Surround Sound > Stereo upgrade... advice needed!

[WAFOE]

After using my surround sound setup for a while and switching to stereo later, I'm looking for something more serious. Something more mature, refined and of quality. But first some background.

My first surround sound setup consisted of the following parts:

• Fronts - Magnat Vector 77
• Center - Magnat Vector Center 13
• Rears - Magnat Vector 55
• Subwoofer - JBL Northridge E150P
• Amplifier - Marantz SR4002

This was great in my period where I listened a lot of electronic music (hardstyle, house) and for watching movies. But after a while I watched less and less movies. So I made the decision to sell the center and rear speakers - which left me with the fronts and the sub.

After using this setup for a while, I started listening other styles of music too, such as rock and pop, which made use of actual instruments. I felt like my Vector speakers weren't doing justice in my small room. Since I already had a JBL Northridge subwoofer, I figured I'd buy some JBL Northridge E30 bookshelf speakers second hand and see if I like them. And gosh, it was a world of a difference. The sound was so much clearer, vocals were so smooth and the tweeter didn't hurt my ears anymore. It sounded like the Vectors had some weird Rock equalizer on it or something. It was awful in comparison.

Following this, I went to a HiFi event where a ton of companies showed off their products to get an idea what speakers actually can sound like. There were two brands that standed out to me: B&W and Focal. I really liked the B&W 805/803 D3 and Focal Kanta N°3 they had on display. I want this. But guess what, I can't afford it.

Playing around with my setup and trying different speaker wires and such - my current setup consists of this:

• Speakers: JBL Northridge E30 - Bi-Amped by Marantz B Channel, normal 2.5mm copper cable
  
• Subwoofer: JBL Northridge E150P
• Amplifier: Marantz SR4002 - fed by my computer using SPDIF Toslink

To get to the point, I want to upgrade my current setup with a budget of around € 1000,-. My main gripe is probably the amplifier - I feel like it doesn't do justice since it's an entry level surround unit. I will need a good stereo amplifier, but I have no idea what to get. And what speaker would be close to the B&W's and Focals I mentioned, but are actually affordable on the second hand market? And since most (old) stereo amplifiers don't have DAC's, I would probably need a good DAC too... Ugh, chosing audio is worse than chosing a car! Can anyone help me get on track?

Thanks for reading, I'm looking forward to your responses!

 

[Lux Man]

Firstly- I have no ideas for you whatsoever- just this one thing. That last comment about this being worse than choosing a car. Shame on you! This is a hobbie- a life long hobbie and it is not a chore nor should you see it that way. Enjoy the journey because you will never get to your destination.

 

[WAFOE]

Firstly- I have no ideas for you whatsoever- just this one thing. That last comment about this being worse than choosing a car. Shame on you! This is a hobbie- a life long hobbie and it is not a chore nor should you see it that way. Enjoy the journey because you will never get to your destination.

It was a joke! I probably should have put "harder" instead of "worse".

 

[timofred]

I also use a Marantz ht amp,
sr7002,
does yours have the 'audicy ' ? auto calibration mic?
Every time I change speakers, I hit the reset buttons,
so that I have an equal starting point.
For stereo listening, I always use the pure direct mode.
What sound card ? Could that be the bottle neck in your setup ?

 

[WAFOE]

I also use a Marantz ht amp,
sr7002,
does yours have the 'audicy ' ? auto calibration mic?
Every time I change speakers, I hit the reset buttons,
so that I have an equal starting point.
For stereo listening, I always use the pure direct mode.
What sound card ? Could that be the bottle neck in your setup ?

Thanks for your response. I do not have "audicy", but I have this calibration mic. Never used it though, since it's for surround sound setup, isn't it?
I'm not using the direct mode since I use a subwoofer and that doesn't work in direct mode, but when I use direct mode I don't really notice a difference anyways.
My computer has a Realtek ALC887 sound card, but since it's hooked up with SPDIF to the Marantz amplifier I don't believe it matters. It uses the DAC in the Marantz. I have to add though that I can't get 96 KHz to work with the subwoofer (the Marantz disables it) and 192 KHz doesn't work at all.

 

[Putterman]

Where to start? Actually the Marantz is probably OK unless you're listening in a large room. OTOH it is a little out of date in terms of features and autocalibration systems. It does have full preamp outs if you think it's under powered. It could certainly be replaced with something more modern, but isn't as high a priority.

I would put my money on a 2nd sub. This will give more even bass. It should preferably something a bit larger and more expensive than the JBL although another JBL would also be OK. It would be connected using a splitter off the sub preamp out.

Also I'd try using the autocalibration system. You might get an improvement. Speakers are such an individual thing and many brand available here aren't available in the Netherlands and vice versa although you might look at the less expensive stand mount models from Focal and B&W if you do like the sound.

 

[WAFOE]

Where to start? Actually the Marantz is probably OK unless you're listening in a large room. OTOH it is a little out of date in terms of features and autocalibration systems. It does have full preamp outs if you think it's under powered. It could certainly be replaced with something more modern, but isn't as high a priority.

I would put my money on a 2nd sub. This will give more even bass. It should preferably something a bit larger and more expensive than the JBL although another JBL would also be OK. It would be connected using a splitter off the sub preamp out.

Also I'd try using the autocalibration system. You might get an improvement. Speakers are such an individual thing and many brand available here aren't available in the Netherlands and vice versa although you might look at the less expensive stand mount models from Focal and B&W if you do like the sound.

Thanks, Putterman. My room is quite small, it's an attic with a slanted roof. I don't feel like the Marantz is underpowered, but instead I think it's just not delivering the sound quality. Say for example I buy these expensive B&W 805 speakers, isn't this Marantz holding it back significantly? That's why I thought I'd buy a better (stereo) amplifier, and also since I don't need surround anymore. Isn't the amplifier as important as I thought?

The bass isn't my main problem, the sub is O.K. I actually turned the volume of it down more and more over the years. It doesn't sound as tight as I'd like though. Why do you recommend me two subwoofers? The expensive sets I saw all had only 1 or even none in use.

I just tried the autocalibration, and it set the distance to the speakers and volume correctly. I used to have the distance at the default 1.5 m before. However, I don't feel it has improved the sound sadly.

 

[Putterman]

I didn't realize you weren't doing surround. Personally, I'm not a big believer in name brand amps competently designed making a huge difference in sound quality
and Marantz is considered to somewhat upscale in sound quality to its sister brand Denon. Others would disagree with me. However you do have the option of getting a more expensive power amp or replacing it with an integrated amp with a digital input.

The advantage of multiple subs is that every room has nodes where certain frequencies are boosted and others are canceled leaving a boomy 'one note' sound. Having more than one sub in different location reduces this problem. Many of the autocalibration systems also attempt to do this by cutting the boosted frequencies.

 

[WAFOE]

I didn't realize you weren't doing surround. Personally, I'm not a big believer in name brand amps competently designed making a huge difference in sound quality
and Marantz is considered to somewhat upscale in sound quality to its sister brand Denon. Others would disagree with me. However you do have the option of getting a more expensive power amp or replacing it with an integrated amp with a digital input.

The advantage of multiple subs is that every room has nodes where certain frequencies are boosted and others are canceled leaving a boomy 'one note' sound. Having more than one sub in different location reduces this problem. Many of the autocalibration systems also attempt to do this by cutting the boosted frequencies.

Okay, this sounds to me I can invest the 1000 euro's in speakers and leave the amp as it is.
About the subwoofer, yes, I've heard this at the hifi event too. B&W had a subwoofer that was able to be calibrated to the room by an iPhone. I don't think my Marantz amplifier has this function though, as you mentioned earlier.