My first real hi-end audio system Please advise


Hi, this is my first post and I've just started to really get into the wonderful world of Hi-Fi audio. I'm a student at U of IL and live in a small apartment.

My father is upgrading his system and to my pleasant surprise decided to give me ALL of his audio equipments!!! I'm ridiculously excited since his equipments, although mostly 10 years old, are awesome. They include McIntosh (MC7300, C40, MCD7008, and MR7083) and a pair of 2 year old Revel M20 speakers.

The question I had was, would these gorgeous speakers sound as good in my apartment room? (about 10ft x 14ft)

I'm also thinking about selling all of the system but the speakers, and buying a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver, 3 more speakers and a subwoofer for a 5.1 system. Now, I don't have much $$$ as I'm a student, and I can't quite ask my parents for more audio equipments... I was wondering if 3 Aperion (aperionaudio.com) bookshelf speakers and a Sunfire True superjunior subwoofer would complement the Revel M20s well.

I know the sunfire receiver and the subwoofer aren't cheap for my standards, but I've done some research, and I think they'll last me a long long time and be a great entry system to the real hi-end audio world for me. As for the Aperion speakers, which I intend on using for center and surround speakers, they are only $180 each and have been receiving awesome reviews.

Has anyone tried these Aperion bookshelf speakers, sunfire ultimate receiver and the little subwoofer? Would you recommend any other system combinations for this price range? Oh, I almost forgot, can anyone also recommend a good DVD player for around $1000 or should I just connect my Apple G5 computer to the receiver? Would the computer's audio quality be a lot worse than a $1000 DVD/CD player?

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm just excited and giddy that I'll be able to treat my ears to some really good sound while I'm at school!

Thank you in advance
seongoh9f94

Showing 2 responses by rsbeck

Your father is building quite a surround system -- you can go to his place and watch the pod race from Star Wars a couple times -- for free -- then go home a listen to your music system. If you had the $$$ to do a surround system like your father, then maybe -- but you're making a wise decision. Keep the pre-amp. I would keep the tuner, too -- it'll probably be a collector's item. For a Sub-Woofer, check out Rel. Buy one used here on Audiogon and see what is in your price range.
I agree with most of the other posters. The Revel speakers should be a good match for that sized room and you can add a sub-woofer for more low end and movie effects. *I* wouldn't try to do surround in that sized room, but that's me and I am not a big surround fan. Been there, done that. I had a great surround set-up as part of my music system and I ended up separating it out and putting it in another room. If anyone can name me more than 10 movies that even *require* a surround system, I'd be surprised -- and most of the ones that do -- it is only for a few minutes here and there. So, you get a surround system for parts of about 10 movies -- and they tend to be movies I wouldn't be watching unless I want to show off my surround system.
You end up watching the Pod Race from Star Wars any time someone new comes over. It is ironic to me that people are waiting on SACD because there are only some 2,000 titles available, but then go for home theater surround systems when there are only a few movies that actually use surround. You'll be spending all your time putting your ears up to the rear surrounds wondering if you calibrated your system correctly because there's hardly ever anything coming out of them. A 2.1 system is just fine for movies. Finally, a receiver *is* a big step backwards in sonics. So, you'd be sacrificing sonics on 100% of your music listening in order to watch the pod race from Star Wars over and over. Okay, I am exaggerating a little, but not by much. Keep the gear, add a sub-woofer. Put the surround money into a good sub-woofer, a cheap one is fine for movies, but will sound like crap for music. Just my opinion.