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Advice for a two channel amp

I would like to upgrade my amp. The one I have now is a Marantz SR5400, it's a 6.1 channel setup and the only great thing about it is the built-in DAC, which renders pretty great sound. What's not changing is the speaker set - Bowers & Wilkins 602 S3 - love the sound of these speakers. I want to upgrade to a two-channel amp and add a turntable to my set up. So, in essence, I'll be playing music mostly from my iPad 2 or my iPhone when it's just for background noise. And when I really want to tune everything out and put on a great record, I'll use the turntable. The speakers are rated at 85W, so anything from 100/ch is good. So far, I've only found the Nad amps to be quite good in my price range, but they are rather dull-looking and the sound is not quite as natural as I'd like. I am a big fan of the mid-heavy, natural-sounding setups - not too crisp, not too muffled. I wouldn't use an equalizer, or anything, just want a simple setup - amp, speakers, turntable and probably Sonos. That's it for now. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm still a bit of a novice in this whole thing :)
vladsky
yahoochaz
67 posts
 
Would help to know your price range, but assuming it's somewhere in the middle, I'd look at Marantz offerings for an integrated and Parasound for separates. I've had good luck and good sound with both.
vladsky OP
5 posts
 
Thanks to everyone for the great advice! I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear - I want to get an integrated amp. My budget is under a thousand, maybe a little more for the amp and the turntable. I've used DJ turntables in the past and know a few things about cartridges (I'm an Ortofon fan, personally). I want to update my system with a newer stereo integrated amp, add Sonos (or similar, if there are better options), and add the turntable. The music I would most listen to on vinyl would be classical, jazz, classic rock; lots of piano, violin, sax and guitar. So the question remains, what's the best integrated I should look for?
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,735 posts
 
Check out Rogue Audio Sphinx,it has all the options you want.
truemaineiac's avatar
truemaineiac
249 posts
 
$1K for amp and turntable? So the integrated amp has to have a phono stage too?
liquid-smooth
48 posts
 
You can get a used adcom pre and power - make sure it's the later model with 4 no.s GFA-5400 power amp, as the earlier had problems of blowing up speakers when they fail.

Their pre amps have Phono stage - just make sure the model no. supports it just in case.

You can pick them up for less than $500, and you can get Rega RP-1 turntable with performance pack for $449 on amazon now (used white one)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004KSN0ZU/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1368992163&sr=1-8
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