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December 26, 2006 - 8:20am
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oliverpete
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Joined: Dec 24 2006 - 6:48am
Kenwood Basic M2A amp and C2 Preamp, worth keeping?

I'm starting to get back into audio and home theater. I use to be big into it back in the 80's before marriage, but a wife and young kids will put a quick stop to high end stereo purchases and I pretty much got into movies and away from the audiophile side of things. I was looking to upgrade my Jamo Cornet speakers which I've had for some years now and have been spending way to much time doing research according to my wife. I was thinking of upgrading to some Monitor Audio B4's to get a bit more bass response for audio without having to use my sub. The sub would then be used for only home theater surround sound applications. My current set-up is as follows:

Sony GA9ESG Receiver
Jamo Cornet II Speakers
Jamo 100 center and surrounds
MTX PS100 Sub

Since I'm getting long here I'll get to the point. In my research I ran upon some articles regarding my old Kenwood Basic M2A(B) amp and Basic C2 preamp. Seems they are somewhat sought after. They've been sitting boxed up in my closet for the past 10 or so years and are in great shape. I'm wondering if they are worth keeping (if so why?) or should I sell them and maybe upgrade my speaker choice to the Monitor Audio Silver RS6? Any help, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Pete

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December 26, 2006 - 11:26am
Jeff Wong
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Re: Kenwood Basic M2A amp and C2 Preamp, worth keeping?

Hi Pete - Welcome to the forums. I'd think the first thing to do would be to unbox that gear and give it a listen. Find out if it makes you happy and delivers music the way you want it. Only you'll be able to determine its worth. Some of us might be able to suggest components with a certain sound (or lack thereof) based on what you're looking for, but, we have no idea what's meaningful to you. Some of us wish to reproduce what's encoded on our discs, some want things to sound like a live acoustic event, and others just want everything to sound pretty or LOUD.

Hook up those components and tell us what you played and were hoping to get that you did and didn't...

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December 26, 2006 - 12:39pm
oliverpete
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Re: Kenwood Basic M2A amp and C2 Preamp, worth keeping?

Thanks Jeff, that is exactly what I did this afternoon and I must say I was really impressed with the sound! I compared two CD's (Stereophile Editor's Choice & Steve Winwood - Back in the High Life) and the bass and midrange seemed to be a bit more defined than with my Sony. If I had a second system I'd set this up but with it not being surround sound capable I'm not sure what to do with it. My music tastes are pretty broad (classical, jazz, blues, some rock but nothing to hard) and I do like tighter bass. My Jamo's sound pretty good for classical but without the sub their a bit weak. I'm heading to Green Bay tomorrow and plan on stopping by a couple different stores to test the following:
Monitor Audio Bronze B4
Paradigm Monitor 7
KEF IQ5's and 7's
B&W DM 602.5 S3

My thoughts are that a decent tower speaker will provide much better tight bass response than my Jamo Cornets on their stands so I could turn off the sub and use it for DVD's only. Am I heading in the right direction? I'm open for any and all suggestions.

Another thought is to upgrade the Sony GA9ESG receiver, Thoughts on this?
Pete

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