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Dunnersfella
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  #1260650 16-Mar-2015 22:11
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Interestingly enough, I know of an amplifier designer (a long standing NZ brand at that) who noted to me that he would always prefer a well made glass-fibre toslink cable.
The rest of the cabling in his lab was run of the mill. From a theoretical point of view, he preferred coax to optical as there were issues at the time we talked, where the optical output of the Apple TV3 was causing audible jitter issues with some of the amps on the market... But he believed it was due to poor implementation at Apple's end, than the amplifiers handling of the signal. Interestingly enough, Apple TV2's didn't suffer from the jitter issue (it manifested as a loud CLACK), whereas the ATV3 was notorious for it.

For the record, he said the best thing to do speaker cable-wise, is to stick with the same cabling through out the system. That is, using the same copper in the amp, speakers, and of course the speaker wire itself...
If you have speaker cable in your speakers that's worth $2 per meter, then buy that for the rest of your system.
If you ever open up old speakers, you'll often find the cabling has badly 'greened', meaning the corrosion has change the impedance of your speaker. Re-cabling the speaker internals will go a long way to bringing the speakers back to their original level of performance. Many speaker manufacturers have changed their cabling over time, having suffered issues with gradual drops in performance.
Interestingly enough, a few I know of now have silver cabling inside.

 
 
 
 

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Gambit

169 posts

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  #1285491 16-Apr-2015 11:41
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I'm looking at the marantz pm6005 or cambridge audio 651a for my amplifier and was wondering people's thoughts on these.There is also a marantz pm7004 on trademe for sale.
Would the pm6005 be able to drive my floorstanders and am I gaining much with the inbuilt DAC it has?
The cambridge audio 651a has a bit more power and is also $100 cheaper.

Thanks

Dunnersfella
4083 posts

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  #1285884 16-Apr-2015 21:53
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The PM7004 is an absolute step up on everything else you've been considering.
The power supply, the quality of the chassis - it's a beautiful amplifier and something worth keeping in your life for many years.



Item
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  #1285954 17-Apr-2015 07:22
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Gambit: I'm looking at the marantz pm6005 or cambridge audio 651a for my amplifier and was wondering people's thoughts on these.There is also a marantz pm7004 on trademe for sale.
Would the pm6005 be able to drive my floorstanders and am I gaining much with the inbuilt DAC it has?
The cambridge audio 651a has a bit more power and is also $100 cheaper.

Thanks


As I already suggested on this thread, I am well pleased with my Cambridge 651a - great amp, great sound, oodles of power and great build quality. It drives my floor standing Monitor Silver x6's (6 OHM)with ease - at 12 on the dial, my ears surrender and the sound is still strong, sweet and distortion/clip free.

It also has a built-in DAC and takes USB as well as Dig Op, though I have only ever used my separate DACMagic + with it.

Honestly, your speakers will provide the single greatest impact to the overall sound quality of your system and having had more expensive Amps in my time, I probably wouldn't bother spending much more than I did on the Cambridge if I have to buy another one.
(Unless of course money became no object!)








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Item
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  #1285957 17-Apr-2015 07:25
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That said, I am certainly not saying the Marantz isn't a fine piece of kit!








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Gambit

169 posts

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  #1286013 17-Apr-2015 08:37
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With the cambridge audio 651a I'm thinking the dac only works when using the usb input on the back?
With my fiio x5 i guess I'd use the front input and line out from the fiio.
This wouldn't use the inbuilt dac?


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  #1286130 17-Apr-2015 10:56
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Gambit: With the cambridge audio 651a I'm thinking the dac only works when using the usb input on the back?
With my fiio x5 i guess I'd use the front input and line out from the fiio.
This wouldn't use the inbuilt dac?



Without having first-hand experience with the Fiio - I believe this would be the case, yes.

Also; a correction from my above post - I don't believe the 651a does have dig Op/SPDIF - just line and USB...


You could potentially buy an SPDIF to USB converter? That said, if the Marantz has a DAC and SPDIF in, maybe that would be a better option if you are going to use the X5 as your primary source...




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Gambit

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  #1286149 17-Apr-2015 11:22
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Would one these do the trick?


http://www.trademe.co.nz/873643713

Item
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  #1286454 17-Apr-2015 16:59
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Gambit: Would one these do the trick?


http://www.trademe.co.nz/873643713


No that looks like an SPDIF to RCA, not USB. Would be no point to that, you may as well use the line out.

You would want an SPDIF to USB converter, which frankly I think is probably getting into the "messing about" stage and wouldn't stack up cost-wise to buying one of the other amps which already has the SPDIF input built in - the Marantz 6005 is one of those.




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  #1286457 17-Apr-2015 17:13
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The more I dig into it, the more it sounds like the pm6005 would be ideal for you:

http://www.whathifi.com/marantz/pm6005/review


40W should be plenty to drive the 10.6's, though if you have the opportunity to try it with your speakers I would do so!

Just use a Coax digital cable straight from the X5 into the back of the amp and you will be using the inbuilt DAC




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Gambit

169 posts

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  #1286461 17-Apr-2015 17:23
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Yeah the pm6005 looks good.
The appeal of the 7004 is it can be used to power the fronts in home theatre but not with my current reciever.
You can have the fronts going the 7004 and the rest going through the avr.
Saves changing wires each time you want to listen to music or movies which is what I'll have to do at the moment.

Gambit

169 posts

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  #1288192 21-Apr-2015 06:15
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So the pm7004 went for $500 last night.
Would have been a good deal but I missed out.
Was looking at the Pm7005 but that's a bit more than i can spend.
My only worry the pm6005 is the power.
Most people seem to think it'll be OK with my speakers.
I have it loud on occasion but nothing ridiculous.
Any final thoughts from you guys on that?
Thanks for all the information and advice, very helpful :-)

Dunnersfella
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  #1288233 21-Apr-2015 07:53
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The 6004 is a nice amp, but if you ever move up in the world, speaker-wise, you may be left behind.


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  #1288344 21-Apr-2015 11:07
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If you had your heart set on the 651a (and I re-affirmed my love for it over the weekend in an extended listening session!) and wanted to use your FIIO with the coax/digital out, you could always buy something like this http://www.lindy.co.uk/audio-video-c2/converters-scalers-c105/audio-spdif-analogue-dacs-c106/spdif-digital-to-analogue-stereo-audio-converter-p2729 as the interface between the two for starters.

I still think the PM6005 would have more than enough power for your current speakers, but as Dunnersfella says if you were to upgrade them later you may start to move towards the limitations of the amp...

Still - pure Wattage power is never the be-all and end-all. My 40WpC Arcam 8p always had plenty of grunt back in the day...

Are you Auckland based? If you bring your speakers and source into Turned-On audio in Onehunga they will definitely help you out with a demo of the 651a - I got all my gear from them and they were very helpful and did me a good deal.






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Gambit

169 posts

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  #1288355 21-Apr-2015 11:25
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Im in Nelson so will probably be buying online.
Be great to be in a main center but It is good being able to look around for deals.
Some have free shipping which is helpful.
I'll keep my eyes open and see what happens.

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