Audio Stereo Setup for 40-50k

@Vegabond: why don't you start a new thread as your requirement is different than mine.

Dali Zensor 3 or 5 (if I can stretch my budget and since I want floor standing speakers) looks very nice option solely based on reviews and Chaos recommendation. Where can I audition them in Bangalore?
 
Don't waste your money on expensive foreign amps.
Norge amplifiers are Indian made and can deliver un-distorted power at very high levels.
It will eaisly beat anything foreign (like Nad, Marantz, Denon, Yamaha etc) till double its price.

I recall the 128W Norge would be around Rs 15000 (few years back I bought it for Rs 11000). I recently bought 30W Norge for about Rs 7000.
Most of your money should be spent on the speakers.

With about 10-15K spent of amp, you will be left with about 30-40K for the speakers.
Decide whether you want a floorstander or a bookshelf.
Floorstanders will usually produce a better bass (because of inbuilt resonance cabinet), however at the same price - bookshelf would employ more powerful and high fidelity drivers for the midrange and tweeters and therefore may offer a cleaner, better sound with great stereo imaging.

For speakers, I won't recommend since speaker color the tone, and some people love the brightness of B&W, some people like the liveliness of Boston Acoustic, some people love the midrange of Quad, some people prefer the crystal-ness of Dali etc.
Here, Indian makes definitely fall short of expectations (especially at loud volumes).
 
Parv said:
@Vegabond: why don't you start a new thread as your requirement is different than mine.

Dali Zensor 3 or 5 (if I can stretch my budget and since I want floor standing speakers) looks very nice option solely based on reviews and Chaos recommendation. Where can I audition them in Bangalore?
Click to expand...
DNI Home Theater Bellandur is the dealer. The marantz amp I suggested can be connected via coax to your M-Audio 24/96 - it should serve your purpose well.
 
Parv said:
^^ Thanks. Where can I buy Norge amplifiers?
I like sufi genre, which brand speakers will be more suited?
Click to expand...
Call and check with Mr Bajaj, he is quite helpful.
http://www.norgeaudio.com/contact-us/

And let me reiterate (because there will be a lot of folks trying to sway you towards expensive gear), an amplfier's sole purpose is to provide higher output (rms wattage) but at the same time also reproduce the signal faithfully (Total harmonic distortion). All amplifiers distort a little bit, however if you ask them to deliver higher power it will distort more.

Therefore, the same amp will deliver 10W at 0.1% THD, 50 W at 1% THD, 100 W at 5% THD and so on.
Usually any rated wattage figure above 1% THD is absolute marketing bullshit because it will sound horrible (unless you are buying a tube amplifier).
Now you know how Philips / Sony / etc can claim 100 W rms (or 1000W PMPO) and still sound crap (because that figure is rated at 10% THD).

In case of speakers, it is an electro-magneto-mechanical transducer. The electrical signal converts to magnetic signal (almost perfectly), the magnetic signal gets converted to mechanical waves (very imperfectly). Therefore your aim should be to reduce this imperfection to the extent possible.
However, some imperfections may sound good to you. This might be a person thing. Like how some people prefer keeping the smiley equalizer, some people prefer pushing the bass boost button etc.

The speakers are not genre specific. If you like a speaker playing Abida Parveen, you will also like that same speaker playing Pink Martini or even Megadeth.
However, what I spoke of in my previous post is the speaker preference based on frequency response and damping characteristics. Very individual and personal. The only way to know is by doing auditions. There are a lot of shops in Bangalore (from what I read on hifivision forum).

But if you don't have any frequency characteristic preference - go in for any of the known names like Wharfedale, Quad, Dali, Monitor Audio, Mission, Q-acoustic, PSB, Paradigm, Tannoy, Boston Acoustic, Bower&wilkins, KEF, Mordaunt Short.
Spend as much as you can in speakers. Makes a big difference in the reproduced sound.
Actively hunt the seconds market. It will help you save tons of money and superb quality.
 
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^^ Thanks bro, nice informative post.

As I have made it clear earlier as well that I don't want to add source to the receiver and looking for USB option, I have to go the avr way.
Deli Zensor 3 is looking a great pair of bookshelf going by reviews. @Chaos Thanks for contact. I'll go there on this weekend and probably pickup the Zensor 3. Dali Zensor 5 is out of budget at the moment but since I'm going avr way, I'll build my setup slowly.

How is Marantz 1504 avr? any avr recommendation for around 35k?

edit: just realised Marantz 1504 has facny features like airplay blah blah which I don't want and is rated
  • Power Output (8 Ohm): 50W (0.08% @ 8 Ohm), 70W (0.7% @ 6 Ohm)
How is Yamaha HTR-3067 priced @25k and rated as
  • 5-channel powerful surround sound
  • --- 100W per Channel (6 ohms, 1 kHz, 0.9 % THD, 1 ch driven)
  • --- 70W per Channel (6 ohms, 20Hz-20kHz, 0.09 % THD, 2 ch driven)
  • --- 135W per Channel (6 ohms, 1kHz, 10% THD, 1ch driven, JEITA)
  • Discrete amp configuration
  • HDMI (4 in / 1 out) with 4K Ultra HD pass-through for super high resolution images
  • Front panel USB Digital Connection for iPod and iPhone
  • YPAO sound optimisation for automatic speaker setup
  • Extra Bass enriches powerful bass sound even with small speakers
  • Virtual CINEMA FRONT provides virtual surround sound with 5 speakers in front
  • Multi language colour OSD for improved visibility (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Japanese and Chinese)
  • ECO mode operation for about 20% less power consumption
 
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@Chaos Inquired with DNI and unfortunately they don't deal with Dali now. Do you know any other contact?

Also called the Norge Mumbai, got a quote of 10000+1000(shipping) for Norge 2060 and 13000+1000(shipping) for Norge 1000 Gold. Surprisingly local contacts given by them quoted 4000 more for both of the amps.
 
@Chaos Thanks, How is Sony STR-DH130? The power rating is confusing for me

===========================================
Specifications from user manual
AUDIO POWER SPECIFICATIONS POWER OUTPUT AND TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION:
(USA model only)
With 8 ohm loads, both channels driven, from 20 – 20,000 Hz; rated 90 watts per channel minimum RMS power, with no more than 0.09% total harmonic distortion from 250 milliwatts to rated output.
Amplifier section
USA, Canada and Europe models1)
Minimum RMS Output Power (8 ohms, 20 Hz – 20 kHz, THD 0.09%) 90 W + 90 W
Stereo Mode Output Power (8 ohms, 1 kHz, THD 1%) 100 W + 100 W
============================================

However some website shows:
Stereo receiver with 270 watts of total power
Powerful Hi-Fi performance (135W x 2 @ 8ohm, 1kHz. THD 0.05%; 100W+100W @ 8phm, 1kHz, THD 1% )
=====================================================

How can it have 135x2 with THD 0.05% and 100W+100W with THD 1%? Am I missing something? Can someone explain this to me please?

This also has FM receiver and a display so should be a better option than the Norge. Isn't it?
 
You are going abt the wrong way mate. Forget abt this rating and power output for now and audition various options.
I read above abt the dali 3 but personally i rate the Kef Q300 above any bookshelf i have ever heard. I own a pair of Paradigm studio 10 and i wish i had heard the kef before i bought em.
Kef sounds gr8 paired with a denon or manatz to my ears but not so good when paired with a yamaha..

Also i do believe norge goes well when paired with wharfs.. Audition stuff man, thats the only way to get it right.
 
^^ Thanks, I'll check the KEF at ProFX store, they also have denon amplifier.
Just for my understanding about power rating, please explain the figures mentioned above in my last post.
Thanks
 
Parv, remember that doubling of Power only leads to 3dB more sound. (you would barely perceive a +3dB as only slightly louder)
In order to make DOUBLE sound, you need about 10 times more output power.

So one should not really run after the wattage figure. My post about wattage was just to illustrate how the manufacturer fool the consumers while staying legally correct.

Check with the Norge guy, I remember he said he can add FM tuner to the amp for some extra money.


Please do remember that Norge cannot accept HDMI or other digital audio input. You require analog signal over RCA jacks as inputs.
 
^^ Thanks, Going by your post only I got confused with sony power rating.
How can same amp have 135w x2 with 0.05% THD and 100+100w with 1% THD?
Or I'm missing something in 135x2 and 100+100 thing? Why they didn't write 100x2?
Yes I checked with norge, they have seperate AM/FM tuner. I didn't ask about the price though.
 
Parv said:
^^ Thanks, Going by your post only I got confused with sony power rating.
How can same amp have 135w x2 with 0.05% THD and 100+100w with 1% THD?
Or I'm missing something in 135x2 and 100+100 thing? Why they didn't write 100x2?
Yes I checked with norge, they have seperate AM/FM tuner. I didn't ask about the price though.
Click to expand...
See there is a difference in audio quality of a norge vis a vis a Marantz or cambridge stereo amp. And i am talking of entry levels here. But the difference maker is the speakers you choose. Average speakers typically dont need the latter.
A wharf of tannoy with a norge is just fine imho but a dali/paradigm/kef/nad will need better amp.

Also for eg: kef's are really bright whilst wharfs are a little light on the treble end generally. Hence a kef with denon sounds gr8 but not so much when paired with a pioneer. Im guessing you get the idea..
 
@Chaos Finally found the Dali Zensor Dealer in Bangalore - "The Home Theater Store". I got a quote of 20k for DZ1, 29k for DZ3 after 10-15% discount on them.
Also checked with ProFx about KEF Q100 and Q300 priced at MRP of 37k and 45k, 10% discount was offered on MRP.
Essentially both Dali and KEF are offered cheaper than Amazon.com pricing. I"ll go at both places tomorrow. Leaning towards DZ3 right now.

I'm still confused about amplifier. Marantz PM5005 and Denon PMA520 both looks good however none have USB port. What kind of USB source I"ll have to buy to pair with these amps to be able to play FLAC 24/192?
Another option is to buy Marantz-CR603, however it's age old stuff (almost 5 years) and I don't know if its worth the money now. Newer variants are darn expensive.
One more option as discussed earlier is to get an AVR, I'm looking at Sony STR-DH550 ( a year and half old) priced at about 29k (woithout speakers) and Marantz NR1504 (more than 2.5 years old) priced at 34k. Both have USB ports and plays FLAC 24/192.
Please help in finalizing the amplifier.

Thanks
 
You need a BT receiver added to that Marantz amp that I'm selling ;-)

Willing to sell the Marantz amp, Kef speakers and the BT receiver for maybe 27K. You won't find a better deal.
 
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