bang for the buck purchase I could imagine. On the other hand... A carefully planned out system using such a device intentionally for its big ticket items (converters and amps) might make those added digital fx a cool bonus.

Another example:
If you bought an expensive receiver partly for high quality DA converters, don't buy a DVD player with equally expensive DA converters that you will never even use. Buy one with a digital output only.

There are SO many combo devices sold nowadays. You really want to take a step back and take inventory. You can have comical scenarios where you end up duplicating expensive items and are still left missing something required for your system.

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

That’s a tasty budget! I’d probably suggest the Denon AVRX4400. I’ve not actually heard it but I think it does everything you could possibly want?

I have a sub 500 quid Sony ST1080 and it works for everything I need. It does Multichannel DSD so I can listen to all my SACD’s from my computer over DNLA. The only bugbear is it doesn’t do gapless playback, which I think the denon does? If it the denon can do MCH dsd then I’d recommend it in a jiffy, without even hearing it!

Yes, my Denon AVR-X4400H does do two-channel DSD Gapless Play via the USB input. Unfortunately, no sign of DSD 5.1 anything nor 5.1 Flac. Have not checked 5.1 WAV files because I have none. Not sure about DLNA either.

 

[MrSmithers]

Hey Perp, it was a real struggle to get the 5.1 dsd thing running on my unit. I had to change endless things on the JRiver xml.fileassosiations to get it working. Happy to explain more - just wondered if you'd tried that route? Think you can download a demo version of JRiver for a month free... If not I think you can get a fix with a blu ray player that plays SACD over HDMI?

 

[Jeffrey Michael]

Fortunately, I stopped using a PC and don’t own a MAC. I strictly rely on my iOS devices. Unfortunately, I can no longer download music, etc, only stream from streaming services via HEOS built into my Denon AVR.