Newbie home cinema upgrade question.

[ahardie]

At the moment I only have a pro logic system which came with my Sony TV. I was thinking along the lines of a Marantz 4200 or Denon 1600 or I might be able to stretch to a 1800. I am leaning towards buying one of the Denon's because they can switch the front speakers between two rooms. Having said that sound quality is more important to me. So I would be interested in hearing anybody's opinions on these amps.

As for speakers I already own a pair of KEF Cresta 2s so can I put these to good use in this system and will they match these amps?

TIA

A.H.

[MikeK]

Originally posted by ahardie
At the moment I only have a pro logic system which came with my Sony TV. I was thinking along the lines of a Marantz 4200 or Denon 1600 or I might be able to stretch to a 1800. I am leaning towards buying one of the Denon's because they can switch the front speakers between two rooms. Having said that sound quality is more important to me. So I would be interested in hearing anybody's opinions on these amps.

As for speakers I already own a pair of KEF Cresta 2s so can I put these to good use in this system and will they match these amps?

TIA

A.H.


If you can stretch to a Denon 1802 (as it is now), then also consider the Marantz SR5200 - probably the best specced budget receiver available at the moment - and by all accounts, pretty near the the top of the pile for performance too. It's available for around £350.
Advantages over the 4200 are more power, a 6ch input, and 6.1 format capability out of the box (ie the extra channel amp is built in).

As for your speakers, yes you can certainly use Cresta2 speakers - pretty good budget speakers too. The bonus is that the Cresta range is on offer at the moment (try Richer Sounds or EmpireDirect), so you could add the matching centre for just £60, and a pair of Cresta1 for the rears for another £60. For movies, you may want to consider adding a subwoofer at some point too.
The Cresta sub can be bought for about £140 too (if you wanted an aesthetic match - but that oesn't really matter if you choose black :) ) - but there are other, possibly more capable models available at or around that price. The Paradigm PDR10 is as good as anything I've heard at the £150 price - but there's a thread running about subwoofers at the moment, so some more info is available in there.

[ahardie]

Mike

Thanks a lot for your very helpful reply. I am going to order the KEFs tomorrow although I dont think I am going to buy a sub, I would like one, but I don't think my next door neighbour would be to keen.

As for the amp I am still hankering after the Denon 1802 a bit as I have seen it on offer for £300. The Marantz 5200 would cost me another £50 but everybody seems to be of the same opinion as you that it is the best budget amp. around at the moment. So I think I will probably buy that also.

Thanks again

A.H.