Question What is the best path of upgrade for my setup?

michael1189

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Hi,

I am looking for some advice as to what is going to yield the best improvement to my system.

I have a Marantz SR6012 powering a pair of Artcoustic DF 75-55 X2 as left and right, Artcoustic DFC150-36 as center, B&W M1 as surrounds, and 4 yamaha ceiling speakers for Atmos. I also have a Monolith Plus FF

My speaker cables are buried in the wall with just 1 cable so bi-amping HF/LF would involve channeling the walls again which I won't be doing.

Room dimensions 3.8m x 8m with doors open, 3.8m x 4.3m with doors closed (Doors were taken off when laying the carpet and haven't been hung again yet)

If I were to throw £1,000 - £1,500 at it, what would be my best option? I could sell the Marantz and upgrade to a beefier receiver, or I could consider separates, or I could just get a beefy power amp?

I am noticing some harshness from the Artcoustics at -10db upward. Could this be because the amp isn't doing an adequate job of powering the 10" woofers to match the tweeter volume? It's a carpeted room with curtains
 
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Are you talking about using a spare channel on the receiver to bi-amp? This is called passive bi-amping and in reality brings very little, if any, audio benefit. In fact the opposite may be true as you are using the power of the amp which in turn reduces the overall power to the remaining channels, in other words you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. True bi-amping which has a significant audio performance is to use a second unit entirely. If you feel more power is needed then perhaps you should consider a power amp and save yourself some extra cabling.
 
Neither are really applicable as I don't want to run another length of cable to my speakers as I recently redecorated and ran a single speaker cable through channels I made in the brick walls.
 
You could keep the existing cable if you got a power amp to power your fronts as you would still use the same cable. You’d connect up the power amp to your marantz.
 
Are you happy with how it all sounds at lower volumes, but feel it sounds worse when you turn it up?
 
I would say the 6012 is up to the job if you add a PA to do the LCR and surrounds, you could do that second hand for less than £500. I would then upgrade the M1's as they are the weak point in your speakers IMV. Look at a better quality surround like XTZ S5 or something of a similar quality.
 
I'd say the sound seems a bit flat when lower.

What PAs should I keep an eye out for and which offers good value for money second hand?

I'll keep an eye out for some surrounds.
 
Rotel are pretty decent as are Emotiva or IOTA. Rotel are around £350-700 Emotiva £600+ and IOTA similar. I have a Rotel 5 channel 1075 which is about 12 yrs old and still going strong. I bought it off the classifieds about 4-5 yrs ago for under £350.
 
Probably very subjective but would I benefit from moving to an Arcam 550 or is a Power Amp definitely going to make more of a tangible difference? I'd love to be able to demo them but I'm buying 2nd hand so that's not really an option.

this manual for the artcoustic speaker is suggesting using a sub pre-out to power amp to power 3 of the woofers if I'm not missing interpreting the diagram... would this be preferable over just amplifying the centre channel to all the drivers?
 
Directly before I got my Arcam AVR550 I had a faulty Denon 6300, a faulty Marantz SR7011, then a Denon 4500 which wasn't faulty but sounded meh.

The Arcam was / is a revelation. Out of the box it had a much more dynamic, clearer, exciting sound with a huge sound stage. I spent several months tweaking it, finding workarounds for its 'characteristics' and playing with Dirac.

I am very happy with how that system sounds now, and plan no further changes.

Well... I am contemplating a new TV.
 

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