2. home-theater
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Please give me your 2 cents...budget 30-50k

I am building my second home theater/music room. My previous attempt was extreemly expensive (in excess of 100k) and I sold my house and the system prior to using. I am attempting to cover both music and theater without going crazy. I am concerned about buying used gear, maybe it's not a valid concern but it's mine.

I have other systems in the house family, master bedroom, home office. This system will be in my guest house/ personal space, billards, bar, music, sports, etc.

I am considering Aerial speakers (7b,8b, or 9) Revel, B&W, Sonus Faber, Vienna...

Amps and pre/pro???? Proceed, Krell, Parasound Halo sereis, ATI, others?

Front projector HD 2 Runco, Sharp 12000, Marantz, Dwinn??

I have a varity of dealers here in Scottsdale Az. I look forward to your input.
sabailey
mark7767
57 posts
 
Go with Mark Levinson!!!! Runco, Lexicon, Lin, B&W, or Wilson. Go used on most...I did and I have assembled a system that would have cost well over 100K and I spend around 35K.

Mark Levinson is on here all the time and good deals. If you are going analog, I suggest you buy new turntable, arm and cartridge, However get a Manley phono preamp! If tube then I do not know...I own a Cary SP98 preamp and Rocket 88 amp. And love the tube sound.
rsbeck
887 posts
 
Stay away from Proceed. It was great gear, but the company is having
trouble servicing it. For your surround processor, get the Lexicon 12B.
For your amps, Levinson 436's. Get them used. I believe the warranty
is transferable. Speakers? B & W N802's. I'd buy those used, too. With
Levinson 436's, those N802's would sing, sing, sing.
sabailey OP
5 posts
 
Thank you all for you input.

My previous system had Levinson No. 33 Mono. W Revel Salons. Most of you seem to think Levinson is worth the money. Any Aerial owners out there? B&W seems to be a cult, but I guess they deserve the following.I will do my homework, and again thank you for the help.
arthursmuck
447 posts
 
count me in the N802 cult, I'm running them as fronts with N804's as surrounds, and an HTM1 for HT. I run them through Krell amp and processing, but Levinson will be my next upgrade. You're right on the money that you need to go do some listening for yourself.
rsbeck
887 posts
 
I'm not crazy about B & W until you get to the N803 and especially the N802. I also think a lot of people buy B & W and then fail to provide the
amplification necessary to make them work properly. But, I was just throwing out suggestions -- there are plenty of other speakers that would work given that budget. I would strongly suggest Wilson Watt/Puppy7's. If you liked the Revel Salons, those are also fine speakers.
Speakers are the hardest things to recommend because they are all different and everyone hears them differently. I can recommend the
Levinson amps because I own and love them. I also own Proceed gear
and I can pass on that when I tried to get some repairs recently, it was a
hell of an ordeal.

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