upgrade my amp?


Hi all,

I am currently playing a pair of PSB Image T6 towers with the Marantz pm5004 amp and the Marantz cd5004. I love the speakers and they sound great with jazz or acoustic. With rock, they can sound a bit muddy and I have wondered about upgrading to a more powerful amplifier. (My room is 11 by 17 with 6.5 foot ceiling.) Does anyone have experience with amplifiers they thought worked well with this speaker, or just general suggestions about good possibilities? (My budget is 3-4k for amplifier and CD player.) I have been thinking especially about some of the following:

-the Musical Fidelity M3i with the M3cd

-the Rega elicit r with the Apollo cd

-Peachtree components

-Creek 5350 (or perhaps waiting for the redesigned Creek components that are apparently coming following the new Evolution 50a) with Creek CD player

Reactions? Ideas? Thanks!
mcanaday
I think you need to provide more info on the type of sound you like, as well as what you do not like. For example, some people may recommend a new amp that is aggressive in the high frequencies because you will be using it for rock. I like rock but I don't like aggressive high frequencies. More power is one thing, but your personal preferences are something else altogether. Your list of potential upgrades includes some very nice products, but some of them sound very different from each other.
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For $3-4K as a budget, I would also consider revamping the speakers as well. Your ceiling is only 6.5' and you have tower speakers. I believe you'd have much better results sonically with a 3 piece subwoofer/satellite system (i.e. a really nice pr of monitor speakers coupled with a powered subwoofer).

Previously I also had my system in my basement with a low ceiling and it always sounded best with smaller bookshelf speakers that were low to the ground as opposed to floor standing speakers.
I looked at some of your other threads. Is this question referring to the system in your smallish (10 X 10) room in the row house where you need to play the system at low volumes? If that is the case, I doubt you are overdriving the speakers. It may be more the case that your speakers do not sound their best at low volumes. Rock seems to be a difficult music genre for speakers to get right at low volumes. Jazz and acoustic music tend to sound good with good speakers.

I am a coop board president in an apartment house in NYC (Queens) and I try to set an example by keeping the volume low when I play my system. It took a lot of trial and error to find speakers that performed well at low volumes with the music genres I listen to (opera, 60's & 70's rock, folk, country). I ultimately settled on speakers from Ascend Acoustics and Opera (2 different systems) with tube amplification.

I would start with the speakers. Listen in person. Stay away from speakers that reviewers have said require volume to sound their best (B&W comes to mind).

Rich
I agree with you, that an amplifier upgrade is appropriate. After reading some reviews and taking a brief look at your speaker’s specs, any amplifier you choose should have a good 4 ohm rating. What that means is that if your amp delivers 40 watts into 8 ohms, you would like it to double and provide 80 watts into 4 ohms and 120 watts into 3 ohms. I don’t have a specific amplifier in mind for you but your budget is sufficient for a very considerable upgrade - especially if you buy used.

Don’t disregard the speaker cautions you’re receiving - which I also suspect is the prime culprit here. That’s a lot of speaker you have there. If it was my room, the Totem Model 1 would be on my short list.
I haven't listed my integrated yet but how about a Wyred4Sound STI-500 integrated? 250 watts into 8ohms and 500 into 4. Don't know if you're using a preamp now but if you are that's $ in your pocket if you sell it. The Wyred is exceptional and a joy to listen to. Deep, wide soundstage, very detailed, warm with TREMENDOUSLY deep bass. Just sayin.
The Creek is 120 watts into 8. The Wyred is more than double that at 250 watts into 8.