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Hey, everyone. I've been doing a lot of upgrades to my set up recently and now its time to get to my amp. My current set up consists of a Pro Ject Debut III with 2M Blue Cartridge>U turn Pluto Phono Preamp>Yamaha RXV-465>Dali Zensor 3 loud speakers. I also use an old Marantz CD Player as well.
So my initial plan was to get a Marantz PM6005 as an upgrade, I know this works well with the speakers I have and I wouldn't mind having an integrated phono stage as well. After looking around a bit I am wondering if I am selling myself short by going for this level of amp. I do intend to further upgrade my set up (looking at a Rega Planar 3 eventually) and was thinking about a Marantz PM8005. My budget is topped at about $1000 and I'm open to other ideas.
Integrated phono and a decently built headphone amp to drive my HD650's is a plus
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and much revolves around personal taste. I am no fan of the Marantz or MF amps finding them too smooth for my taste. I would buy the Rega Brio R.
I have heard a lot of recommendations towards the brio R, care to expound on your recommendation?
rhythmic surety and nice pace. I find it engaging where the other amps mentioned cause my mind to wander. The phono stage is no afterthought either. It is very accomplished. What's not to like? YMMV
This would likely be a sonic upgrade.
I'm pretty impressed by the write up on the Marantz vs. the Sony. I am kind of in the same boat and don't want to spend $1000 for minor improvements, if any over my Yamaha A/V receiver.
Cambridge Audio has a $1k integrated, I forget the exact model, CX80, or something like that. My friend has one driving Dynaudio Audience 82's. To me the Cambridge has a neutral sound, definitely when compared to the Marantz. I believe the unit also has a built in DAC.
I haven't heard the 8005 but I found my Marantz A/V receiver to sound much better than the Onkyo it replaced. It does lean warm but not valed.
NAD is a possibility but they can sometimes lean to a darker sound character.
I have the Marantz PM8003 which is like the integrated amp you are considering just a couple generations earlier. It served me well in the family room TV setup for a number of years but I always thought it was a little dark and veiled sounding.After adding a couple more 'devices' to the TV setup I decided I needed another amp with HDMI switching to handle video routing to the TV. The Marantz doesn't do HDMI as it is a basic 2-ch stereo amp. I confirmed what I was hearing in the Marantz (soft, dark, veiled) when I replaced it with a cheap [ < $200] Sony AV receiver from Amazon. It's a 5.2 ch receiver but we use it only in 2-channel stereo mode. It sounds so much better than the Marantz.
I can't comment on higher-end Marantz amps but their $1000 class PM8003 wasn't very good. If you read the thread I linked to below you will also see comments by inmate airtime regarding his newer PM8004. Good luck!
Edits: 03/09/17 03/09/17
It's a great amp for a workshop or other low level listening. But what the blank was Marantz thinking when it decided to clip off the treble.
Had you considered the PrimaLuna or Sugden integrated units?
Had a Prologue 2 that was very rewarding.
Tom:cat
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