Integrated Amplifier

[KitsonRis]

Been given a pair of Mission floor standing speakers and need an amp for them. I was watching a Sony TA-FE330R on eBay but my mate who gave me the speakers said it was too much and don’t bother bidding. What would people recommend?

Ideally have multiple inputs on the back (realistically it will only need two). Have a remote as the speakers will be mainly to use run the TV audio and cba to get up off the sofa to adjust the volume as I’m not from the 1950’s.

Have seen these on eBay but not sure, seems “tacky” compared to the Sony and Denon ones I have been looking at.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/202138042431
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/202223066912
These caught my eye due to the Bluetooth capability on them as I was going to make a Raspberry Pi Bluetooth reciever thing so I could run my phone to it and use the amp and speakers like a “normal” Bluetooth speaker, saves having an AUX cable across the living room.

 

[realnumber 1]

Both those you've linked will be crap. In what way was the Sony "too much"?
Personally I'd be looking for an AV amp. 2nd hand or new depending on budget.

 

[KitsonRis]

Both those you've linked will be crap. In what way was the Sony "too much"?
Personally I'd be looking for an AV amp. 2nd hand or new depending on budget.

That’s what I thought about those two, just wanted to be sure!
The Sony one was pushing £100, other are on eBay but with no remote at half the price. Any other brands to look for?

 

[KitsonRis]

Oh and budget is £50-£75 plus more for the right/good one. But I have a feeling that budget will go out the window.

 

[realnumber 1]

That’s what I thought about those two, just wanted to be sure!
The Sony one was pushing £100, other are on eBay but with no remote at half the price. Any other brands to look for?

I'd be looking at Denon, Yamaha or Onkyo
On that budget something like this.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Denon-AV...639593?hash=item2cd08fb3a9:g:cdAAAOSwO~Vaegwy

Or this might work better taking the cost of a pie off etc...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Denon-AV...822724?hash=item2cd10c9104:g:Z1IAAOSwkh9ad0Dr

 

[KitsonRis]

@realnumber 1 does that literally do everything? I’ve never seen them before. What is the benefit of one of those? So many in and outputs on the back!!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/323144423034

 

[realnumber 1]

@realnumber 1 does that literally do everything? I’ve never seen them before. What is the benefit of one of those? So many in and outputs on the back!!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/323144423034

I'd have the cheaper Denon I posted over that Sony because of the HDMI. The other will do airplay, spotify/internet radio, DLNA etc.
Have a read about it here.
https://www.avforums.com/review/denon-avr-2313-av-receiver-review.397

 

[KitsonRis]

Cool thanks, gives me something to read lunch time tomorrow. Didn’t help that I didn’t know what I was looking for, got a few more options now. Thanks.

 

[KitsonRis]

I bought an Amp. I just bit the bullet and did it. I think the problem was I was waiting for a good deal and was missing good ones. I ended up with a Sony TA-FE370, so not a AV one. After a thought I think it may be over kill for the set up I want and have - I only have a telly/PS3 and an AUX in, plus I am going to make a WiFi receiver thing on a Raspberry Pi and use Air Drop (my friend did it the other week and he said it was cheap, easy, simple and works perfectly).

Setting it up yesterday and the telly only has an Digital Optical Audio out, which I didn't realise. So need to get cable for that. Cheers Samsung.
But what confused me was how awful the sound quality was on the "Phono In". I had my phone plugged into this and the phone was on 50% volume and the amp was on basically zero and the quality was gash. I know these speakers as they were the ones we had a uni and my friend wouldn't have palmed off bad speakers to me. Sound quality improved if I reduced phone volume to basically off. I then, for some random reason, changed the input to AUX and I could have the phone at 50% volume and the speakers a lot louder and quality was restored. Am I right in saying that different inputs have different impedances/levels (I should know the technical names as I did a physics degree, but quantum mechanics made more sense to me than electronics)? And isn't phono meant for turn tables as they need boosting again with a pre-amp or something? So basically I had the input wrong as it was being amplied more than the AUX in?

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

What made you go for that out of interest ?

I was going to suggest you send noise from the phone to a Bluetooth option on the Amp but a quick Google suggests its a very much analogue stereo amplifier from about 10 years ago.

Your phone will be pushing out a solid fek-all watts... What did you think would happen on zero vol ? Put the phone to full blast and turn the amp up. You wouldn't be surprised that your car was slow if you didn't press the gas pedal very hard.. the amp drives the speakers. More vol = more watts. Watts are power.

How are you going to put your PS3 etc into it ?

 

[KitsonRis]

What made you go for that out of interest ?

I was going to suggest you send noise from the phone to a Bluetooth option on the Amp but a quick Google suggests its a very much analogue stereo amplifier from about 10 years ago.

Your phone will be pushing out a solid fek-all watts... What did you think would happen on zero vol ? Put the phone to full blast and turn the amp up. You wouldn't be surprised that your car was slow if you didn't press the gas pedal very hard.. the amp drives the speakers. More vol = more watts. Watts are power.

How are you going to put your PS3 etc into it ?

It was a good price, offered postage, had a remote and multiple inputs and there were good reviews. Yeah, it's an analoge one.
The issue was when I had it on phono in I had to have the phone turned down to near zero to get any form of good sound quality out as it was clipping horiffically if it was any louder. Changed the input to AUX and I could have the phone turned up along with the amp and the sound quality returned.
I vaguely remember when my friend was setting his turn tables up once he was telling me about how it needed to be in a certain input due to something.

PS3 is connected to the telly via a HDMI cable which then puts sound through the TV speakers. There is an option on the telly setting to use "external speaker" so I am assuming that will change the output to the digital audio out, can't test it as I don't have a digital output cable for it. There is the same digital audio out on the back of the PS3 so I could do that and have an input to the amp for both TV and PS3.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Ahh the phono input is probably expecting an amplified signal !