So, the big day came to buy my new hifi. I trotted down to the hifi shop with a rough budget in mind (somewhere between £500 and £1000) but no other preconceptions apart from that it must sound good with my KEF iQ5se's. I listened to 4 things within my budget and 1 outside and had a very interesting time!
First up came the Marantz 5003 range. Sounded nice. Really nice and easy listen. Played the musical genres I wanted nicely- Jazz, hiphop, Mogwai, new folksy/country and some indie. Good start, or so I thought!
Next came the Rotel 04 models. OMG! I suddenly realised how poor the Marantz was in comparison. You could hear every instrument and the sound was lovely and warm. It again worked for all genres.
Next we went up to the Marantz 7003 range. Again, better than the 5003 but not up to the Rotel at all. It lost some of the detail and warmth but it just didn't excite.
Still going....
Pioneer AA6 range next. Stuck Mogwai on and OMG it sounded awful. It was very abrasive with very bright treble. Almost painfully so! Kanye West's Gold digger sounded better but the bass was really big. If not slightly too much. It was a tiring listen.
So within my budget it looked like the Rotel gear. I was very happy indeed...
Then the salesman says why don't you just listen to this...
Arcam FMJ A18 and CD17. £100 over budget and obviously a damn good salesman. I stuck in the Mogwai CD and BOOM! it just came to life. It sounded like the Rotel's big brother. Warm and lovely but with such instrument separation and definition that you would not believe. The same happened with the next few CDs I listened to. Finally put on Herbie Hancock and POW! Cantalope Island just burst out of the speakers as bouncy and juicy as the fruit in the title. What a difference. Going backwards and forwards between the Rotel and the Arcam and the differences were very, very obvious.
I just had to have the Arcam. I put on my best hang dog look at the price and managed to get enough knocked off for it to come in under budget!
I will be picking it up next week but now have to get about installing my Sonos system.
I can highly recommend Unilet over in New Malden, Surrey.
http://www.unilet.net/ Not only do they have great AV equipment and nice, friendly staff they also have a huge selection of new and used vinyl that nearly left my brother broke!
(Also big thanks to firefox that saved this post when the battery detached itself from my lappy but it had saved what I had typed!)