stereo reciever for sonus faber grand piano Home

At $1300 budget, you're within sniffin' distance of a couple of great switching integrateds--the PS Audio C-100 Trio at $1595 and the NuForce at $1695. If you want to stay well within budget, I can definitely vouch for the way the Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp brings vented floorstanding speakers (like the Grand Piano) alive. The Onkyo is fast, quiet, detailed, with lots of speed and "jump," but also smooth and musical once you break it in properly, match it with a good power cord, and leave it on or in standby all the time. It is leagues ahead of the Outlaw RR2150, which I owned and sent back. I marvel every day at how good the Onkyo is. With the Onkyo A-9555 and current crop of integrateds from NAD and Cambridge, I don't even consider the Outlaw good for the money. It is slow with a rolled off treble, something you don't want with the Grand Piano.

I have a similar setup in my bedroom - SF Home Concerto in the bedroom and inwalls in the bathroom. I went a somewhat unusual route that you might want to consider, although it is takes a little effort to set up. I use a low end integrated as the conrol center and to drive the bathroom and a separate higher end tube integrated to drive the main speakers. I use a Yamaha for the control integrated/receiver but there are lot of options for < $200 used (although you may have to look to find out with a sleep function). I then use a hybrid tube integrated (Pathos Classic One mkiii) for the Concerto. The Pathos is driven by the Tape Output jacks on the Yamaha. The tubes are only in the pre-amp section, so will last at long time. The Pathos Classic One mk iii may be too expensive, but the mk ii can be found used in your price range.

I use a simple Radio Shack universal remote to control the Yamaha and the Pathos.

The Pathos does not have a 12 volt trigger, but I use a Russound ACT-1 to provide power to it. It is a 120 volt outlet that is turned on and off by a 12 volt trigger. I use the line out of the Yamaha with a 120 v wall wart that provides the appropriate 12 volt trigger output. Then, I just turn the receiver on and off to turn both units on and off. Sounds like you could use your power conditioner to turn the ACT-1 on and off.

One issue, is this limits you to analog signals, so the Blu Ray player would need to decode the sound track and provide it to stereo analog outputs. Players that do this are now available.

The general idea is to use a low end solid state integrated/receiver as the control center and to drive the bathroom. Then you can drive the GP with a better quality integrated that may not have all control features and second speaker options that you need. May not be a good option for you, but though you should consider it.

Spend another 400.00 and pickup a slightly used Krell 400xi for 1700.00 with remaining warranty. 200wpc. works very well. I have the sonus grand piano home as well. I originally had a denon avr-3805 gun metal gray "made in Japan". I saw a nice review of Denon and Sonus sounding well together. You can pickup a used avr 3806 for 1000.00 Denon was very good for bass. Krell was more discrete and detailed etc. more watts too. Harman Kardon fell off the map in 1990s. In late 80s I had their gear and they were hi-end.

Ok. This what I will do
-I will seperate convinience and quality. I will keep my old system as is for the bathroom speaker and in ceiling speaker for casual lsitening.
-I am getting B&K reference 20 preamp and reference 200.2 amplifier for the sonus faber.
-I will get a new salamder cabinet to fir both.

NOW, WHAT SPEAKER CABLE AND POWER CABLE IS GOOD FOR THIS SET UP?

I tried the B&K reference 20 and the 200.2 amp WITH MY GRAND PIANO SPEAKERS. SOURCE IS APPLE TV.

I am sooooooooo happy. IT is great. Not very detailed but musical and non fatiguing at all, I listened for hours. The mids are outstanding. the highs are good, the bottom emd is ok too. Remember the source is my apple tv with most of the CD ripped at 192 , very few are lossless format which is equivillant to the CD quality. I am sooooooo happy. thanks to all of you.
THIS IS MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH SYSTEM SYNERGY THEY TALK ABOUT, IT APPEARS THAT THE GRAND PIANO HOME AND THE B&K WERE MADE FOR EACH OTHER , THE SPEAKER ACCEPTS AND HANDLES ALL WHAT THE AMPLIFIER DELIVERS AND THE AMPLIFIERS GIVE THE SPEAKER WHAT THEY WANT and what they can handle. the bass notes though not ver clear, espescially the deep bass, were very controlled , never boomy or extended, they started and ended when they should. It is not like my eggleston andra I, but that is a different story.

I ADDED MY TRIPHAZERS, LINE LEVEL X-500, AND SPEAKER X-80. THEY WILL TAKE A WHILE TO BREAK IN, BUT THEY ADDED MORE REALISM TO THE MUSIC , THE DEPTH INCREASED SIGNIFIACNTLY AND SOME SOUNDS LIKE SYMBALS AND HUMAN VOICE ARE ABOUT 90%CLOSE TO REAL.
THANKS AGAIN