Building system around a vintage McIntosh

[Apichai]

I recently got back to hifi/home theater and looking for an AV receiver that can be used as a pre amp to McIntosh MC2105. The system will be used mostly for music but occasionally atmos movies. The room is 4x8 meters and height is 2.5m. Most of my music sources are local flac files ripped from my CD collections and spotify. Movies are from Netflix and other streaming sources, 4K max.

The McIntosh is my dad's so lots of memories. The speakers are old NHT VT2.4 front, VS2.4 center and SB1 for surround. I plan to upgrade the front speakers later (not decided yet which one) and will ditch SB1 for all in-ceiling solutions (not sure which ones). I'll run 5.0.2 for movie and 2.0 for music.

So, I'm looking for AVR that can do stream from online services and local file servers. I narrow down to Marantz NR1711 but not sure if sound characteristic will be good with McIntosh or not. The Mc is warm and relax, so pairing with marantz may be too much. Also, some website critique marantz to be reduced denon performance. I also look at the new Denon x1700H seems to fit the bill and should play nice with hdmi 2.1 but i just found out that it may not have pre-out...

My areas are limited to Denon, Marantz, Yamaha and Pioneer. Please recommend few models.

 

[Pogre]

I don't think the X1700H has preouts for an amplifier does it? I'd be looking at the Denon X3700H. I think it's the first model in the line that has a full set of preouts. I think the SR5015 has preouts on the Marantz side.

As far as audible differences go I think a person would be challenged to hear a difference in a blind test. That said, the Denon models do indeed have slightly lower distortion than Marantz, in general, but both spec well below human hearing capabilities.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yes, you'll need an avr with pre-outs. They really don't have flavors like warm, chocolatey, cold, etc, at least not without some tweaking of dsp/eq. I wouldn't bother with the slimline Marantz series, tend to not have a full feature set and limited pre-outs (and amp section). I'd look at the Denons myself, tend to be better priced than Marantz (but are sister brands and share a lot, too). Pick an avr by the price/feature set/amp section that works best for you....or if you want to spend more money, you could think about a dedicated pre-pro and buy some more power amps....

ps Onkyo/Pioneer I'd be hesitant to consider due financial issues but their Dirac eq feature could be interesting....and for that matter Sound United (owers of Marantz/Denon) has announced a sale to a medical company (Masimo) and we're wondering how the future of that could work out....

 

[Apichai]

I'm not aiming for full home theater experience with this set so dedicated processor may be overkill for me. TBH, only front pre out is fine. The 3700H is ok but there might be lots of thing I will not use, for instance, the extra 2 channels. (2 extra holes in ceiling for wife to complain)

Seems like the options are limited to marantz denon pair. Minimum for denon is 3700h with pre-out ... or marantz nr1711 or sr5015... should I get the cheaper one so I can pour more budget into upgrading front speakers or get another dedicated 2 channels dac/pre-amp?

 

[lovinthehd]

If the feature set on the slimline, particularly the amp for your other speakers (and I seem to remember NHT being on the less sensitive side too), is fine, then it could definitely work but I'd rather have at least the better amp sections and better version of Audyssey as well as a full set of pre-outs. Unfortunately with avrs, the value doesn't always get better with less features like extra channels you might not use. I don't use all channels on a couple avrs.

 

[Apichai]

Thanks. My last AVR was a Yamaha RX-V2200! So, anything will process better than that! However, I think the amp part might not be much better I guess. To be frankly, I'm OK with my old Yamaha and NHT combo, but they never "wow" me except for the gloss piano look. I have high hopes for object-based surround. Sadly, the full channel pre-outs are more common features of the receivers of yesteryear. Both my Yamaha RX-V2200 and cheaper Marantz SR4200 still have full set of pre-outs and full set of 5-6 channels analog inputs.

I plan to change the front VT2.4 speakers and they will be driven by MC2105, so no problem. Only the center VS2.4 which less sensitive at 88dB. The rear and atmos will be new purchase ceiling speakers. I'll have a look for local deals of X3700H, SR5015 and NR1711 again.