Speaker and amp advice needed

@rick_n +1, especially re the Focal speakers. If you love the Sonus Faber sound be prepared to hate the Focals.

I own Sonus Faber Amati and previously Olympica. I can highly recommend the Amati. There is nothing too big about them, they are only 46” high. You can see them in my audio room in my virtual system. Focal are a very different sounding speaker and would not mesh with the rest of your speakers. Having the same voicing across your system for home theater is important and Focal / Sonus would not mesh easily.

About the amp… depends on how warm you want to go. I have all Audio Research equipment and find it really natural and musical with great midrange bloom… but still detailed. You will loose a lot of detail with MacIntosh. If you only listen to rock this combo is great. Macintosh is the muscle car equivalent in the audio arena… heavy mid-range and bass. One of the well known synergistic combos in high end is Audio Research, Sonus Faber, and Transparent wires, for natural, detailed, musical sound with great midrange bloom.

Sonus Faber + McIntosh = Good Match

Focal + McIntosh = Not Such a Good Match

Suggest you demo some different combinations of equipment until you find the right match for you. 

OP, do you have sloping roofs on both sides? And do you have two walls or one open wall on your 18ft?

If yes, your room is very similar to mine (which is upstairs, have a look into my virtual system). In this case, both floor stands and bookshelf speakers could work nicely for you. They do with me. I am sitting as well near the end of the 18ft side, open wall in my back.

What I had to do when moving in with my gear was concentrating on the placement of the loudspeakers, including some room treatment (using wooden crates for the vinyl records). I found out that sitting not too far from the large front speakers (about 6ft) is the ideal position for me. Especially small Jazz groups and femal voices sound very very nice to me in this room.

Sometimes, I am also listening to music using the bookshelf speakers being part of the HT system as surround speakers. Adding the sub, I had a great sound experience just a couple of weeks ago when ’tweaking around’ with my sitting position.

I can imagine that both kind of loudspeakers will work for you as well. BDW, your Olympica 1 should not be the weak part of your system if your room has a sloping roof.

Best, eagledriver

BDW, some time ago I have changed the placment of the floor stand speakers in moving them about 1 feet closer to the listening position and away from the back wall. So, the pic with the speakers in the virtual system is outdated.