Friend needs help
I have a close friend that wants to upgrade his stereo system. He is old school and frugal. Currently he has a Kenwood KA-501, which I bought in high school, many years ago, and gave to him after having it serviced. He has Cerwin Vega speakers and B/W book shelves. My question what would be a great integrated amp, with 3-5 inputs, a pre-out to add an amp down the road. I am suggesting that he gets a WiiM Ultra streamer and get into the streaming game. He is mostly a rock and roll guy. He is leaving all of the decisions to me.
Tell your guy to get these speakers for around 2000 dollars...Tekton Epic 15 https://tektondesign.com/product/full-range-speakers/full-towers/epic-15/#color They sound better than speakers priced 20 times, 30 times more, etc. There is no beating this Yamaha amp in the lower budget category either Yamaha A-S801 https://www.crutchfield.com/p_022AS801S/Yamaha-A-S801-Silver.html?tp=34948
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The Advance Paris A10 looks great and checks basically every box for me and your friend: solid A/B power, power in and pre out so you can upgrade or borrow/test/experiment with separates, HDMI which many would say you don’t need but my special edition Tom Petty CD only transmits its hi-res files via HDMI (16/44 otherwise), certainly easy to look at, and guessing knob feel is real. The only caveat given your friend’s situation might be, Is it “too nice”? It’s a lot of bread for someone coming from an old school setup—would it ever match his “for the price” expectations vs the old system. Then again, he might be blown away by the modernity, ease of use and sound. For me, the Advance Paris seems like a great value for that price range. |
@speedysteve4 When you post links to retail websites IMO it totally destroys your credibility. I'm not sure what Audiogon rules are but if they OK it I will have to accept it but don't expect any respect from myself or others like-minded. |
