Home Theater Receiver recommendations for B&W 803S?

Thanks, aux.

For the Salamander - ha! But yep, I’m thinking I’ll either skip the front doors and sides (leaving the back panels in place), or will include the doors & sides, and then can leave the back panel off and in that case, you’re right, I won’t even see the difference. The nice thing is that they’re modular, so I can adjust as needed. This primarily comes down to an aesthetic question, so I’ll likely have to defer to the husband. ;)

I’ve got my eye on those various HTM3S’s on eBay, but the current ones are local pickup only, or they’re the wrong color (there’s one that I can’t really tell if it’s cherry or rosenut - and the seller has answered my question...I emailed him through Sweetwater and no response either. AND, I emailed B&W and they said they don’t have a record of an HTM3S with that serial number. So that’s two red flags. Moving on...).

Either way, I’m not in a huge hurry, BUT - my new best friend (the Rotel Seller) is offering me a good price on the HTM1 that he has (and it’s the right color...the veneer on that one is actually particularly beautiful!).

Since I haven’t listened to either of them it’s tough to determine how much of a sonic difference that’ll make (if I even hear the difference at all!). So I suppose the real question is -- is there a ~$1200 difference/improvement between the HTM1 and HTM3S?  (I know for you, the answer is "yes"...)  :)

Well, you already have the "older brighter" tweeter in your current HTM2 center.  However, the Rotel amp you just bought is going to be a higher resolution and higher current amp than your Denon receiver (something that is important to make these B&W speakers "sing"!).  I would almost say to wait until you had the Rotel playing in your system before making a decision.  That extra resolution and current could actually increase the response and harshness of your center tweeter and that would tell you whether or not you could live with the cheaper HTM1.

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That being said, when comparing to your current HTM2:

- HTM1 will have clearer midrange because of the B&W separate midrange driver.  It will also have deeper bass authority, which will give better tonal definition to male voices in movies.  I recommend setting the center to "FULL" or "LARGE" in your Denon so that it plays full range and does not send anything to the sub.

- HTM3S will have the same clearer midrange and deeper bass, but it will also have less harsh highs.

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So yeah, ultimately, the HTM3S would be better and I would definitely buy that instead, but it is dependent on where your "point of diminishing returns" is and what your willing to spend.
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TIP: Both the HTM1 and HTM3S are rear vented.  This means that you should space it away from the front wall just a little bit (like 12").  And make sure you do not have any sound absorption material against that front wall that could "absorb the bass coming from the vents".

Thanks, that's helpful (yet again).

So the seller has offered me the HTM1 for $950 -- a great price, from what I can tell. And, he can ship it at the same time as the Rotel... so that would be the total price, no extra for shipping.

At that price, I'm thinking it might be worth it -- and then if someday the right HTM3S comes along, I can maybe upgrade then and re-sell the HTM1 (if I even feel like it's necessary).

So... $950 total now to get an HTM1, or ~$2000 at some point in the future to live with the HTM2 and upgrade to the HTM3S later.

OR, you're right, the Rotel will reveal the discrepancy in the tweeter (Regardless of whether it's an HTM1 or HTM2), and then I'll just be jonesing to upgrade soon anyway.

Gah!  This is hard!  (but still fun.)  :)

Tell him that you are very interested but want to hear how the Rotel plays with your current HTM2 first.  If he's offering this price to you now, I'm sure he'll still offer it in 1-2 weeks.  It's not like he gets shipping discount.  It still costs to ship the HTM1 because it will be packaged in a separate box. lol.  The only risk is that he might sell it before you're ready to buy, lol.

One thing to be cautious about this Rotel RMB-1585 amp is that it does not have any front or rear handles so handling it makes it hard due to the weight and size of this amp. You can never lift it up by yourself. It’s a 2 men job. It weighs in around 80 lbs. This amp has 2 main toroidal transformer power supplies stacked up together. When you open up the upper case you can only see 1 toroidal transformer and the other one is below it. One feeds power to the main LR channels and the other one feeds power to a center and surround channels.