2. amps-preamps
  3. 150924-135683

Where do I start!?!

Greetings!
I recently moved and actually have a small 12'x13' listening area in my new house and wanted to fill it with amazing sounds.  I currently have a Denon AVR-4500H AV receiver hooked into a pair of Monitor Audio Silver RS6 speakers.  I lucked out and got the RS6's at a really good price about 10 years ago and they're easily the best speakers I've ever owned.  I used this setup for casually listening to lossless music from a central server and very much enjoyed it.  I made mention to my father a couple weeks ago that I would like to get a nice turntable and maybe upgrade my sound package a little and he tells me that he recently ran into a pair of Acoustat speakers that he recently fell in love with and bought that he had his older system in a warehouse collecting dust.  When I went to look at it I was amazed to find a pair of McIntosh MC1.2KW monoblocks with a pair of McIntosh XRT1K speakers and a Thorens TD309 turntable in the corner.  He said I could have them if I wanted them but I would need to find something to run the monoblocks (he kept his C1100 and MX160 setup).
My biggest question now is this:  What in the world do I do with these things!?  The speakers are MASSIVE (fortunately I have 10ft ceilings) and the monoblocks are like 150lbs each!  Is 12'x13' enough room for this setup?  I thought I had a list all laid out of what components I wanted to get and how I wanted to set everything up but I was not expecting anything close to this kind of setup and it's got me pretty overwhelmed with options.  I know I need a preamplifier for the turntable but where do I go with the monoblocks?  Can I just go with a preamplifier that has an XLR output (e.g. Pro-Ject Phono Box RS) directly into each monoblock or do I need to get an AV processor to handle that transition?  Out of fear for my sanity, I haven't even started looking at cables yet.  I'm sure that'll be fun too....
Thanks for reading and looking forward to reading the replies!
thomaswells02

Showing 1 response by caphill

caphill
665 posts
 
In that small listening room (12×13) I assume you are only doing 2ch (stereo) for listening to music only. If you’re only doing stereo why in the world did you end up with a Denon AV receiver in the first place? Just get a very good quality stereo integrated amp and a pair of standmount (bookshelf) speakers on stands.

Your father’s McIntosh MK 1.2 monoblock amps & preamp & massive McIntosh speakers are overkill for your listening room size. Those kind of gears are meant for large listening room. Sell everything all McIntosh gears, your Denon AV receiver & your Monitor Audio Silver speakers and get a high quality stereo integrated amp and good quality pair of standmount (bookshelf) speakers for your small listening room. That’s all you will need. There are countless options out there.

For that such small listening room I would highly recommend getting a Naim Uniti Nova all-in-one box solution. It is a digital music streamer/DAC/integrated amp all in a single chassis. equipped with built-in Tidal lossless music streaming app but no built-in phonostage. It will be best to acquire a very good external standalone dedicated phonostage pre for a turntable. The Naim Uniti Nova retails for $7500 brand new. Naim also makes a dedicated phonostage pre and you can connect an external phonostage pre to the Naim Uniti Nova’s linestage analog inputs. The Naim Uniti Nova integrated is a highly musical sounding integrated amp/streamer/DAC unit. It has various digital inputs and analog inputs (XLR & RCA) & DIN (Naim’s proprietary connection). You can stream Tidal directly and download digital music files. I highly recommend getting a Naim Uniti Core dedicated music server to store all your digital music libraries as it would make a big difference sonically rather than using a NAS or central server or your computer to store your digital music files as NAS or your computer are inherently noisy. And connect the Naim Uniti Core music server to the Naim Uniti Nova. 
I highly recommend the Naim Uniti Nova! It is compact in size and sounding highly musical. Its onboard streamer/DAC is superb. 

For a pair of standmount speakers I recommend PMC or Focal Sopra 1 or B&W 805 D3 or ProAc or ATC or Sonus Faber Olympica l standmount or Audio Physics to pair with the Naim Uniti Nova.
PMC, newer Focal, B&W, ProAc, ATC, Audio Physics, Magico speakers will pair really well with Naim electronics and would have great sonic synergy together.

For my bedroom setup I personally have the Naim Uniti Nova paired with PMC standmount (bookshelf) speakers. Sonically it is perfect match made in heaven. They have great perfect synergy together. Prior to PMC, I had the Uniti Nova paired with Sonus Faber Olympica l standmount as well as B&W 805 D3 standmount. They also sounded great together.


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