What next?

elevick,
I don't use the Marantz to drive the front speakers. The Marantz drives the center and rears only. The Rowland drives the fronts rather I'm watching a movie or listening to 2-channel. 
It's too expensive to try to match my Rowland, so I opted for the AV Receiver.  

jdlynch,
I agree that speakers makes the biggest difference. It would be nice if there was someone on Audiogon that went from the MA Gold C350 to the PLC350 and would describe the differences they hear/

Yeah I figured with your speakers you were driving them with better electronics, but I had to ask.  Are you using any subs?  Unless you're unhappy with your current center speaker I'd seriously consider adding a couple good subwoofers first if you don't already have them.  Pretty amazing what they can add to both music and home theater, even with relatively full range speakers like yours. 

Yes, I  have an SVS PB2000 sub that I use for HT only 

Hi Ricred, as some one who has a mix of ring radiator and AMT based speakers in his HT I may be in a similar position. Based on my experience (some of it in motion picture auditorium sound) I’d say that matching your speakers isn’t your biggest need right now. Sometimes I also swap in some Monitor Audio Radius speakers as my surrounds, depending on living room re-organization.

Matching speakers has NOT proven to be the biggest improvement. Matching timbre AND the subwoofer have been. I just read you have a sub already, and your receiver has very good room EQ built in. I hope you are running your fronts as "small" with that receiver.

You have very nice front speakers, but with only 100 Watts, a killer subwoofer + running the fronts as "small" speakers will give you the most dynamic range. If you run the fronts as full-range the receiver will run out of steam VERY quickly with low Hz high dynamic range motion picture sound tracks. It will probably do just fine with most music though.

It’s also really important to note the receiver is rated at 100W/channel but only with 2 channels at a time!

So the real question is whether the receiver has enough juice for you to enjoy movies like you want to. :)

If it does, then your next step is matching speakers to your very nice mains. Otherwise, I’d suggest a power upgrade. Maybe not a lot, in terms of maximum wattage, but being able to put out 125 to 150W into at least 4 channels simultaneously would be an upgrade.

I do find that being able to run the main speakers as "full-range" is a real treat, which you may be just a little undersized for.

Best,


Erik