Thoughts on potential new system?

For what its worth, I went from Wilson Duette's to the Sonus Faber Olympia 2's for my fronts and I'm very happy with them. You could save some money on the amp by going with the Theta Intrepid.

Luvwine, it looks like you're replacing a two channel music system with a HT surround one, are you you going to continue using it for music too? If yes you're not going to be happy with this system. I come across this situation regularly with my customers. Personally I find spending big buck on surround sound electronics a total waste of resources when you can get the same or better from any Denon processor for a fraction of the price. I don't care who makes it a multichannel box will never sound good with music. As far as surround movie sound goes, its the same horrible heavily processed multichannel soundtrack getting reprocessed through the same chips, wether you spend 1k or 20k on the processor, you're not going make a silk purse out of sow's ear. For the most part there's very little but some background sound effects on the surround channels like a couple of bullets flying here and there, a fake explosion or the typical Volkswagon car door sounding like a Hummer's door and maybe a woosh of wind noise! What do you think you'll get by spending a lot of money on these sound effects by going for a so called high end brand vs the Denon.

Disclaimer, I'm a dealer but we don't sell any of the products discussed here and have no horse in the race. The reason I bring up Denon is because they make great products for the money, even better than most higher electronics manufacturers.

My advice, list what you want from the system first and then allocate resources accordingly. I think you're downgrading your sound with the proposed surround system here...

david

Hi David,

No, am not giving up my two channel Magnepan setup. That is in another room. This system will be for movies and occasional music listening. It is next to the kitchen and so I expect it will get turned on for music listening more than the two channel system that is farther away just due to convenience. We are pretty picky about speakers, however, and my wife went listening with me as she has greater sensitivity to harsh high frequencies than I do. She vetoed some speakers instantly. The processor is not that expensive ($1699 for the Marantz). I generally don't like to get integrated amps as my impression is that electronics/surround sound formats change pretty frequently, but amps can last indefinitely. For example, I used to have EAD Ovation and later Signature surround sound processors. They were very fine in many ways, but they got outdated and I ended up giving them away. I have had an ATI 1505 amplifier for years (paired with the EAD) and I expect it to continue going strong for years to come....

The sales folks have suggested a cheaper amp--Rotel 1585. Any thoughts on it versus the much pricier McIntosh?

Hi Luvwine,

My choice will always be Denon, its not what I sell but its what I happily listen to for a smaller system, and I'm used to systems starting around six figures. The same is true all my customers who use Denons in bedroom and surround situations. I'm knocking the Marantz which I don't, just recommending Denon because its very good.

You can pick any speaker or electronics that you like my point was that with HT you hit diminishing or zero returns very quickly.
david