AMP RECCO FOR TANNOY XT6F

[ANINDYAIGCAR]

Picked up a pair of Tannoys in excellent condition from the marketplace, and I am now looking for a stereo amplifier to build around them. My budget is around ₹1.2 lakh, and the room is about 150 sq ft. The source is a WiiM Pro, so an optical input is essential.


My initial shortlist includes the Rega Brio Mk7, Musical Fidelity B1xi, Arcam A5, and Audiolab 6000A. The difficulty is that none of these offers tone controls, and in the case of the Rega, there are no pre-outs either. Yamaha would have been worth considering, but availability is a problem, so I have ruled it out. I also looked at the Marantz PM7000N and Model M1, but neither has fully convinced me.


At present I am using an NR1200, whose pre-out measurements are not particularly impressive according to ASR, and I intend to reserve its pre-outs mainly for active subs. That has led me to another idea: using a Denon X1800H as a preamp and pairing it with an Emotiva BasX A2 power amp. It is a slightly unconventional route for a two-channel setup, but on paper it ticks a lot of boxes. It offers flexibility, bass management, and Audyssey, though it also makes the WiiM somewhat redundant.


Another option is the Onkyo TX-RZ40-class stereo/AV solution, which seems like good value overall, but I do not really need the screen or network features, so spending around ₹1.2 lakh on that gives me pause. I also considered the NAD C379, which looks very promising, though at about ₹1.38 lakh it is stretching the budget.


So that is where I am stuck: should I go for a proper integrated amplifier, or take the AVR + power amp route for the added flexibility, bass management, and room correction? For context, I demoed the Tannoys with a Marantz preamp and Emotiva BasX A2, and the scale and bass control were clearly better than what I am getting from the NR1200. That is what has triggered the upgrade itch. The subwoofer is a REL T/5x.


Would appreciate opinions and suggestions.

 

[rwnano]

Picked up a pair of Tannoys in excellent condition from the marketplace, and I am now looking for a stereo amplifier to build around them. My budget is around ₹1.2 lakh, and the room is about 150 sq ft. The source is a WiiM Pro, so an optical input is essential.


My initial shortlist includes the Rega Brio Mk7, Musical Fidelity B1xi, Arcam A5, and Audiolab 6000A. The difficulty is that none of these offers tone controls, and in the case of the Rega, there are no pre-outs either. Yamaha would have been worth considering, but availability is a problem, so I have ruled it out. I also looked at the Marantz PM7000N and Model M1, but neither has fully convinced me.


At present I am using an NR1200, whose pre-out measurements are not particularly impressive according to ASR, and I intend to reserve its pre-outs mainly for active subs. That has led me to another idea: using a Denon X1800H as a preamp and pairing it with an Emotiva BasX A2 power amp. It is a slightly unconventional route for a two-channel setup, but on paper it ticks a lot of boxes. It offers flexibility, bass management, and Audyssey, though it also makes the WiiM somewhat redundant.


Another option is the Onkyo TX-RZ40-class stereo/AV solution, which seems like good value overall, but I do not really need the screen or network features, so spending around ₹1.2 lakh on that gives me pause. I also considered the NAD C379, which looks very promising, though at about ₹1.38 lakh it is stretching the budget.


So that is where I am stuck: should I go for a proper integrated amplifier, or take the AVR + power amp route for the added flexibility, bass management, and room correction? For context, I demoed the Tannoys with a Marantz preamp and Emotiva BasX A2, and the scale and bass control were clearly better than what I am getting from the NR1200. That is what has triggered the upgrade itch. The subwoofer is a REL T/5x.


Would appreciate opinions and suggestions.

I vote for the AVR and Power amplifier combination

 

[DB1989]

Picked up a pair of Tannoys in excellent condition from the marketplace, and I am now looking for a stereo amplifier to build around them. My budget is around ₹1.2 lakh, and the room is about 150 sq ft. The source is a WiiM Pro, so an optical input is essential.


My initial shortlist includes the Rega Brio Mk7, Musical Fidelity B1xi, Arcam A5, and Audiolab 6000A. The difficulty is that none of these offers tone controls, and in the case of the Rega, there are no pre-outs either.

I would discourage you from using pre-outs of an integrated amp (IA) to connect a power amp. It doesn't sound great on most occasions unless the IA was designed to be used with a power amp (like the Iota SA3/PA3) or bridged mode (Roksan K3) in which case, i would preferably match it with the same make as intended by the designer to maintain synergy.

Secondly, tone controls are also not required if you have flexibility of speaker placement.

I also looked at the Marantz PM7000N and Model M1, but neither has fully convinced me.

The M1 is not the best match for Tannoys that I've tried, but I haven't tried it yet with the M1's DIRAC room correction engaged.

The best synergy that I have found is as follows:

Cambridge AudioCXA81>Kinki Studio EX M1+>Willsenton R800i(805 tubes)>Marantz M1>Willsenton R8(KT88 Tubes)>Marantz SR6013>Fosi ZA3 x 2(Monoblocs)

At present I am using an NR1200, whose pre-out measurements are not particularly impressive according to ASR, and I intend to reserve its pre-outs mainly for active subs. That has led me to another idea: using a Denon X1800H as a preamp and pairing it with an Emotiva BasX A2 power amp. It is a slightly unconventional route for a two-channel setup, but on paper it ticks a lot of boxes. It offers flexibility, bass management, and Audyssey, though it also makes the WiiM somewhat redundant.

Another option is the Onkyo TX-RZ40-class stereo/AV solution, which seems like good value overall, but I do not really need the screen or network features, so spending around ₹1.2 lakh on that gives me pause. I also considered the NAD C379, which looks very promising, though at about ₹1.38 lakh it is stretching the budget.

It is not at all unconventional as many on this forum have tried it out before moving to IAs for 2 channel music. I've also been there and done that with the Marantz SR6013 + Power amp and the results were middling.

Most IAs sounds better unless you deploy a dedicated AV Pre Processor (e.g. Marantz AV8805) to feed the power amp.

So that is where I am stuck: should I go for a proper integrated amplifier, or take the AVR + power amp route for the added flexibility, bass management, and room correction? For context, I demoed the Tannoys with a Marantz preamp and Emotiva BasX A2, and the scale and bass control were clearly better than what I am getting from the NR1200. That is what has triggered the upgrade itch. The subwoofer is a REL T/5x.

Some IAs within your budget do come with Room correction+Bass Management such as the M1 and Blusound PowerNode.

Before insisting on deploying the sub, check if the bass response of your Tannoy Floorstanders suffice by themselves (unless flexibility of placement is an issue).

I'm currently running bookshelves in a 200sq.ft. room and the bass performance is good enough to the extent that when i add my dual REL T9i's, while there's an improvement in bass depth, there's cancellation in the mid bass which detracts from the sound.

All subs, unless you manage to perfectly phase align them with room correction, will interact with the bass of your speakers and cause cancellation at certain frequencies. The more resolving your room, the more you'll be able to identify the cancellation.

This will also show up clearly in measurements before they are evident to your ears - get yourself a MiniDSP Umik-1 to measure your room's response with the floorstanders by themselves and with the sub included to identify which frequencies are being cancelled.

 

[hifimaddy]

I would discourage you from using pre-outs of an integrated amp (IA) to connect a power amp. It doesn't sound great on most occasions unless the IA was designed to be used with a power amp (like the Iota SA3/PA3) or bridged mode (Roksan K3) in which case, i would preferably match it with the same make as intended by the designer to maintain synergy.

As @DB1989 said, don’t worry about the pre-out on an integrated amplifier. It usually won’t change the sound coming from your source. That’s because the preamp section inside an integrated amp is designed to match its power amp, with a fixed or limited gain structure.

A dedicated preamplifier, on the other hand, gives you more control over gain and system matching.

My initial shortlist includes the Rega Brio Mk7, Musical Fidelity B1xi, Arcam A5, and Audiolab 6000A. The difficulty is that none of these offers tone controls, and in the case of the Rega, there are no pre-outs either. Yamaha would have been worth considering, but availability is a problem, so I have ruled it out. I also looked at the Marantz PM7000N and Model M1, but neither has fully convinced me.

As for tone controls, most modern high-end amplifier manufacturers avoid them. Traditional bass and treble controls can change the natural sound of your amplifier and speakers, adding noise or distortion. In other words, you may not hear the sound the speakers were designed to produce.

Instead, many manufacturers now use more advanced solutions like DSP or room correction, which adjust the sound more precisely without degrading quality.

 

[square_wave]

My suggestion is to never do an Avr + Power amp for a purist 2 channel setup. The preamp section is where things get polluted the most. There are a bunch of things inside an avr that generates electrical noise. Even if you do pure stereo mode, the circuits still exist physically. Ground contamination and RF noise don’t fully disappear. Also the preamp in an avr is an "afterthought". It is designed for multi-channel flexibility. It prioritises dsp, hdmi switching, room correction, multitude of features etc. Not signal purity. Using that preamp section is the worst thing you can do. It is the easiest way to get a "cooked sound" that is not resolving. Totally defeats what you are trying to do.

 

[square_wave]

I think @DB1989, covered your queries extensively.

 

[sidvee]

The source is a WiiM Pro, so an optical input is essential.

Not sure why you would consider optical input essential (I am assuming on the integrated amplifier), the wiim pro has a coaxial output, which - to my ears (I have a wiim pro) is significantly superior to the optical.
Cheers,
Sid

 

[ANINDYAIGCAR]

Not sure why you would consider optical input essential (I am assuming on the integrated amplifier), the wiim pro has a coaxial output, which - to my ears (I have a wiim pro) is significantly superior to the optical.
Cheers,
Sid

Its mostly my professional bias where optocouplers are used to isolate grounds. Coaxial has a chance of creating a ground loop and hence reducing the noise margin and corrupting random bits.

 

[ajuvignesh]

I would say Tannoy and rega brio pairs well.

 

[rwnano]

I'd put in a vote for:
"take a chill pill and make the amplifier decision some time later....for now just enjoy the Tannoys"