Home amp questions

[lee montague]

Hi all just after some advice
When growing up my dad had a denon pma350 amp. Somehow I have managed to re aquire the amp

I currently run a Cambridge Audio a300 amp with mission 703 speakers I don't have it loud and mainly have it for tv channels cds etc

I have put the denon back in with the same setup biwired same position speakers

As much as it sounds ok I prefer the sound on the Cambridge ( childhood dreams dashed here) mainly around the vocal balance to music the denon seems to not be as. Alanced so the vocals always sound a tad higher

Am I being mad or is it possible the Cambridge amp as it's newer just gives a better sound or a better pairing with the speakers

I am fully aware the denon is more powerful but it's not what I need it for

Many thanks

 

[mistersprinkles]

Nobody can tell you what sounds better to YOU. If you like the sound from part A better than part B, then part A is right for you. In your shoes I may have chosen part B. Somebody else wouldn't like either of the amps. Etc etc. Sound is subjective.

 

[Kei]

It's more likely that the age of the denon is working against it as the components will have aged. It's got to be around 25 years old. The cambridge is a good amp anyway and with fresher parts inside it ought to sound better. With a service, the denon should sound at least as good as the cambridge. There is some topology differences between them as I'm pretty sure the cambridge uses funky darlington transistors rather than discrete transistors in a darlington arrangement. The denon is probably bog standard discrete class AB design.