2. home-theater
  3. 1399502481

best-ish integrated amp for movie and tv watching.

greetings to you as i am new to audiogon.

with a recent bonus at work i am looking to upgrade my home theater. right now i am running a pair of omen defs off of a marantz 5005. the thing is i don't have any interest in having a surround sound set up, so i was realizing that the extra channels in the avr are unneeded. i'd rather spend money on a QUALITY 2 channel rig. my budget is between 1 and 2 thousand dollars.

as of now i'm mostly watching movies and tv but i've also just inherited my fathers' collection of vinyl. so i'm also trying to find an amp with a decent phono section.

and finally this amp will be fed by an oppo bdp-105. i will be auditioning the units i can but i posted this so i could start heading in the right direction with any opinions or suggestions.

my list of potentials is this:

marantz pm-8004
marantz pm-15S2
rogue sphinx
harmon kardon 990
anthem 225
yamaha as2000
yamaha as1000

while i'm mostly watching movies i plan on putting more music in my life. so eventually it'll be a 75/25 split with movies still in the majority. i'd like an amp with a wide soundstage so i can enjoy big sounding movies like star trek and dredd.

i hope this rambling makes sense to some.
bokkus
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
I think I'd be inclined to go with the HK 990. It has a terrific amp section - ultrawide bandwidth design, lots of current (great for authoritative bass), and plenty of power. In addition, it has room correction capabilities as well as dual subwoofer outputs. This would make it a terrific amp for watching movies and TV. And it also has a very good phono preamp built-in....

-RW-
schubert
7,386 posts
 
HK 990 would be my second choice as well.
Can't speak to their recent build quality, but in past HK was never built like Yamaha .

If money is a factor A-s1000 is half the cost of a HK 990.
bokkus OP
8 posts
 
I'm assuming that wide bandwidth means BIG presentation. That's what I'm aiming for.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Nothing to do with that.You'd have to listen to every one of them in YOUR system to determine that. You really need a 5.1 AVA receiver.
bokkus OP
8 posts
 
I have an 800 dollar receiver already. But opening up the unit I can see its full of cheap mass produced junk and an underpowered power supply. For a little more I can get a marantz pm8004 that's built in their japan reference factory. Quality over quantity. Something that will last. A stereo I can give to my son to take with him to college.
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