Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum, but have been enjoying reading the many informative posts that are on here. I am no audiophile (my ear is not trained enough and my wallet is definitely not big enough) so I consider myself more an enthusiast.
I have been slowly building my hi-fi over the years and I now have a good entry level audiophile system. But this as we all know is only where it begins!! I recently acquired a pair of slightly used Monitor Audio Bronze 6s...I had a choice between that and the B&W 684 S1s. I have always been an admirer of B&W stuff but when I saw the MAs I was shocked to see how much better the the build quality and overall finish was. They both sounded great to my ear but I couldn't resist the lure of the MAs so I settled on them. I now have them hooked up to a Nad 114 preamp, Rotel Rb971 power amp and playing different files (flac, mp3, wav etc) through an Arcam IrDac and it all sounds pretty awesome.
However, I now find myself wanting more! I know that you're generally supposed to match your speakers to the amps but I really want to hold on to the MAs and perhaps build around them. I feel that a higher quality amp will do them better justice so I'm deciding to go that route.
My problem is...I do love the idea of the pre/power combo but to upgrade from what I have means serious $$, and I have a significant other which means I would also love to live INSIDE the house afterwards. :sweat:
So, after much pondering and reading, I realise that a good quality integrated can yield better results than a standard pre/power combo, and one could also add a power amp if needed and either bi-amp or use the integrated as a pre, which is really cool. The question now is, what should I get? :nfi:
I want to keep my budget is capped at around 16K mark so I've been looking online at a lot of amps around those prices. There are a lot of Rotels, Nads, Cambridge etc but I somehow feel that purchasing any of these may just be a lateral movement instead of up. I would really love to get my hands on something more like the Roksan K2 or similar.
The amps that now mostly grab my attention are the Nuprime IDA-8 and the Rega Elex R...both available on The audio Zone website.
On paper, the Rega needs no introduction, it seems like an awesome amp but just above budget at the moment, however, I am very intrigued by the Nuprime with its class AD amp (I read one of the previous posts here about the Nuprime as well).
This is the way I look at it:
Rega ElexR Nuprime IDA-8
More expensive than Nuprime Slightly cheaper option
Lots of analogue inputs Just one analogue input (can work around that though)
No digital inputs (no prob cos I have a DAC) Variety of digital inputs plus built in DAC (score!)
Only 72W per channel but has pre out No pre out, but does have 100W per channel on tap (sufficient)
Anyways,this is my current dilemma but at end of the day, it may just come down to which sounds better. So what do you guys think? Am I making sense, heading in the right direction, or maybe approaching this the wrong way? All advice will be greatly appreciated, oh and apologies for taking so long to get to the point.
I'm new to the forum, but have been enjoying reading the many informative posts that are on here. I am no audiophile (my ear is not trained enough and my wallet is definitely not big enough) so I consider myself more an enthusiast.
I have been slowly building my hi-fi over the years and I now have a good entry level audiophile system. But this as we all know is only where it begins!! I recently acquired a pair of slightly used Monitor Audio Bronze 6s...I had a choice between that and the B&W 684 S1s. I have always been an admirer of B&W stuff but when I saw the MAs I was shocked to see how much better the the build quality and overall finish was. They both sounded great to my ear but I couldn't resist the lure of the MAs so I settled on them. I now have them hooked up to a Nad 114 preamp, Rotel Rb971 power amp and playing different files (flac, mp3, wav etc) through an Arcam IrDac and it all sounds pretty awesome.
However, I now find myself wanting more! I know that you're generally supposed to match your speakers to the amps but I really want to hold on to the MAs and perhaps build around them. I feel that a higher quality amp will do them better justice so I'm deciding to go that route.
My problem is...I do love the idea of the pre/power combo but to upgrade from what I have means serious $$, and I have a significant other which means I would also love to live INSIDE the house afterwards. :sweat:
So, after much pondering and reading, I realise that a good quality integrated can yield better results than a standard pre/power combo, and one could also add a power amp if needed and either bi-amp or use the integrated as a pre, which is really cool. The question now is, what should I get? :nfi:
I want to keep my budget is capped at around 16K mark so I've been looking online at a lot of amps around those prices. There are a lot of Rotels, Nads, Cambridge etc but I somehow feel that purchasing any of these may just be a lateral movement instead of up. I would really love to get my hands on something more like the Roksan K2 or similar.
The amps that now mostly grab my attention are the Nuprime IDA-8 and the Rega Elex R...both available on The audio Zone website.
On paper, the Rega needs no introduction, it seems like an awesome amp but just above budget at the moment, however, I am very intrigued by the Nuprime with its class AD amp (I read one of the previous posts here about the Nuprime as well).
This is the way I look at it:
Rega ElexR Nuprime IDA-8
More expensive than Nuprime Slightly cheaper option
Lots of analogue inputs Just one analogue input (can work around that though)
No digital inputs (no prob cos I have a DAC) Variety of digital inputs plus built in DAC (score!)
Only 72W per channel but has pre out No pre out, but does have 100W per channel on tap (sufficient)
Anyways,this is my current dilemma but at end of the day, it may just come down to which sounds better. So what do you guys think? Am I making sense, heading in the right direction, or maybe approaching this the wrong way? All advice will be greatly appreciated, oh and apologies for taking so long to get to the point.
