Hi all.
I would like you help with looking up a good stereo amp that might suite my needs.
I listen to various types of music: Moslty Rap/Hip-Hop/R&B, other times (chill out) Jazz/Soul (Sade anyone)
My problem is this. I ran around all last week (forums and audio stores) and most of the crownd everywhere listens to Clean music (Classis/Jazz) you get what I mean. Everyone is very good at recomending fine amps for those. But when I ask if the amp would be good with heavy frequent and extended rap type bass line (think Dr. Dre for instance), so when I ask, answer is "no idea".
Anyway I jumped the gun on pair a bookselfs (Tannoy Mercury V1: has nice reviews all over and well within my bugdet). I might regret this decision, but will probably be able to sell them easily with minimal loss (-$30-40). I listened to them paired with Cambridge Audio 650A and they seemed fine, but ofcourse all the music they had in the store (as ususal) was vocals and classic.
I did realise that all this while I could have just burn-t some of my fevorite music from flac to a CD (which I did finnaly today). Was late, so there was only one more place still open that I could test, I took my speakers with my newly burnt CD and hooked it up to t a Rotel RA-04, first song vocal was perfect. Then I skipped to some rap and I felt really dissapontied, the bass was very light, really unappreciatable.
Anyway long story short I will do another round (with my CD now in hand) to the different store we have here (Hungary, so unfortunatly no so many brands to try). And hope to find something that can handle the two ends of the scale similarly. If I had to pick I'd still pick the bass, I have good hearing but in no way and audiophile so not as critical with how the music "should" sound.
But before I set out I was hoping some of the master (with all your experince) here could point me in the right direction as to what brands might have a solution. Rotel is now out of the question.
Some of the brands I know are popular in theis country (for my budget)
Cambridge Audio
NAD
Marantz
Denon
Onkyo
Yamaha
and many others
Some basic information:
I have a DacMagic connected to PC as sourse. As I have said I have the Tannoys, but might be willing to switch if something else gets me so overwhelmed. Have good cords.
The room this would be in is very small (my home office), about 7.5 feet by 14 feet. Also the reason why floorstand is out of the quetion is that my desk is pussed completly to the smaller wall (7.5 feet) and the speakers will be mounted on the wall, so a maximum of 7 feet apart of each other. So I really dont need heavy Watts, will mostly be listening at low volume (neigbours), but still would like to hear some deep reflex type bass.
Budget: ~$200-400. I am looking into used aps mostly to get best bang for buck. So you have some idea about used prices here: a Cambridge Audio 640A cost about $220 (used).
I know everyone swears by something else, but still what in your opinion has the type of bass that I am looking for.
Read some where that an older model of Marantz (the PM7200) might be good for me. Any other suggetions?
Are my expectations too high for a room this size and with bookshelf speakers and no sub?
Thanks for the long read and really appreciate your imput.
Cheers
Alex
