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
schubert
7,386 posts
 
IMO either Yamaha is the safest bet, sounds as good as any and IMO better built than the rest.I've heard Yammy amps from the 70's that sound as good as ever.

And, as a company, Yamaha will probally be around a lot longer as well.
bokkus OP
8 posts
 
Thank you Schubert. build quaility is my main concern.
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-
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