Budget and space for gear are everything. Do you have room for separates? If not, you will need an integrated. There are plenty of options there. Often, in the situation you are in, some compromises have to be made. Have you considered simply running a 2.1/2.2 system instead of a full surround? I recently did that and couldn't be happier. The music ultimately is more what I wanted to focus on and I found watching movies with the setup is just fine. The down side of doing this really makes your possibilities expand. There are so many options. Gotta nail down a budget for any significant suggestions. B&W 804s are no slouch. Good choice.
confused and don't know what to do
We would like to buy a nice audio system and also have this double as a surround sound but listening to music is the priority. We have listened to many speakers but have settled on the B&W 804's. Now the challenge is to select a receiver and all the other accompaniments we require. We have a little challenge in that our home is a condo and the outside wall is all glass. The space is combined kitchen, living room, and dining room all open with hardwood floors and hard tile on the walls of the kitchen and a lot of granite counter tops. It seems that every where we go, the recommendations are different depending on what the store is selling and of course, the sales people would like us to buy the most expensive. What would give great sound without going crazy. We are thinking about 2 tribe sub woofers and space is limited and an in wall center B&W speaker but we don't know what we are doing and don't want to throw our money away. Help! Too many choices and we don't have enough knowledge. Thank you so much.
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Op here is how you do it. If the system is for both music and theater you purchase a really good integrated amplifier to run you main loudspeakers and use a good surround sound receiver to power the center and rear channels. This system design will give you a huge improvement for music as the high end intergrated amplifier will far outperform any surround sound receiver, the reason is simple, in a $2-6k high end intergrated amplifier you only have two channels of amplification, two channels of preamplication, and two channels of dac if the amp has one, vs five to eleven channels of amplification, eleven channels of preap, eleven channels of dac, video switching, dolby decoding etc, all of those parts and circuit boards cost money which means less expensive parts are being used in the surround sound product. To use this setup you just take the line outputs of the receiver and connect those to a line input or HT bybass option on the integrated amplifier you have one additional setup when watching you have to go to the integrated amplifier and switch its input to the HT input and perhaps match the volume depending on the int if it has a volume bybass. As per the loudspeakers you should always buy the best you an afford, the 804D is a much more refinded speaker than the seven series. we would also recommend the Kef Reference line right now they are on 30% off from the factory as they are clearing out Rosewood and Walnut, the Kef Ref 3 are outstanding for both music and theater. The Kef line we prefer over B&W especially for Theaters as the Kef is a true point source and the flared cone provides for exceptional dispersion which is critical for Home Theater. If you stick with B&W look for a warm sounding high powered integrated amplifier to soften the Diamond tweeter a bit. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
Do not buy a receiver. If you do, then at least don't waste money on good speakers. Anything connected to a receiver is just a waste. Only thing worse is multi-channel AV receivers. Its criminal they even sell those. What you want for music is two speakers, an integrated amp, and a turntable or (if you're one of those) CD player. Connected with the best wire you can afford. Whatever you do, don't go throwing money away on multi-channel. Look, think about it. Please. You already noticed you could hear a real difference going to better speakers. Well the same goes for the amp, the source, and the wires. Better costs more, and better sounds better. So you get 2 speakers, they are gonna sound better than any 5 you could buy for the same money. Ditto amp. Ditto wire. Not to mention you don't have the room anyway. Stereo. Integrated. Only way to go. |
Actually Miller you could not be futher from the truth. We have a state of the art Home Theater in my shop: KEF Reference Full Surround sound system, Audio Control Processor, Hegel C55 amplifier, all high end cables, Isotek power conditioning, treated room. https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/audio-doctor-jersey-city?select=LYTdw0XSqJh2BIa6MaoiyA Here is the theater we built for Rev Run https://www.google.com/search?q=rev%20runs%20rennovation%20secret%20cinema&newwindow=1&clien... The point is that a really well executed Home Theater setup can sound fantastic for music as well. Unfortunatly really good Home Theater electronics are expensive, therefore the recommendation to get a great two channel amplifer such as a Hegel, Unison Research, Krell, Naim etc that can drive a great set of music speakers with the surround sound receiver powering the center and rears. Also the OP may really love Movies and Video so you can have your cake and eat it too it just depends on how you design the system. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ: |
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