I doubt the preamp interface is the issue. Get rid of those B&W's. (I say that as I'm listening to a pair of mid-late 90's Matrix 3 s2's :)) The reason the world outside of B&W doesn't use Kevlar as a midrange cone material is that it sucks. Neither the clarity of paper or the damping of polypropelene. Go to an 80's/90's B&W almost anything else. There is no life in Kevlar. It sucks the music out of the music.

Nalini Mohan wrote:

Folks
I have recently purchased Anthem MCA 50 multi channel power amp, B&W CM9/ Centre2/CM5 speakers, OPPO BDP105 for my home theater system. Currently I'm running the system without using any preamp/processor. I've connected 5RCA outputs from OPPO directly to Anthem. I'm not fully happy with the output and feel the need to add preamp/processor. My budget is less than USD 4000. Suggest good quality preamp/processor.

Your problem is obvious; those are 2nd-rate overpriced speakers.

Connecting the OPPO to the amplifier works great; many people are using that system with good results.

For $4000 you can get a set of Monitor Audio speakers or PSB speakers or Focal speakers that will sound 100% better.

The Monitor Audio Silver Series 6 towers plus the Silver Series Center plus the Silver Series 2 will make a great system. (cost $1500+ $800 + $1100= $3400 total).

By the way; the comments about using kevlar for drivers is a mile off target. I can name some excellent speakers that use kevlar in their drivers. The problem with the B & W speakers is their overall design and implementation, not some simplistic issue with a driver material. Any speaker engineer can tell you that there is nothing inherently wrong with kevlar as a driver material.

Also, going to 80s/90s B & W speakers will get you speakers with kevlar drivers. If you read B & W's paper on the subject, "Kevlar has been B & W's cone material of choice since 1976"!!!!

commsysman wrote:

Nalini Mohan wrote:

Folks
I have recently purchased Anthem MCA 50 multi channel power amp, B&W CM9/ Centre2/CM5 speakers, OPPO BDP105 for my home theater system. Currently I'm running the system without using any preamp/processor. I've connected 5RCA outputs from OPPO directly to Anthem. I'm not fully happy with the output and feel the need to add preamp/processor. My budget is less than USD 4000. Suggest good quality preamp/processor.

Your problem is obvious; those are 2nd-rate overpriced speakers.

Connecting the OPPO to the amplifier works great; many people are using that system with good results.

For $4000 you can get a set of Monitor Audio speakers or PSB speakers or Focal speakers that will sound 100% better.

The Monitor Audio Silver Series 6 towers plus the Silver Series Center plus the Silver Series 2 will make a great system. (cost $1500+ $800 + $1100= $3400 total).

By the way; the comments about using kevlar for drivers is a mile off target. I can name some excellent speakers that use kevlar in their drivers. The problem with the B & W speakers is their overall design and implementation, not some simplistic issue with a driver material.

Any speaker engineer can tell you that there is nothing inherently wrong with kevlar as a driver material. How it is coated and finished has more to do with the actual sound quality than the use of kevlar per se.

Also, going to 80s/90s B & W speakers will get you speakers with kevlar drivers. If you read B & W's paper on the subject, "Kevlar has been B & W's cone material of choice since 1976"!!!!

Nalini Mohan wrote:

Unfortunately I've purchased them and can't return them back. With balanced XLR connections the speakers sounded good. But OPPO does not have 5 channel XLR outputs for home theater. It has only 2 XLR connections for music.

I use only balanced connections in my system, because to me the balanced circuits sound a lot better.

There are a very limited number of systems that will let you use balanced for all channels.

Even if you got a pre/processor that is all-balanced, like the Marantz AV8801 or NAD M17, where would you get a DVD player that has 5 balanced outputs?

Big Problem.

That is why I am staying with a 2.1 system for both audio and video; multi-channel systems sacrifice sound quality for more channels.

If the sound quality is good, just go with a 2.1 system and use the balanced outputs; that is my advice.

They only used Kevlar on a few DM's in the 70's and then the 800 Matrix in the 80's. The rest back then were paper, coated paper, and polyprop, often with Celestion tweeters. Focal stopped using it. Pioneer only used it a little, and stopped. A few companies still use it. I could spend more time on Google nailing down more manufacturers that started and stopped on it - and Wilson doesn't count because they used almost all Focal drivers until just a few years back. Kevlar's problem, and IT IS AUDIBLE is it's positives lend it to the midrange where you can't use it to it's potential because it's breakup tends to happens - VERY audibly, right in the upper midrange. And I've heard the CM series, the 800 series (although not the Diamonds) and the midrange doesn't hold a candle to the good old fashioned British, American, and Japanese polypropelene or paper coned classics from B&W, Tannoy, Harbeth, Celestion, etc. And I'm not the biggest fan of plastic cones! In a perfect world, all speakers would be made of Focals "W" sandwich fiber-foam-fiber concoction. But that would be just as boring as not.

All I'm saying is material matters, and Kevlar is an a-musical material for the only driver where it's positives are useful.. so why use it? And why buy it?

Marantz, Onkyo/Integra and Yamaha all make balanced pre-pros. Marantz currently has two in line, the AV8801 is darn nice unit at $2999 and I believe outperforms the Onkyo/Integra or the Yamaha. They also have the AV7701 that is lacking the latest, shiniest version of Audyssey and supports 7.2 channels instead of 11.2 and is $1699.

I would spend the balance on a super nice set of RCA cables for the Oppo to Marantz. That should give you best possible 5 channel audio.

bierfeldt wrote:

Marantz, Onkyo/Integra and Yamaha all make balanced pre-pros. Marantz currently has two in line, the AV8801 is darn nice unit at $2999 and I believe outperforms the Onkyo/Integra or the Yamaha. They also have the AV7701 that is lacking the latest, shiniest version of Audyssey and supports 7.2 channels instead of 11.2 and is $1699.

I would spend the balance on a super nice set of RCA cables for the Oppo to Marantz. That should give you best possible 5 channel audio.

It is possible that a set of 5 Audioquest Diamondback cables between the OPPO and amplifier might be a significant improvement.

The Parasound Halo P7. That might be more what you are looking for. $2299 from Audio Advisor, is a lot less bulky and lacks the extraneous circuitry which you aren't planning to use. AudioAdvisor offers a 30 day money back guarantee and this is a Stereophile Recommended component.

It will interact with your Oppo as if it is the AV receiver. The Oppo will process your Audio like Dolby True HD and send it as a 5.1 channel stereo signal to the Parasound. The Parasound will intern take the unbalanced signal from the Oppo and output it as a balanced signal to your power amp.

You may also be able to connect the balanced outputs on the Oppo for times when you are looking for two channel audio as it does offer balanced, 2channel inputs.

The only thing I would do is double check the pin configuration on the Parasound vs Anthem and make sure they are the same. If they are not, you can have custom cables made. I am not familiar with another device exactly like this, but then again, I haven't been in the market for a device like this in quite a while as I have a Marantz Pre/Pro.