Which amp

[twoblacklines]

Budget £375

Sick of buying 2nd hand. My hk680 lasted 2 months before failure and this Sony ES, whilst very good, does not suit my musical taste (no bass oomph), and I can't seem to sell it on.

I have come to the conclusion that it is between the following:

Onkyo A9050

Yamaha AS700BL

Any ideas which I should buy?

 

[Cable Monkey]

How did you reach that conclusion, do they actually do what you require?

Thing is I am pretty sure the Harman Kardon and Sony choices were recommendations here and they didn't work out.

You need to get out and hear some kit. I know that isn't always possible but the only way to find out what suits you is to convince someone to let you hear the kit before committing to buy. I will also be brutally honest and say that £375 doesn't buy much new.

 

[James Evans]

There's always the myryad mi av bristol have on eBay. In budget, which is not bad for a previously £1275 all in one system. CD, dab, fm, dac, ipod connectivity and amp in one.

you don't say what the rest of your system is btw, or the kind of room it's in?

 

[vacdac]

Superfi currently have the range topping Yamaha AS700 integrated you mention on @ £355 which is excellent VFM....its really not at all bad & a good mate of mine has been running one v happily for around 3 years. It's fairly fully featured & t' SQ is pretty good I've always thought.....she's been v happy & although the built in phono stage is pretty good she's moved on to an AT lomc & is now using my old Project Tube-box s.e.

Sounded excellent with her Acoustic energy Aelite 2's & actually even better with my old M.A. RS8's which seem to gel better in her room & with t' Yammy amp than they ever did in my room/Setup.

IIRC its rated by Yamaha at around 100watts RMS into 8ohms but I know Hi-Fi World did some measurements & found it to put out around 135watts per channel RMS at 8ohms, it has a lot of 'poke' fer a budget amp. I think Superfi do a 2yr warranty as standard & that Yammy IIRC may offer this length of warranty as standard in any case. Longer than average warranties are always attractive for new kit & this amp seems pretty competitive for that sorta wonga££££.

 

[banjoman]

The new Yamaha amps are really good VFM. And really well built too.

If you can stretch your budget a wee bit, an ex demo Rega Brio-R could be a great choice

 

[twoblacklines]

The Onkyo appealed as it has a built in DAC.

It would cost me more than £400 in fuel costs to go and sample these amps. I live in the bottom end of the country. I have the same issue with cars - trying to upgrade my A3 at the moment and all the ones in budget are over 200 miles away. It is more the time than the money that is expensive, I have a 15 week old puppy with me all the time and I run 3 business' at the same time!

Does the Yamaha have bass controls? For late night listening?

I am running AE Neo V3's.

 

[vacdac]

Yes tone controls + balance too & Yammys clever variable loudness control (which if you read up on could be just t' ticket fer late night listening:stereo all these are defeatable too. :^ Proper Multi way Rec/Source selectors which is always a nice touch. This can allow you to feed a second system using the tape-outs & even have different sources playing in each zone). Like I say my mat Jen was using Aelite 2's which sounded great.....If your Neo v3's. are at all similar in their voicing to these I'd think they should be a nice match.

 

[dino]

£375 amp will be very disappointing for sure. Quality items second hand will be a better buy. Thats my opinion .

 

[syep2001]

You could have had the A21a for that in the classifieds. Sadly I couldn't sell anything in time else I'd have had it!

Power is nothing without control!

 

[MUJI]

Although I have only heard the HK and Sony ES, it seems like the characteristics of all the amps you have listed were powerful, high wattage ratings Solid State amps.

Another way to create some sort of "freshness" in your listening experience is to try valves amps (although it would be more pricey), or a SS amp with more body to it, like the Sugden A21a Simon has just recommended. What speakers will you be using your amp with?

 

[twoblacklines]

Honestly, I wanted a new amp. I bought an Hk680 from here which was awesome for a month before one of the channels died completely - unfixable a hifi electrician told me.

Then I bought an ES Sony amp on the advice of people on here and it doesn't sound great, left speaker crackles when you turn the volume pot, left speaker is also completely void of bass.

So burnt twice when buying 2nd hand gear I thought I would get a warranty this time!

Plus the Sugden doesn't have tone controls which are essential for late night listening especially with a dog who likes barking at any bassy noises!

 

[Jezzer]

If you like the HK sound and you don't want to go second hand then you can get a new HK980 here.

... and Superfi have this in stock.

 

[vacdac]

I think he's gone fer t Yammy already Jez. :?

 

[Jezzer]

Oh! :doh:

Thanks for letting me know Chris!! :^

 

[twoblacklines]

I checked the 980 and the 3000 series reciever reviews as well as an Onkyo which had 5 stars in what hifi and it seemed the Yamaha was the best option.

It is sitting in the hall now I just need new speaker wire with banana plugs to install it.

 

[twoblacklines]

Ok A-S700 is absolutely awesome.

Worried about it being too neutral - not the case at all! Suddenly I have 30hz esque bass!

More to come, in a rush now.

 

[twoblacklines]

So I never updated this thread.

I am now running Acoustic Energy Neo3V2's with the amazing yamaha A-S700 amplifier. For fource I use FLAC played by foobar2k.

Everything sounds amazing on this setup. I love the variable bass control with the Yamaha. I can use it to add bass to a soundtrack without affecting any of the other frequency range. At the moment I have it set to neutral though as it is really not needed...but for movies I just turn it right around then turn up the volume slightly. Awesome!

One of my speakers is faulty, and outside warranty, it doesn't play anything below about 60hz. Completely flat. Which is a shame. But I will upgrade anyway at a later date! I don't know how much it would cost to take it to AE, something I might look into!

Very impressed though!

 

[HoopsOnToast]

So I never updated this thread.I am now running Acoustic Energy Neo3V2's with the amazing yamaha A-S700 amplifier. For fource I use FLAC played by foobar2k.

Everything sounds amazing on this setup. I love the variable bass control with the Yamaha. I can use it to add bass to a soundtrack without affecting any of the other frequency range. At the moment I have it set to neutral though as it is really not needed...but for movies I just turn it right around then turn up the volume slightly. Awesome!

One of my speakers is faulty, and outside warranty, it doesn't play anything below about 60hz. Completely flat. Which is a shame. But I will upgrade anyway at a later date! I don't know how much it would cost to take it to AE, something I might look into!

Very impressed though!

Might be linked.....

 

[istari knight]

Without being rude I think a £150 REL sub would have solved all your problems.