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Speaker and amp advice needed

Thanks in advance for any advice.  Love great sound, but far from an expert.  Current set up is in an 18x21 foot room.  The ceiling is 8 feet tall.  I sit toward the back of the 18.  It is set up that way because of a beam that runs along the ceiling and only way the home theater will work.  I have Sonus Faber Olympica bookshelf speakers than I use with an Anthem amp that runs the home theater, and a roon and Moon streaming device.  The rest of the room is Sonus Faber as well, and I also have a Sonus Faber sub.  I would like to upgrade the two channel sound.

Was wondering a couple of things:

Is the room, especially the ceiling height too small for a large speaker like a Sonus Faber Amati Tradition (which I would get used)?  Or, would I be better going with better bookshelfs, such as the Guerneri, or the Focal Utopia, or something like that?  Also, was thinking about getting a Mcintosh amp, such as the MA352 since I like warm sound.  

Thanks for reading, and any thoughts would be helpful.  I tend to drive myself crazy overthinking things and never get anything accomplished because I over analyze.  I listen to mostly vocals, and really love female vocals.  But, also enjoy most other music other than rap and heavy metal (which I don't listen to in the listening room).

Thanks

Jonathan

dodgers5559
yyzsantabarbara
4,815 posts
 

Acoustic treatments and room measurements should be done before you spend money on gear.

If you need help GIK Acoustics will remotely help with the room treatments. They did some great work on my small office.

Another option is this one. I know DSP is not always well received here but this guy can remotely make your room sound great. It helps if you are doing streaming from something like ROON or JRiver so that you can plug in the Convolution filter he would create for your specific setup.

Digital Room Calibration Services, Convolvers, Headphone Filtersets (accuratesound.ca)

Anthem also has a DSP based on their hardware. My suggestion for DSP is software based and not limited by the processing power of any audio hardware.

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
742 posts
 

@OP - that is quite a large room and definitely there is no problem using a pair of Amati's in it. I spent two days with a pair recently in a similarly sized room and they sounded absolutely fabulous. Obviously, you would benefit from a better amp as you suggest.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

Sonus Faber makes a great speaker. The chief designer was Franco Serblin. He exited and started his own company. His Ketema loudspeaker is one of the best dynamic speakers I have ever heard. 

You can put any speaker you want in that room. The only limitation is the ceiling height. If you want more realistic sound and an amazing theater experience you should go with a line source loudspeaker and add a second subwoofer and a two way crossover. Examples would be, the Magnepan 20.7 and the Sound Labs 645-8s or 845s.  If you check out my virtual system page you can see the Sound Labs 645-8s in a theater set up with four subwoofers.

Line Source speakers produce a larger more lifelike image and put you in the front of the venue. The are project power better which is why they are used at large concert venues.

rick_n's avatar
rick_n
208 posts
 

I've auditioned the Amati's (previous generation) and the Olympicas.  Go for the Amati's, you won't regret it.  They do like power and the MA352 may or may not get the job done.  Heard the Amati's driven by the more powerful MA12000 and it was right on the cusp of clipping which was very surprising.  

 

The Focal Utopia's are fantastic, revealing speakers but the Focal house sound is the exact opposite of Sonus Faber IMO.  Good luck and cheers.  

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 

If you're concerned about ceiling height and tweeter height, you might try measuring your reflections with REW and a mic. Or just try some room treatments on the ceiling and/or add a rug at the first reflection point on the floors in front of the speakers.

https://advancedacoustics-uk.com/pages/what-is-the-first-reflection-point#:~:text=Where%20is%20the%20first%20reflection,loudspeakers%20and%20the%20listening%20position.

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