I have an Harman Kardon AVR-235 with a pair of Diamond 9.5; it seems that the AVR cannot drive the full dynamics of these speakers; midrange is a bit weak too. I have listened to the speakers with some Audiolab stuff and NAD in the shop and Audiolab sounded more natural and had very clear midrange (while NAD sounded darker, but still more alive than the AVR). I wonder if connecting an integrated power amp like a Marantz PM-17SA or similar to the AVR pre-out would make sense... is the AVR pre-out good enough? Did anyone try something similar?
i have used the harman kardon AVR 430 and the pre outs are pretty good and the speakers matching the HK should have a better sensitivity and DB rating ( as far as i know) HK works very well with JBL and Mordaunt short. reg Audiolab and NAD they are great stuffs cant be compared with HK happy listening dev.
So do you think the pre-outs of my AVR could be a good source to connect to another amp? What about the AVR D/A converters to play DVDs and CDs? I know it would be better to buy a better player too, but for the moment I cannot.
Musically speaking, for CD it's usual that the onboard DACs of the CD/DVD player will give a better result than the AVR's. Therefore you would connect the analogue output of the CD/DVD player directly to the integrated amp and bypass all the noise in the AV receiver. Of course, this depends on the DVD player being half decent...
So you would connect the analogue outputs of the player to the CD input of the integrated amp. Connect the digital output of the player to the DVD input of the AVR and the preouts of the AVR to the Aux or AV input of the integrated. When you want to play CDs, switch the integrated to CD, when you want to play DVDs switch the integrated to AUX/AV and make sure the AVR is on DVD. Eventually, if you want to improve CD playback, get a dedicated CD player and attach directly to the integrated. One option you should check for is a bypass or unity gain facility on the integrated amp. This sets the input of the integrated to miss out the volume control completely and lets it act as a power amp. This way you don't have to control two volume controls when playing DVDs.
One question: if you heard the speakers sound good with Audiolab and NAD, why suddenly change to a Marantz (which I don't rate)?
1. I currently have a very very very cheap DVD player and I have also a 19 months old daughter who likes to play a lot with CD trolleys... This is why I would like to use the AVR D/A outputs... at least until she loves to play CDs in the right way! :-) Once I tried to drive the speakers with an old Sansui AU101 connected to the AVR and the sound was much more interesting (less details, but much better dynamics, more warm, better musical feel and less fatiguing). 2. I think the Marantz has the volume by-pass circuit to act as a power amp... no problem on this side. 3. I found an interesting price for the Marantz in Shanghai compared to Europe... that's the reason. I bought my loudspeakers in Shanghai at the official Wharfedale shop, the Audiolab was not there for selling, while Marantz and NAD (some Rotel as well) are quite popular here as well as tubes amps from many local suppliers. I will try to arrange an audition to the Marantz... maybe together with the AVR... if I remember correctly the guy has both.