Home Theatre and Hi-Fi Reviews

The Marantz SR7007 Receiver Review

2012-09-07T22:44:00.002-07:00

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN MOVED TO A NEW IMPROVED WEBSITE, CLICK HERE

Marantz is one of those companies that will properly never die as long as there is ears to hear and music to be played at home. And after many years of giving the world some of the best Hi-Fi equipment, and being pioneers in the home theater industry, they are still able to bring out equipment that improves every time they change a model number

And so the Marantz SR7007 came to me in a box, a square box in a way that most receivers are boxed. Opening it gave me something I did not expect, and that was a 4 page instruction manual. Interestingly, all the writing was big enough that any 50 year old man not to struggle to gets his spectacles, hardly any usual information.

The accessories is the standard thing, Manual, Instruction CD, Remote with batteries, FM Cable and Auddyssey mic.

The remote has the same look as the Marantz SR7005, few buttons changed to accommodate the expanding multi-room functions.

So before I started to read the four page instruction manual, I carefully investigated the back panel. Yes indeed, three HDMI Outs. The Marantz SR7007 receiver has three HDMI’s out.

Following the confirmation from my eyes that the Marantz SR7007 has indeed have three HDMI’s out, I followed the instructions.

In short it said the following:

1. Unpack

2. Plug in TV HDMI on HDMI Out 1

3. Plug in power cord

4. Follow on screen instructions.

I thought this was not a good idea as their might be complication with wires touching each other if you by accident increased the volume. But no, this was not the case. When you go to what they call “Setup Assist”, the amplifier itself switches off, leaving you with an instructions menu. From there you can choose language, speaker connection/calibration, Input setup and Network setup.

Now from here you just need to follow the instructions as showed on the screen with no danger of shorting out cables. Setup is very easy onward.

A 11.2 setup is available with the Marantz SR7007 , but it still claims to be a 7 channel unit. I am waiting to get some feed back from Marantz on how they configured the amp to run the full 11 channels.

With Surround Back you can assign either one or two speakers, giving you the ability to make use of a 6 channel or 7 channel configuration.

When doing a more custom setup, with Zone capabilities the onscreen menu is easy to understand.

So what I did is I took a 32inch Samsung TV and placed on my stand. I connected the TV to the HDMI Zone 2 Out connector, lo and behold, I had picture from my Marantz UD5007 Blu Ray Player which I coonected to HDMI in 3 (which is labeled BD). So the next question to fill my mind is sound, lo and behold, sound on the TV. So I took my Netgear NEO, connected it to the Media HDMI port (which is number 5), instructed it to be a source on Zone 2, then instructed the Marantz UD5007 to be a source on the main Zone, lo and behold, the TV had picture with sound from the Netgear NEO, and the main zone had its own picture and sound. Wonderful, it works exactly the way I hoped it would work, 2 zones running 2 different HDMI sources separately at the same time.

So setup and gadgets out of the way, I am impressed. So let us go for the performance part. So I wanted to test the units power in a 5 channel setup, without using the Bi-Amp and Bi-Wire capability. My surround package: the Monitor Audio Gold GX300. I loaded John Mayer live Blu Ray. I stood in the middle of the room, lights of, closed my eyes. It felt like I was there at the concert. I hear the whistles of fans from behind, the screams of the lady who should not have been there. It is just so atmospheric, really, I have heard many systems with this same live disc, but this just had such depth in the sound. The singing was perfect, it just gave such a real feeling.

I then got a track from my NAS drive, to test the Marantz SR7007 streaming ability and if it could handle the GX300’s. It was a classical piece with nice low end, quick and sharp acceleration on the violin. The Marantz SR7007 handled it with absolute authority.

Next step was a movie, from my NAS drive to the Netgear NEO, to the Marantz SR7007, I played the intro from Transformers 3, and from the start the intro sounded stunning. The music is prevalent, yet not dominating, Optimus Prime’s voice could clearly be heard over the rumbles of thousands of emotional mechanical robots shooting the living galactica out of each other. At no time did I feel like I am not hearing the dialogue, nor did I feel it does not give me the atmosphere the producers wanted to create.

I am pleased with the new offering from Marantz. The Marantz SR7007 is really awesome, full marks in features, looks, ease of use, performance and value for money. The way it empowered the Monitor Audio Gold to perform the way it did was truly spectacular. It is also one of the best receivers with multi-room capabilities, the ZONE 2 HDMI making it easy to use in a second room.

The Marantz SR7007 should be available by now where you are, go and audition for yourself.

NEW Harman Kardon AVR 170 5.1 3D Receiver

2012-09-05T06:01:00.001-07:00

Pure Home Theater Receiver News and Info pages: Harman Kardon AVR 170 5.1 3D Receiver: Pure HT Intro: The Harman Kardon AVR 170 will be a replacement unit for the older yet short lived Harman Kardon AVR 165. Basic difference ...

Speaker Review:The JBL LS80 Reviewed

2012-08-29T13:16:00.002-07:00

THIS REVIEW WAS MOVED TO A NEW IMPROVED WEBSITE, CLICK HERE

JBL LS80, big, intimidating and beautiful.

I must admit I was skeptical at first when I saw the JBL LS80 boxes. I mean the European speakers are dominating the market I am involved in, so there must be a reason why this speaker does not get the attention here where I am. But I am convinced now that it is just that some areas in the world are miss informed about the American speaker brand. From pictures only have I witnessed the JBL LS80, and it did not look impressive at all. But I pushed through opening the box and unpacking the tall towers.

First Impression

Now the picture that you have seen of the JBL LS80 does not do it justice. The finish is stunning, professionally build, excellent craftsmanship. The rosewood finish is of high quality, it is big, and it is almost intimidating. My views on American speakers lacking style and beauty was shattered, this really looked nice.

I got the JBL LS80 from our local supplier, and it was packed upside down in the box. The boxes did not seam too big, but when I started to take out the speaker the size became more visible.

UHF and HF Horn-loaded speaker with 2 8inch woofers, big indeed.

Excellent finish. The B&W CM5 and Monitor Audio RX1 being dwarfed in the background

So before we start the test, here is a short description of the speaker

It is a 3 ½ way speaker
Dual 8inch woofers with horn-loaded UHF and HF
Features 176Nd compression driver mounted in a patented JBL Bi-Radial horn
Ultrahigh-frequency transducer: horn-loaded 3/4" polyester-film ring radiator with frequency response past 40kHz
High-frequency transducer: 2" pure-titanium compression driver with diamond surround, neodymium-iron-boron magnet and lightweight aluminum voice coil mounted in a Bi-Radial horn
Low-frequency transducer: dual 6-1/2" pulp cone with neodymium-iron-boron magnet and cast-aluminum frame

General Specification
Frequency Response (–10dB)	35Hz – 40kHz
Frequency Response (–3dB)	46Hz – 38kHz
Power Handling (Continuous/Peak)	100W/400W
Maximum Recommended Amplifier Power	200W
Sensitivity (2.83V @ 1m)	90dB
Crossover Frequencies	400Hz; 6dB/octave; 2.5kHz; 8kHz; 24dB/octave
Nominal Impedance	6 Ohms
Low-Frequency Transducer	Dual 8" (200mm) with cast-aluminum frames
High-Frequency Transducer	2" (50mm) Pure-titanium compression driver; Bi-Radial horn
UHF Transducer	3/4" (19mm) Polyester-film ring radiator; neodymium magnet; EOS waveguide
Dimensions (H x W x D)	1104mm x 259mm x 418mm
Weight per Speaker	35.6kg

The First Setup

So my first test was to test the JBL LS80 on a small integrated stereo amplifier, the new Rotel RA12. Really, I did not know what impressed me the most when the music started to play, the Rotel RA12 pushing the large JBL LS80 to play awesome music, or the JBL LS80’s ability to play awesome music with a small amp such as the Rotel RA12. Needless to say, I was impressed. I played Michael Buble’s Cry me a River first. The staging was dead centered. Impressive for sure, the staging was big and wide, maybe because of the compression driver and the horn-loaded design. The vocals were very natural, more than I ever expected from a horn-loaded speaker. The low ends were excellent, accurate and gave believable atmosphere.

So my second song to test with was Dream Theater Octavarium. It starts off with a musical piece where strange back ground sounds comes to the front, and a guitar solo starts to break the air. The eyes once again were very well defined, subtle. When the acoustic guitar piece started it lacked a bit of warmth, but it was on a not so powerful amp so it could be understood. The staging was once again so wide and engaging.

So far I love this speaker.

So then I decided it is time to up the power. I have a setup where I took a new Marantz Home Theater receiver and added a Rotel RMB1575 that is a 5 channel 250watt class D power amp. I did the setup to Bi-Amping, sending full signal to the power amp (very useful from Marantz that when you configure the amp to Bi-Wire, it adjusts the pre-amp output to the same configuration). So 250watts to the lows, 250watts to the highs.

But this time there was a twist, I had the Monitor Audio GX300’s connected on it already. So I let them stand next to each other. The JBL LS80 looked like the fatter brother, but the finish did not look inferior to the Monitor Audio GX300, to be honest, I think it even looked better then the GX300.

So I blasted a Tron Soundtrack song opened wide on the Monitor Audio GX300, the bass was mind blowing, the higher electronic sound was well separated from the bombs of firing bass punches. Both the JBL LS80 and Monitor Audio GX300 is around the same price, same height. The GX300 actually goes lower with 5Hz against the bigger cabinet of the JBL LS80. So I thought the 8inch woofer of the JBL LS80 will slaughter the GX300…not so quickly. I than invited strangers near to come and have a listen. All of them liked the sound of the Monitor Audio GX300 more. The thing is that the separation of sounds with the Monitor Audio GX300 is just much more impressive, but the JBL LS80 again has such big and awesome sound stage, it had more gain to the volume.
I sat down alone and took a long thought about this. The JBL did not sound inferior to the GX300, it sounded bigger, and it sounded more in your face. The GX300 is once again just an awesome all rounder. But between the 2 one will be careful to choose the best, both is equally impressive.
So my last test was classical music. It sounded so European. The sound was really natural, replicating the sound of the instruments was done near perfect, the highs was not sharp, I liked it. There was a piece where a flute was being thrown in between the mass orchestra; it instantly put an image of my head of the Pied Piper dancing children away from their bewildered parents.

Conclusion

Ultimately when you want to pay a bit more for a speaker then normal you will expect it to look stunning and have better performance than the average speaker out there. The JBL LS80 will fit that description, it is really, really good. Even when having it side by side with similarly priced and massively impressive Monitor Audio GX300, it did not stand back. What I will say if you want to listen to pure stereo, there might be better offerings in the same price range from the European stables, but when you require an all rounder for home theater as well, the JBL will be a worthy contender.

Pure Home Theater Receiver News and Info pages: Yamaha RX-A3020 4K 3D 9.2 Home Theater Receiver

2012-08-27T04:43:00.001-07:00

Pure Home Theater Receiver News and Info pages: Yamaha RX-A3020 4K 3D 9.2 Home Theater Receiver: Yamaha RX-A3020 4K 3D 9.2 Home Theater Receiver The RX-A3010 AVENTAGE AV receiver features HQV Vida video processing quality with ...

British Bookshelf Battle Royal!!! B&W 685 vs KEF Q300 vs MA RX2

2012-06-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN MOVED TO A NEW IMPROVED WEBSITE, CLICK HERE

So this is the battle of the British bookshelf speakers. Yes, the market moving British speakers, who have won more stars than the flag of the United States. They have filled the American, European and East Asia market with success, who could doubt their quality reputation?

Which one of the three can be called the best?

Which Bookshelf am I referring too? B&W 685, multiple winner of Sound and Vision Best of awards. The KEF Q300 recently dethrones the B&W 685 as the new Sound and Vision Best of Award. The Monitor Audio RX2, quietly in the corner, but with breathtaking performance.

My wife is half British, and proudly so. Even though she is 25% French, 25% German, 25% stiff upper lip British and her choice of origin, Cornish, bloody pirate blood runs in her veins. Even her great uncle was Sir John Matthew, survivor of a second class Titanic ticket. Where am I going with this? My wife got a lot of stuff, old yet intriguing bits and pieces from her British and Cornish grandmothers. All of which was of high quality. The wooden furniture were of good, strong material and particular attention was given to details, the clothes were beautiful, many poor animals had to give their fur to do so. Fact is, when the British make stuff, it is fancy, of good quality… or it is the biggest rubbish human kind...I might rather stop at this point.

Now if the British made cars like they make speakers, they might have over thrown the Germans in quality, the Americans in quantity, and the Japanese in reliability. And I thank the Hi-Fi gods for not allowing British automotive engineers to design Hi-Fi speakers.

KEF Stand at IS Europe 2012

So now I am sitting in my shop at the brink of winter, staring at three speakers from the small Island that used to rule and govern most of the world. Now I have spoken to the KEF and Monitor Audio designers and managers. I had the opportunity to speak to the B&W guys, well, let’s say they remind me of my wife’s stiff upper lip grandmother.

It is three totally different mind sets that these people have. From listening to the KEF guys, it’s as if they got kicked in the butt for sales being low (which I can not speculate about, being true or not, I do not know), or just a new passion arriving from management of the product. KEF’s focal point is more on the detail of the sound. It’s very detailed, like a fisherman detailing the enormity of a record size fish that he caught, but which got away.

Monitor Audio on the other hand, they are more focused on making the sound neutral and accurate, but also gives a lot of attention to the design. They do not only make speakers , they make attractive speakers. The design is no more Anglo Indian of origin; it is just purely made to accommodate those who like to have a beautiful speaker, and not just a box, which your wife will choke you for with the very polystyrene that protected it if you dare bring it into her house!

B&W at Apple Store Grand Central Station

B&W is just plainly clever. While KEF used their R&D on new product lines, and Monitor Audio spent their budget on wood veneer, B&W took the money and gave it to their marketing crusade. It paid off! No new equipment to mention really from their stable, they just focus on marketing, which in the end worked for them. Using Apple as part of that campaign, who could have thought about that? A recent report now is that B&W owns 28% of the speaker market, which is a significant share.

My Setup:

Rotel RCD-1520

Rotel RA-1520

Audioquest Sidewinder Interconnects

Audioquest Speaker Cable

Looks

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THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN MOVED TO A NEW IMPROVED WEBSITE, CLICK HERE

Pure Home Theatre: New Mark Levinson

2012-01-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

Pure Home Theatre: New Mark Levinson: At the CES show recently Mark Levinson intorduced some new equipment to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. Here follows some of the u...

Monitor Audio Gold GX300

2012-01-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

What can I say about the Monitor Audio Gold GX300? It is not as loud as a JBL, it does not have the midrange of a Bowers & Wilkins, it does not have the sharpness of a KEF, yet it has all the characteristics of a brilliant speaker. Frequency response of 30Hz-60kHz, 200Watts Handling, 8ohms and 1060mm tall, it is a lovely British speaker.

Looks

It is a really nice looking speakers. It has a modern look, the plinths compliments the speaker. It stands steady, it stands tall, it is a little bit higher then a B&W 804 Diamond. The drivers have a different feel to other speaker brands, using Ceramic-Coated Aluminium/Magnesium, but Monitor Audio engineers used "green" products to construct their drivers. Another thing I really think was thoughtful is the grill over the ribbon tweeter, not nasty little fingers making a hole soon. It has a kind of industrial looking grill, a magnetic metal mash grill is to cover the speaker, just shading the drivers in the back ground. I think it is beautiful, I think your wife will consider this any time over an American speaker.

Performance

I explored this beautiful speaker on the following configuration:

Rotel RCD-1520
Rotel RC-1550
Rotel RB-1582
Audioquest Sidewinder interconnects
Ultralink Speaker Cable

My first CD was Josh Groban. You notice quickly that the speaker is not a normal British speaker, it does not have the sound of the KEF or B&W. It gave me from the start of the CD something other speakers mostly lack, and that is atmosphere. It has a brilliant low frequency, on low volumes it is well pronounced, you feel it, you hear it, you experience it. In my studio room I have demo'd this units to many people, al of them looking around for the sub woofer. The tweeter is soft on the ears, the mid range is not overly pronounced, the music and the vocals blends in nicely. Thing with Josh Goban CD's is that it really is a solo act, it is about the vocals, not as much the music. Because of the kind of speaker the Monitor Audio GX300 is, Josh seems to sound much better on a B&W or a KEF, the B&W has a very powerful mid range sound. Josh Groban does not sound bad at all on it, just Josh Goban and similar recorded CD's where the vocals are centre the B&W does a better job then the Monitor Audio GX300.

I then took Diana Krall. So here the music is complex, it has a lot of acoustic guitars, piano, bass, drums, percussion etc... Much more to deal with then Josh Groban. This is where I like the Monitor Audio GX300 more then even the B&W 804 Diamond's. With the B&W and KEF the voice overshadows the sound to much. Yes, the singing is brilliant, but the music is in the back ground. This is where the Monitor Audio actually does a awesome job, you feel and hear the music, yet when the vocals come the music is still there. It is like the staging is better on it then other speaker brands. When you close your eyes you can see Diana Krall sitting behind the piano, the bassist to the left, the drums just behind her slightly to the right, the guitarist a little bit further right. It is brilliant the staging this speakers give.

I added some classical music with strong soprano voice of Julianne Laird Hoge. When the music starts it has a very low bombastic bass from the contrabass, the speaker does an awesome job to keep the low frequency well defined without over powering the rest of the piece. The soprano voice is perfectly played back, it does not scream its attention to itself. The violin blends in perfectly. This is really awesome, this is a really brilliant classical music speaker. When I demo's the B&W 804 Diamond the violin and soprano voice was taking center stage, but here you have perfect balance.

I then played some hip-hop, metal and Michael Bubble, the speaker never gives in to any element, only thing that could be said really is that some music you will have to turn the bass setting a bit down.

What is also noticeable about the Monitor Audio GX300 is that when you demo it side by side with a B&W 804 Diamond the immediate reaction from 90% of my clients prefer the B&W 804 Diamond, but after listening a couple of songs half of them will then change there mind to the Monitor Audio.

Conclusion

When you put the Monitor Audio GX300 next to other brands, most of them will scream at you first, BUY ME BUY ME. The Monitor Audio will stand in the back ground behind the fight to impress and tell you to bring it on, tell me what you want to hear, and I will make you hear it. But still, I believe, this is not really a speaker for all, it will not impress everyone, it will not impress the die hard B&W follower. But as a stereo speaker, it is brilliant.

The finish is beautiful, the sound is balanced, the price is right. I personally will take this for myself should I have a choice

Looks and build quality : 9/10
Performance : 8/10
Value for Money : 9/10

Pure Home Theatre: The B&W PV1D, new B&W PV1 replacement unit

2012-01-21T21:55:00.000-08:00

Pure Home Theatre: The B&W PV1D, new B&W PV1 replacement unit: Available in Europe from January, and available from South Africa hopefully in Mid February will be the new B&W PV1D. It will have a new DS...

Pure Home Theatre: Monitor Audio new Shadow: Star of the Show award C...

2012-01-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

Pure Home Theatre: Monitor Audio new Shadow: Star of the Show award C...: I will have detail for South Africa release soon... Monitor Audio were last week proudly awarded a 'Star of the Show' award for...

Boston Acoustics A-250 5.1 Package

2012-01-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

In my sound room I have a Boston Acoustic system set up with the Yamaha RX-A810 and BD-S671 Blu Ray Player. Much has been said by many reviewers world wide about the A-Series from Boston Acoustic. They obviously have stiff competition from the likes of Monitor Audio Bronze and Jamo on the entry level theatre packages. So before me on a 47" Hitachi LED I will review this speaker package. Packing out is a breeze, but when you take it out of the box, you do not want to put them back, not because it a the most awesome speaker ever, it is because you need to be a rocket scientist with the packaging to put it back in, a total of 12 polystyrene pieces PER BOX.)

The configuration of speakers I have is as follows:

A250 Floorstander 2-half way speaker
A225C Centre Speaker
A25 Bookshelf
ASW250 250W Subwoofer

Looks

It is a cheapish speaker for a high end market, about R6000 for the floorstander, R15 600 for full package. For the price it looks very well put together. It is 1000% better than the Classic Series (old CS range which it replaced), there is no comparison, CS designer should have been shot. The A-Series' workmanship is of high standard, the black finish is very nice. The grills uses magnets to keep it to the mothership (something all speaker should have IMHO). They did not try to make it look too interesting or to modern, there is a nice balance between style and tradition. Your wife wont beat you half dead for getting this system, it can be used for a love songs as well, so if used wisely she will forget you ever bought it.

Performance

One thing I love about this package is that it sound very good with little power, the Yamaha RX-A810 is sufficient to drive them nicely and to impress a potential buyer. I inserted Iron Man 2 to the Blu Ray Player, skipped to the final fighting scene with the machines. So they start talking, argues who's gun is the biggest (shocking really), and then the machine fell from the sky waiting to shoot the living hell out of Iron Man and friend.It handles that part quite well. So the masks closes and they started to shoot World War 2 worth of ammunition per second. The speakers keeps up with the crushing of steel, lasers from Iron Man. The Sub woofer keeps a smooth but intense atmosphere, WOW, this from an entry speaker system from Boston Acoustic.

Very excited I loaded Hitman from David Foster. So I choose Josh Groban with Bryan Mcnight. It starts, I am confused that this just so powerful speaker system sounds a bit...average. Why is it? Very simple, very weak centre speaker. It is cheap, R2500, but it really does not deserve to be in the same package as the A250 and A25. On the musical side the the A250 does a brilliant job, I can not fault it on its performance, looks or quality. The sub woofer tends to get a bit boomy, but for being down firing and well priced it is not a bad sub woofer at all. The A25 it self is a very good speaker, and for a surround it does a great job (I thought even it might be a good idea to use the A25 for a centre speaker).

So concluding some other music and movie disc, there is a lot of good things and one bad thing with the performance.

Good - The speaker package can keep up with ferocious pace, the mains have big sound and heart for a small floor stander, the sub is aggressive but can keep the pace and atmosphere. The A250 on stereo sounds brilliant for the size and price.

Bad - Centre Speaker

Conclusion

I must say I like the Boston Acoustic A-Series. It is really an impressive speaker package for the price and for the fact that you do not need huge power to drive them. The looks are well balanced, it is not conceived from an Orc pit. If it was not for the centre speaker I this would have been a very impressive speaker system in every way, but it was not to be a brilliant one.

Looks and build quality: 9/10
Performance : 7/10
Value for money : 8/10

The Yamaha Aventage RX-A3010 Receiver

2012-01-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

While I am in a area where I can tjop and change many configurations of amplifiers and receivers, you do come across certain speaker which is just very hard to drive to its full potential, for instance the Bowers and Wilkins CM9 and the Monitor Audio RX8. On the Monitor Audio RX8 especially, it just seems no receiver I attach to it brings out its potential, it always sounds like it is being held back, in an enclosed box, except when you add a power amp to the configuration.

This is where the new Yamaha Aventage RX-A3010 really impresses. It is a real nice powerful amp, filled with features, easy to manage, and it looks brilliant.

Looks

The RX-A3010 still have the popular Yamaha look which was seen in most of the four digit receiver from Yamaha. Flap in front hiding buttons and connection points. Only have a volume and input nob, with a Power and Pure direct button, making the RX-A3010 to look very smooth and stylish.

Setup

The set up is really easy. The bi-amp channels on the surround back's are right next to the mains, making bi-wire configurations very easy. It has a 2 sub woofer pre outs, 11 channel pre-outs for a 11.2 surround sound system. The layout is easy to understand. 7 HDMI's in on the back, 1 on front panel. 2 HDMI out, and component video out for (which can be used for 2nd zone). You have a zone 2 and zone 3 which can be powered from the amp, as well as an optional 4th zone on pre out. You get two remote's, obvious the second remote for the second zone. When all is connected the on screen menu is very easy to understand. Set up takes few minutes and you are ready to go. Specs can be viewed here. First impression on the Yamaha Aventage RX-A3010 for most home theatre fanatics should be easy and reassuring that the product is made for the best possible experience.

Click full full size image.

Performance

Yamaha claims the RX-A3010 has a output of 150 watts with 2 channels driven. I did put it to the test with various speaker pairs. The B&W 683 was first on the list it is a speaker that sounds good on a average receiver, but sounds brilliant with power going into it. The RX-A3010 proofed to be such a receiver that can drive the B&W 683 near to its potential. The sound was warm, the bass accurate, the midrange and high frequencies pure (it was not sharp at all, well controlled).

I then added the B&W CM9 pair to the RX-A3010. The B&W CM9 is on spec the same as the B&W683. On comparison you do need a lot of power behind the CM9 to really hear a difference between the two brothers. The Yamaha RX-A3010 drove it nicely, when considering that the Marantz SR7005 seems to have a lot of difficulty driving the B&W CM9's.

The Monitor Audio RX8 was next in line. The problem most amplifiers have with the RX8 is that it is 4 ohms. I tested the Monitor Audio RX8's on a Harman Kardon AVR660, the Monitor Audio RX8 sounded bottled, suppressed, depressed. Even the Marantz SR7005 seemed overwhelmed by the demands that the Monitor Audio asked. Yet the Yamaha RX-A3010 gave the speaker something to work with, it sounded full on low volumes, controlled on high volumes and just over all complete.

On the Home Theatre side, the RX-A3010 flawlessly gave me a brilliant show with David Forster's Hitman. The music was of a good standard, the staging of the instruments was well separated. Even when the music got complex and heavy the instruments was still distinct from each other, the singer voice never disappears in the music. Well recorded, very nicely reflected back.

Movies is treated with care. With Avatar it handled the "Big tree shot to kingdom come" scene with ease, all the detail of the helicopter blades, the children screams, all is still very clearly heard with all the noise coming from the explosion. All movies on this unit is treated with high standard expected from a receiver in this price range.

Conslusion

For the money this is an awesome amplifier, well balanced, a lot of power, a lot of features, user friendly and awesome power. This is the best amplifier form Yamaha in many moons and well worth a shot

Looks and build quality: 8/10
Performance: 10/10
Features: 9/10
Value for Money: 10/10

The B&W (Bowers and Wilkins) 685 Bookshelf

2012-01-05T20:40:00.001-08:00

The Bowers and Wilkins Bookshelf is a speaker that stuns a lot of first time listeners. It puts a lot of R8k - R9k ($950 - $1100) speakers to shame, even coming close to make the Bowers and Wilkins 684 Floorstanding speaker seem much less impressive.

It is a decent big bookshelf, with a decent size mid-bass driver, it weights 7kg and has two finishes (black ash and red cherry). It does not have striking looks (which you can expect from a R5000.00 ($595.00)), but the workmanship is of high European standard and has not been assembled by a drug mule in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. The grill is a standard cloth grill that clips in which can also be easily broken, so it is wise to keep itching finger from the grill. With the grill off there is a yellow kevlar driver starring back at you, but I will rather not refer it to anything Hillbrow at this time. Over all build quality is good and you won't feel ashamed having it in your house when your mother-in-law visits.

I have a nice quiet listening room where I demo all stereo speakers. My set up is a standard stereo set up. In my set up I have the Rotel RCD1520 cd-player, RC1580 pre amplifier and RB1582 200w Class AB Amplifier.

I left it to punishment with music that is diverse, some happy and some dark, some overly busy and some just very technical.

Piano piece it plays back with a breeze, a chill might follow for a first time listener, it really sounds very good. It is very accurate, it gives the recording's every intention back to you. You can hear as the pianist runs his fingers over the keys. When it pitches the high notes, it is controlled.

I then pushed a heavy bombardment of drums with a real crazy drum solo. Within the rumble of toms and double bass kicks you still hear the distinct sounds of the cymbals and the "tssst tssst" from the hi hat. Very impressive indeed.

Had some Diana Krall on it, plays temptation back very nicely, this is where you start to miss your 3-way speaker for your stereo. The speaker does handle most parts very nice, but just some places where the music starts to get technical it does seem to get less defined.

Classical music is brilliant. It plays the violin beautifully, the high note which the fat lady sings (not to say the nice CD I listened to was fat) is controlled and no problem could be found. Only problem I did find was with the double bass pieces. The B&W 685 can go as low as 42Hz, but it cannot accurately give over the very low ends and once again this is where you would miss a proper 3-way speaker.

Conclusion

The B&W 685 is a very impressive bookshelfs speaker. It is a brilliant stereo speaker at the price. What I have found with my testing of this bookshelf is that it is power hungry, it loves high current amplifiers. Sure it will run on your more entry amplifiers, but put a decent amplifier on it and you might not even miss the B&W 684 floorstanders or most floorstanders twice the price of the B&W 685.

I would comfortably rate this speaker as follows:

Looks and build quality: 8/10
Performance: 9/10
Value for Money: 10/10