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.
raw33
I'm doing what audiotroy advised, i.e, I'm using a Denon AVR for the center and surround speakers, and a pre-amp/DAC fed into a Krell power amp for the front L/R speakers.  The pre-amp is a PS Audio Stellar Gain Cell DAC, which has the home theater bypass feature.  Sounds pretty good on both movies and music.  As suggested above, you can get a nice integrated amp with home theater bypass.  I would have gone with an integrated amp if didn't already have the big Krell.
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OP we live part of the year in a condo with a large great room and a wall of windows, very good sound is possible with attention to detail, component selection and proper setup - furnishings help and maybe even some pleasing acoustic treatments.

what is the real no kidding budget ?

i happen to agree in a reverberant space the B&W you picked should be avoided.

where are you located ? There will be trusted dealers posters here can recommend.

the Totem subs you picked, how did you find / choose those ? I have a Totem system in a sunroom, sounds great with NAD power, a 40’ glass wall....but speaker position is everything in that room

have fun, enjoy the journey 
As a card-carrying audiophile with a fairly expensive dedicated 2-channel rig at home who also worked for Magnolia at Best Buy, I can speak with some considerable experience on their gear.

First, I’ve never been a fan of B&W speakers mainly because the yellow Kevlar drivers really turned me off. Having spent significant time with their new Diamond series with the silver Continuum mids I can say whatever they did has fixed the problem I had with the older drivers. I spent more time with the 804D3s than any other speaker in the store and I have to say the new 804s sound very good. I compared them directly to the 704s and I found the 804s to perform at a significantly higher level (as they damn well should for the considerable price difference) when fed with good recordings and appropriate electronics.

Ok, there’s my preamble. Now, I have to say I completely agree with @audiotroy that if 2-channel is your priority, and frankly to do full justice to the 804s, you should strongly consider either an integrated stereo amp or stereo pre/amp separates. It’s insanely easy to incorporate these seamlessly into your HT setup and be able to change between HT and pure 2-channel at the push of a button — literally two systems in one and best of both worlds.

I also agree with @erik_squires and his Anthem recommendation for an AVR, and if HT is also very important to you and it’s in your budget you can’t go wrong with Anthem. However, if HT isn’t quite as important and/or you’d rather spend less there and put the available dollars elsewhere I’d very highly recommend the Yamaha Aventage RX-A3080 that you can get from Accessoriesforless.com for $1300. I got to use all the AVRs at Magnolia with the 804s, and for whatever reason there was a special synergy between them and the Yamaha such that it was on the level with my much pricier home system. Quite frankly I was amazed at how good this combo sounded with well-recorded stereo material. Obviously the 804s will sound even better with good dedicated stereo electronics or probably an Anthem AVR driving them, but no apologies needed to be made for the music the Yammy/804s produced. I could easily make the argument, if you can’t stretch for the Anthem, to start with this combo and let things break in and give yourselves time to assess and get to know the system in your room. At that point you’ll be in a better position to judge what you might like to improve upon and/or what separate stereo components you might like to audition to improve things further.

I’ve blabbed on too long here, but you seem to be looking for some guidance and given my experience with the speakers you’re considering I thought this might be helpful. Best of luck in putting your system together.
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