Hifi blew up - chance for new AV amp? Suggestions please :)

[RichL]

Originally posted by Jammrock
For my HT rig, I use the Denon 3802 as the preamp/tuner/decoder and does amplification ONLY on the center and rears. To power my fronts I run through a Rotel RB-1080 2x200W amp. Although I like my Denon, it can't compare to the Rotel in sound reproduction.

Silly question here, but surely if you're using the Denon as the pre-amp, then the effect of using the Rotel as the power stage rather than the Denon is going to be marginal, on the basis of its only amplifying what the pre-stage has already done to the signal?
Unless you have a class A pre-amp stage, and the Denons power amp stage is class B or AB opposed to a Class A Rotel.

I think. Been a while since I did this sort of thing for a living.

[Fat Tone]

Looks like I'll be getting the RXV520RDS for £179.95 at lunch time (~1 hr)...last chance for anyone to object!

I'm jumping now because the model has been superceeded (hence the massive discount), I can't find it anywhere else for less than £250, and they don't have any centrally so its now or never.

Any advice on an optical cable before I go? My DVD has an phono output too - is that an option?

T.

[dave m]

Either digital output should be fine, but if it's like the 420 the coaxial digital input is set by default to the CD channel, there's an option in one of the setup menus to assign it to the DVD. I've got both optical and coaxial digital ins setup and I can't distinguish the two.

I doubt you can get or afford a 12m optical connector, so if you need that length you'll want to use the coaxial. I'm just using a standard good quality phono lead, nothing specially "tuned" (read overpriced) for digital., though others may advise differently.

Dave

[Jammrock]

RichL,

Yes and no. Putting in a higher class pre-amp would definately yield a better sound. The Denon was the only thing I could afford at the time, the Rotel was purchased later. The Denon's preamp stage is actually very clean and accurate, so I get a great sound. The main thing the Rotel does for me is handle the power hungry 9NT's.

The 9NT has a 1" tweeter, 6" kevlar mid and 2x6" paper/kevlar woofers that can hit some serious low stuff. What it boils down to is that Denon simply does not have the power to drive the speakers to peak performance. When I used the Denon as the amp, the mid's were soft and not that great, and the bass was almost non-exsistant. With the Rotel connected, the mid's are powerful and smooth, the bass rumbles, the high's are sweet and everything is generally more accurate and detailed.

Tony,

Optical cables can run a long, long way. I wouldn't worry about going over it's length limit. Just make sure you get a cable good enough that the connector will not be loose. Loose connectors are very bad when dealing with optical. Second, keep the cables out of reach from kids and pets. Optical cables have a very fine, very fragile glass (mostly) core.

Make sure to use the preamp outs to your Rotel and you're set! Once you have it up and running, tell us how it sounds.

Jammrock

[dave m]

Jammrock, it's RichL who has the Rotel. Tony has a dead NAD so he'll just be using the Yamaha.

I hadn't realised optical cable was fragile, I'll keep mine tucked away from little fingers now!

Dave

[Fat Tone]

Well I got the amp. Richer Sounds say you can't get an optical cable longer than a couple of metres, which seems daft as they are so lossless. I bought a 0.75m optical cable for £20. They wanted the same money for a coax. He claimed the digital coax was 75 Ohm, but surely regular interconnects are 75 Ohm?

BTW, 12.5Kgs gets very heavy after a half mile walk!

Thanks for all the advice. I'll report on the experience later

Tony.

[dave m]

Great, I was worried you'd get there and they wouldn't let you have it for the internet price. Most places won't do TOS Link cables longer than 3 metres, I guess because most people don't need them, but you can get a 10m one for £40 here:

http://www.connectronics.co.uk/connectronic/product.asp?dept_id=4&group_id=370&productName=TOS+Link+to+TOS+Link+fibre+optic+lead

Have fun tonight, what are you going to watch or should I say listen to first?

Yours must be beefier than mine, the 420 is only 9.5kg

Dave

Edit: tidied up url

[Fat Tone]

First I'll watch the wife breakdown when she hears the price, then I'll listen to her moaning about it for 6 weeks

Guess I'll test it on The Lost World, as this was the first disc where I could really notice the difference when downmixing 5.1

Thanks again.

Tony.

PS maybe the box weighs 3 Kg?

[Greebe]

Jammrock, et al, the common grossly over priced optical cables are made with a plastic core... not glass

[Jammrock]

That's why I put (mostly) in my post Now that I think about, most people don't say whether their cores are plastic or glass fiber. Guess I've been in telecom too long to think that people would dare use a plastic core. Either way, you have a thin fiber that's very suseptable to breaks and what not. Plastic could possibly be not as bad...but I've never compared the two.

Of course you could always use the super high grade fiber that runs $100 USD per foot. That stuff can be bent to less than a 10 degree angle before the fiber breaks. Nice stuff.

Jammrock

[Greebe]

Jammrock, interconnects typically have a near infinite resistance at audio frequencies and are not rated impedence wise due to this. On the otherhand your typical RF coax is rated 75Ω because it's used with reactive wavelengths (also 52Ω coax, just not as common)

[Greebe]

there's a huge difference between glass and plastic core optical cable... your avg plastic core is like... it's been awhile, ummm... 1.6mm... think that's right... anywho it's much more flexible

[Fat Tone]

This is a Cambridge Audio "Profressional Interconnect" . the core is pmma (polymethylmethacrylate).

[Fat Tone]

dia 1mm

[Greebe]

OK then lets say 1-1.6mm... compared to what 0.1mm at best for glass?