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amp upgrade

I have been using CA CXA80 with B&W 604  speakers for about 5 years. I use Sonos streamer hooked up to the amp using optical cable. Also have some CD's and blue rays. overall sound is good but I always feel some punch and dynamic element is missing when I listen to the same titles with other random systems. Also the combo is not that expressive at lower volumes, sound gets a bit lost when volume is low. the other issue is lack of clarity in speech when watching movies. have to crank up the volume to hear the conversations but still a bit mushy.... When I bought the system I also auditioned an Arcam FMJ amp which sounded cleaner than the CXA80, I still remember it. it was not an option back then due to lack of availability. 
Wondering if upgrading the amp would solve this issue. I am looking at the newer stuff, preferably a steaming amp as most of my music is sourced from Tidal. Has anyone  used the Naim unity atom or the NAD m10 V2 ? are these any good? In particular something that can reproduce clean sound at lower volumes. I will at some point upgrade the speakers too but I feel I should be able to squeeze more out of them with a better amp? 

 

thanks 

speedmaster20d
speedmaster20d OP
17 posts
 

I looked at AVR I have ceiling speakers that can function as 4 channel, the issue is that I want the integrated amp to drive the tower speakers (most cheap AVR sound awful, I had a pioneer "elite"  and ditched ditched it a while back). furthermore cheap AVR's don't have typically pre out except for sub. What I need is a DTS/surround processor that would take the TV HDMI-ARC and process it into left/right/center/surround and output it via pre out so I can connect it to the stereo amp for the towers and the mono amps for the ceilings speakers. to my knowledge only one such equipment exist made by emotiva audio, but there aren't many reviews of its quality  https://emotiva.com/products/basx-mc1-13-2-channel-dolby-atmos-dts-x-cinema-processor?utm_campaign=gs-2019-11-07&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmN2iBhCrARIsAG_G2i6Id_t07wXE5UZX1ke8nWuITpDho_mcZLF9caSiV9PG4eNiReZCQ6saAoiPEALw_wcB

speedmaster20d OP
17 posts
 

Thanks for the review article it does echo my experience. I recently got an Arcam sa20 amp and st60 streamer with DAC and sound quality improver noticeably. Including low volumes. The other amp was just not a good match for my speakers. 

lanx0003
1,939 posts
 

Although B&W D4 is rated 89 dB sensitivity and 8 ohms (seemingly a relatively high sensitivity speakers), larger wattage with clean high current amp is required to reach its potential. In particular, if you want to explore its the low ends (down to 24 hz) and extends its renowned soundstage, you probably need to upgrade the amp.

But, before doing so, try the followings first (ignore these if you have already done so). I have Cambridge Azur 851a which has similar features with CXA80. First, always use "Direct" mode to bypass the tone control, which is supposed to render better sound quality. CXA 81 actually gets rid of tone control. Also, connect the sound source (like DAC; CXA80's internal DAC is not that impressive) to the Integrated using XLR. I attain better sound quality (more dynamics etc.) too not just louder.

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