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New setup

Hi everyone, I'm new to all of this so bear with me please.

I'm working on restoring an old record console. My plan is to start this set up as a 2.1 with future plans to add surround speakers. So I'm looking for a receiver that's capable of handling my future plans.

My house is very open, so overall I'm dealing with a 40'x19' room. I've been into a local store and was recommended the NAD t758 V3, Focal Aria 906, and either the REL T/9i or SVS SB-2000. I loved the sound of the Focal's especially with the REL added. They didn't have an SVS for me to hear. 

I'm curious if this would be a good setup for my room size? Is there is a better receiver for the set up? And given the room size, would I be better to go with two SVS subs since I'm trying to keep this under $4000.


blackura
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

The NAD is a good choice for the Focal because the Focal tend to be bright and somewhat lean/thin in the midrange.  The NAD will warm things up, fuller midrange, and take the edge of the highs.

I don't have experience with a room that large, but I think I have read that you may need a lot of power and speaker to fill that large room.  It's not to say that the Focal Aria bookshelf will sound bad.  It may not sound as loud/big as you might expect.  I would ask around about large rooms like yours.

blackura OP
4 posts
 
Thanks auxinput. Do you have any other recommendations for speakers? I was able to listen to the B&W 685 s2 in the store as well but I they seemed to be much brighter than the Focals. I'm going to go back into the store today and give everything another listen
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Heh, asking about speakers will generate about a dozen different opinions, and everyone thinks they are right, lol.

In my own listening, I think the Monitor Audio Silver series is the best choice at your budget.  I tend to avoid metal dome tweeters because they are bright/metallic sounding due to the metal breakup.  The Monitor Silver is a ceramic coated metal and it's the best one I know of.  I would say it is second only to B&W D3 series (which is synthetic diamond tweeter).  The Monitor Audio will have extremely good resolution, especially in the midrange.  Good body and fullness (better than Focal in my opinion).  Crutchfield might still have a pair of "open box" Monitor Audio Silver 10 for $2k.  They also have several Silver 8 models.  Or you can opt for the new Silver series (such as a 300 or 500).  If you get a Model 10 or 500, you might not even need a subwoofer initially.

NAD would still be a good choice as the Silver series is just a tad bright.  (In my opinion, the ribbon tweeters of the Gold/Platinum are way to saturated/bright).

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