2. amps-preamps
  3. 128688-92999

Building an all analog system around Magnepan .7 for 4K and under

Dear Friends, 
My wife and I are professional musicians, and we are saving up for a system to listen to mainly classical and jazz on vinyl. I'm a jazz drummer, and she is a classical double bassist. The more realistic our system is to our real instruments, the happier we are. We will be using this in a medium/smallish 12' x 11' room. 

We will not need a dac, just speakers, amp, turntable. We prefer an integrated amp with a phono preamp, to keep the set up simple as possible but we can consider buying an external phono preamp,

I've read recommendations for for Rogue Sphinx and Pioneer Plx-1000 to go with this system, but I was wondering if there are any other suggestions for our needs. We are also open to set ups that we can build on in the future, Like buying a Nad C 375 BEE and bridging it with a C 275BEE couple of years down the road, or buying a subwoofer later. 

Thanks again for your input, 
Emre

128x128emremusic
emremusic's avatar
emremusic OP
7 posts
 
With the Odyssey Khartago, will the stereo amp be enough to drive the .7's? or would I have to save up to get the mono blocks?


emremusic's avatar
emremusic OP
7 posts
 
randy-11, yes I would be into setting up the table in another room if it sounds better. I hadn't thought of this, there is so much that I don't know.
jl35
3,976 posts
 
In a small room like yours,  the Khartago should have more than enough power...
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Rogue/Maggie is a frequent combo, and should work nicely. Have you heard the .7s and listened to plenty of basscentric music? They are small which limits low freq ability and although many don't miss it much, since you are both bass-knowledgable and proabably play much music that goes pretty low, I think adding a sub or two might be very advantageous. This is a conundrum because it's tough to generate very low bass in a room as small as yours, so you might be inclined to demo before you buy or buy used to limit your downside if that doesn't work out. 
Yes, turntable in next room or on a wall shelf will eliminate a lot of problems. 
If you don't have a dealer nearby, call Mark at Rogue and send my regards. He will hook you up. Cheers,
Spencer
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
setting up the table in another room should sound better as it will greatly reduce acoustic feedback to the table, arm and cartridge

not to rain on your integrated parade too much, but it will also be best to put  a separate pre-pre amp for the cartridge in that room too

the reason is you generally want to make the longest cable runs the one least likely to interference & signal degradation - that means short cables from cartridge to pre-amp, and from power amp to speakers

the ultimate would be an all digital feed directly to the base of the drivers with D to A conversion done there -- for an all analog system you want to emulate that (all other things being equal)

I am not aware of anything made this way but a quality pre-amp with a remote control head would be ideal - you'd want not just an IR sensor for the remote but also the readouts on the remote head and then the entire pre-amp would go in the closest or other room with the turntable
More to discover