Hi folks, I own a denon 3806 and want to upgrade it to have nice musical sound and if possible better ht quality after some research on receivers came to three choices:
1. Adding a nad c372 to my system 2. replacing my denon with an arcam avr350 3. replacing my denon with a marantz 8001
I have JMlab focal speakers chorus 716v front,and 706v rear, velo dd-10
uhum, in that case I can add nad c272 to my current denon 3806, but what difference exactly does it make? I mean difference between intg, stereo amp and power amp.
to make a negligible difference in musical sound quality imo adding amps to your denon won't do much. You will notice a difference in sound if you go with marantz or arcam (for better or worse) your ears will judge. They have a different "house" sound than the denon. I would go with step 2 if money allows and not look back. Go with the marantz only if you prefer the marantz musically over the denon, this is subjective and you should listen before buying. Adding an external amp could tighten the bass, sharpen the highs, etc... with your denon doing the pre/pro duties. But, I think what you are looking for is a different possibly warmer sound which you can achieve with marantz or possibly the arcam.
Leo, in the big picture, yes of course power matter matters. However, the difference between 100 and 120 is wafer thin. Not even audible. However, the quality of the first watt is always audible.
Speakers have no watts.It is a mantra. The interaction of a speakers load and the way an amplifier reacts to the load will determine power delivery. If unsure, think about amp ratings. say 100w @8ohms, but 150w@ 4 ohms. Same amp, different interaction with varying loads. BTW, the ohm thing is constantly varying, as is the output of the amp.
Ignore speaker watts. Ignore amp watts to some extent. Pay close attention to interaction and synergy, how well do pieces work together?
The Focal JmLabs are easy to drive and they are great speakers indeed in my opinion. Since they're easy to drive I wouldn't have any qualms running them with the AVR350. The Arcam is more powerful than you'd think and the sound is excellent. So if you want to stay with one box, this would be the way forward.
The question nobody has asked yet is what is your music source? That will make a massive difference to the situation too. If your music source is a cheapo DVD player, then you're more likely to have better rersults spending your money on either a dedicated CD player (Rega Apollo comes to mind) or a a much more highly spec'd DVD player with some decent quality music ability (Arcam).