You have to calculate the room dimensions, size and distance of actual listening area to be used and know the frequency and SPL range that you want to reproduce with authority. Pick speakers that are suitable for those specifics and don't over or under do the project at hand. This means looking for something that is reasonably efficient, has the appropriate radiation pattern and does not have a wild impedance curve. The more that you compromise those basic requirements, the more complicated your job finding suitable support components will be.
No matter what you do, if you have speakers that are inappropriate for the room or your specific requirements, everything else that you do will strictly be an attempt at a "band-aid". You'll spend all of your time trying to correct your initial mistake rather than enjoying what you already have.
If you've done your homework with the speakers, this will narrow down the field of amps quite a bit, so that shouldn't be a problem. As such, you should go back to the source components and find something that is both user friendly and offers the sonics / features that you prefer. When it comes to digital, I think that a lot of people never hear how good it can really be as they don't spend the time to really set things up as good as possible or experience several different front ends within their system. They settle for less because they've never been exposed to "good" digital. Remember, the rest of the system can't reproduce what the source has never recovered. Sources are PHENOMENALLY important.
From there, move onto the "backbone" components, i.e. preamp and power amp or integrated. With an excellent source and a set of speakers that WILL work in your room for your specific situation, your goal is to find a preamp that offers the versatility that you need while doing as little to the signal ( in or out of band ) as is possible other than to regulate the amplitude. A "straight wire with gain" if at all possible. A power amp needs to take this signal and amplify it to the levels required to efficiently respond to your speakers needs WITHOUT being "pushed". This means the amp has to have the ability to deal with a wide range of impedances, levels of reactance, output levels, etc...
If you've done all of that, the rest is a matter of fine tuning the "voice" of the system. This can be done with various cables ( power, interconnects, speaker ). Don't forget that a rack or whatever it is that you intend to support the components with CAN and DOES affect what you hear. Do some research in the archives here as to what works well. A basic suggestion would be to use a very rigid support structure with lightweight shelves that are free-floating.
Treating the room acoustics to varying degrees will also tend to highlight minute differences that you might not otherwise have taken notice of. This is due to frequency response and / or timing errors. These differences would have otherwise covered up the subtleties that good systems make obvious but do so in a fashion that seems completely natural.
Once you've gotten to this level, you are well beyond addicted and you'll soon be giving us advice about what to do and the tweaks that we need to try : ) Sean
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No matter what you do, if you have speakers that are inappropriate for the room or your specific requirements, everything else that you do will strictly be an attempt at a "band-aid". You'll spend all of your time trying to correct your initial mistake rather than enjoying what you already have.
If you've done your homework with the speakers, this will narrow down the field of amps quite a bit, so that shouldn't be a problem. As such, you should go back to the source components and find something that is both user friendly and offers the sonics / features that you prefer. When it comes to digital, I think that a lot of people never hear how good it can really be as they don't spend the time to really set things up as good as possible or experience several different front ends within their system. They settle for less because they've never been exposed to "good" digital. Remember, the rest of the system can't reproduce what the source has never recovered. Sources are PHENOMENALLY important.
From there, move onto the "backbone" components, i.e. preamp and power amp or integrated. With an excellent source and a set of speakers that WILL work in your room for your specific situation, your goal is to find a preamp that offers the versatility that you need while doing as little to the signal ( in or out of band ) as is possible other than to regulate the amplitude. A "straight wire with gain" if at all possible. A power amp needs to take this signal and amplify it to the levels required to efficiently respond to your speakers needs WITHOUT being "pushed". This means the amp has to have the ability to deal with a wide range of impedances, levels of reactance, output levels, etc...
If you've done all of that, the rest is a matter of fine tuning the "voice" of the system. This can be done with various cables ( power, interconnects, speaker ). Don't forget that a rack or whatever it is that you intend to support the components with CAN and DOES affect what you hear. Do some research in the archives here as to what works well. A basic suggestion would be to use a very rigid support structure with lightweight shelves that are free-floating.
Treating the room acoustics to varying degrees will also tend to highlight minute differences that you might not otherwise have taken notice of. This is due to frequency response and / or timing errors. These differences would have otherwise covered up the subtleties that good systems make obvious but do so in a fashion that seems completely natural.
Once you've gotten to this level, you are well beyond addicted and you'll soon be giving us advice about what to do and the tweaks that we need to try : ) Sean
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