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New amp "needed"

B

BTC3

pfm Member
Hi!
My wife has decided the hifi rack in my study is to be repurposed, which means the amp will no longer fit. Contrary to what she says, that I can have a new rack system for Christmas, I believe this means a new amp is needed. Or at least it's a great excuse to window shop!
The study is my principal listening room, it measures approx 6m x 4.5m, carpet over wood floors, wood paneled, brick fireplace, two 3/4 height windows with heavy curtains, and my desk.
Speakers are Neat Motive 2s, placed either side of the door, opposite the desk. They're approx 2m from each other, about 70cm from the wall. Amp is an Onkyo AV, TX606, that I had in storage. I use the main front and rear surround outputs as a jury rigged bi-amp system. Sole source is a DacMagic plus connected to a mac playing apple lossless files through Audirvana+. Music is rock/metal based (Maiden, Metallica, Trivium, Dream Theater), with a fair amount of jazz (Jacques Loussier, Wynton Marsalis) and classical thrown in. Listening volumes are full, but not ear-splitting - most of the time, anyway :)
Anybody have any suggestions for a standard sized, integrated amp, new or used, in the £500 range, that might suit?
Thanks!
 
Your ears, but the Rega Brio-r gets high praise and has a small footprint. One for starters anyway.
 
I opted for the Rega Brio-R (thanks PFM classifieds!) and it has been connected for about 15 minutes so far.
I can't say my world has been turned upside down, but a grin of absolute pleasure seems to be fixed on my face as I go about creating a playlist of all the things I want to listen to!
I guess it is a little unfair to compare a dedicated stereo amp to the AV amp doing 2 channel duty that I was using, but the difference is clear. It all sounds so clear and detailed - does "well defined" count as a suitable term? Bass is exactly where I feel it should be - my eternal bass reference track (Bach's Pastorale in C-minor as played by Jacques Loussier) sounds just right. So far what I think impresses me the most is how it handles the transition from quieter sections to louder ones: the definition is there throughout, whereas previously I would be playing with the volume as I went, trying to wring the most out of my system.

So there it is, one very pleased newbie: Brio-R + Motive 2s + CA MagicDacPlus does it for me. Though I guess the magic question is: how long will this suffice? How long till I feel I need a bigger, stronger hit?

Thanks all.
BTC3
 
I find they work well together. I demoed brio-r and the rs5 speakers (think that's the right model ref, the smallish regs floorstanding speakers) and found the speakers a little thin, but that's just me.
I live between Cambridge and Stevenage if you want to demo.
 
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