i have a great big music collection on my mac - and i'd like to stream it to my living room (roku soundbridge) and play it there - around 1000sq ft space. while i know it's not ideal to play mp3's due to inferior sound quality, i know i'll end up playing them more than cd's as my cd collection is unorganised, scratched or lost..
does something like a cambridge audio 640A amp or a marantz PM7001/ 7200 amp sound reasonable for such an application?
along with speakers such as Mordaunt Short MS914 or KEF iQ5 or B&W BM602S3?
my main concerns are - will the shortfalls of mp3 really show up? also - will such an amp-speaker combination work well to fill a 1000sqft space?
You must be in Europe because the Marantz PM7001 is not a product available in the USA. Consequently, I can be of limited help.
I do not know if you will hear the shortfalls of mp3 file music or not, but what you are suggesting doing is nothing more than having a music server (by using your Mac), which is nothing more than mp3 files on a hard drive connected to the amp with line level RCA outs. Some people seem to hear deficiencies and others do not. I have experimented a bit with my daughter's iPod and it sounds pretty good to me. I think it will work fine.
However, I will suggest that either amp you are suggesting may not do the job inasmuch as you are talking about 1000 sq. ft. THAT is a lot of space! Is this all one room? After all, 20 x 20 is only 400 sq. ft., but you are talking about 2.5 times that size--that is a BIG room! How tall are your ceilings? It is cubic feet that matter (as I have learned to my regret!).
Nevertheless, even given low 8.5" ceilings, that is a lot of volume. I am unsure that the Azure 640A (75 wpc), Marantz 7001 (70 wpc) or the Marantz 7200 (95 wpc) are up to the job. I would certainly try them at home in you space to see if they work--with that much volume, I just cannot know what your expectations are. However, I would also investigate the NAD C372, which is rated at 120 wpc, but has a full 3 db of headroom, which means, effectively, it has 240 wpc. Now, I have not heard the Marantz PM7001, only the 7200, so draw your own conclusions with that unit. But the power of the NAD is as good as many separates.
The Cambridge is a really fine amp, with wonderful detail and an open soundstage (a good thing, as dear Martha likes to say). However, it is a bit soft, especially on the low end, so bass can be a bit shy. Now, if you are inclined to folk music, jazz, and pop music, this will not be a handicap, but if you are into classical and rock, it can less than satisfying. This would be exacerbated by the volume of space you have and would be even worse if you have a lot of soft fabrics, pillows, curtains, etc. The Cambridge is much better in a much smaller room with speakers capable of greater detail.
I find the Marantz 7200 problematic. I read the English audio press and I have seen a couple of very favorable reviews, but when I heard it, I was shocked at how poor it sounded to me (listening through Kef Q5s, as a matter of fact). Tight, constricted, with virtually no depth to the soundstage and some instruments I knew were on the recording had diappeared altogether. All in all, I found it rather unengaging. I have heard the Q5s sound really good, so I know the problem was not the speakers. I have gone back a couple of times to the Marantz dealer to listen again and it just doesn't do it for me. I am of the opinion that there is a real difference in sound between the 120V (US) version) and the 240V (European) version of this amp. I think the 240V power supply must be of much higher quality, which actually does not surprise me. Integrateds have long been favored by Europeans, whereas Americans love their receivers (and integrated sales are weak). It would make sense that the folks at Denon-Marantz would seek to save a few dollars per unit with a lesser quality power supply since they don't expect much in the way of sales, anyways. It is too bad.
Each of the speakers you suggest would probably work pretty well, but I find they each sound different from the others. Have you settled on a preference? That could suggest which amp to go with.
1) listen to what hawk says cause he's been around
2) go for the floorstanding 603 over the 602 if you can afford it (theres always the used market). both are very good speakers but i think you need the volume of a floorstander. or get a sub. (i dont have any experience with the other 2 brands.)
3) i can second the nad 370/372 as being up to the task. muchos 'bang for the buck'
4) the macs soundcard is suspect(i have one). if youre going to be using mp3 why not burn onto a cd in mp3 format(many albums on one cd) and play back through a cd/dvd player. will sound much better. if you dont want any physical mediums you could use an external dac(with usb port) to do the digital to analogue decoding( i think some can handle mp3?).
5) if you got the disk space(its cheap these days) dont rip in less than 320kb. better yet apple lossless. a few years ago, before i really got into hifi, i went on ripping binge of friends cd's ending up with about 100 albums in 320kb. now that i'm getting spoilt with a good cd player and sacd/dvd-a i find myself hardly ever wanting to listen to anything i have on mp3, which is a shame because i got a lot of really good music in that format. not saying you'll become as fastidious as i am, but its worth thinking ahead if youre new to this hobby. its a very slipery slope i warn ya.
thanks a bunch hawk. that makes sense. i'm in india, not europe. and the size of the room is 825sqft, not 1000 as i'd written earlier. the problem here is that there are very few dealers/ distributors of such music equipment and they don't have most of them on display, so i have to pretty much play blind here! i'm just looking at some mags (what hi-fi? from UK) and some forums such as this one and making my decisions based on this and calls to delaers on what's available.
as for amps - there's a new Cambridge Audio Azur 640A V2 in the market which are 75W per channel (8ohms) and 100W (4 ohms). i have been assured by the dealer that the amp will be more than adequate for the space..
also, i'm very close to finalising on the dali ikon6 speakers which have been highly reccomended and have got the 5-star rating from what hi-fi. any thoughts on those?
i'm a bit of a newbie to these things and a first-timer into anything more than a compact system and an onkyo home theater with onkyo (!) speakers.
and bvan - thanks for the info. however, is the mac soundcard going to be used, or is it just data being streamed to the roku system and then played through the amp?
as for disk space - yup i have a large amount on my computer and an external one as well, but the issue is that i'll have to go through my whole collection again and rip it in better a better format.. that's really the pain.
thanks guys. will post here once my systems up and running.
Welcome to the forum! I must say one of the joys of participating on this forum is to correspond with people such as yourself who I would never have the ooportunity to meet, otherwise. I can certainly understand the problem with the lack of dealer inventory, as well. I will help where I can.
As far as the Cambridge is concerned, yes, I think the 640A v.2 should be big enough. Certainly, that is contigent upon the efficiency of your speakers, but all but the most inefficient would not present a problem. I do think the Cambridge is a fine choice. Knowing your room is not the size of a hotel ballroom certainly helps to clarify the the load the amp will need to carry. Still, 825 sq. ft. is pretty big.
Dali speakers, on the other hand, are not available to me here in the USA. I make it a policy to never recommend products I have not heard, so you will have to rely on your other sources for that product. I am therefore totally neutral on those speakers. Still. I have to ask--have you heard the Dalis? I recognize your dilemma here, but it has been my experience that when I tried to put together two products that each come highly recommended by the audio mags, the results are often less than desirable. If it is the same dealer suggesting both the Cambridge and the Dalis, then I feel more comfortable about the system. In your situation (where you often cannot hear the products before you buy), you will have to rely upon your dealer to help you match components that will work together, so if the same dealer recommends both, I think you have a system. But if you are mixing an amp from one dealer and speakers from another, it can get messy in the end as perhaps the warm sound of the Cambridge is overly accentuated by some very warm speakers, leaving you with a system that is overly warm and a bit lifeless sounding, for example. I just don't know how the Dalis sound, so I can't do anything but raise issues you might need to think about.
cheers hawk - it's all a bit confusing, but then again - it's not REALLY, if you know what i mean.
in addition t othe cambridge amp and the dali ikon6 speakers, i'm also picking up the cambridge 640C v2 CD player. and i haven't heard any of them before! also, i've been discussing with the delaer on the phone, so i haven't even met him - though fortunately he's selling me everything and assures me that they work excellently together!
whatever it is, i'm sure it's 1000 times better than the bose sound-dock that's sitting in my living room right now! now i just need to figure out where to place those speakers and give them enough room from the wall. it's all supposed to be set up this weekend - so i'm quite looking forward to it.
thanks for the thoughts and it's good meeting you too!
I was in the same boat. I wanted to listen to my mp3 collection on a bigger scale. I have a Integra dtr-6.6 Receiver and bought Onkyo's Remote Interactive Dock for iPod DS-A1. It works and sounds great. Also it allows me to use my reciever's remote for iPod control as well as charging the iPod in the dock. I would highly suggest it.
Not sure if this helps but it was a great solution for me.
I must say, you have the makings of a really nice system! I really like the Cambridge amp, but the CD player is a killer unit, one of the very best units under the $1000US price level. I have no doubt you will really enjoy it.
Happy listening, and don't be a stranger! We would love to hear a report after you get the whole thing installed. Enjoy!
hi all - it's taken me a bit of time to get things going! finally got the system set-up two weeks ago and have been travelling ever since.. so i finally got to hear it a fe times and the CD player has stopped working - i suspect as there was some power outages and voltage fluctuation. so i've got a mini-UPS for the system now, to give it clean power supply. the good news in all this is that the new set-up sounds great! it's very clear and rich, and even though i'm using my ipod these days (till i get the cd player repaired) - it's filling the whole room in a very nice way. thanks to all of you for the help! i'm sure i'll be coming back here to figure out more things in the future! cheers, sidlal
Why do some people quote sq ft or sq m? They mean nothing. It's the shape of the room in dimensions that counts. After all, rooms don't come in one shape only and it is the individual wall sizes which have the most impact on how it sounds.