New system coming together Stands/Sub for 805s?


Hi All ... taking the plunge and putting together an audio (70%)& HT (30%) setup.

After much auditioning (6 months) and reading and thinking, I've decided on the following:

Speakers: ($3,400)
* B&W 805s front
* B&W HTM2 center
* B&W VM1s rear (may seem odd/unmatched, but don't really think that surrounds matter much and I'm not into multi-channel audio and need something good but tiny and that integrates into the room well)

Electronics: ($3,400)
* Rotel 1060 CD/DVD
* Rotel 1066 Pre/Pro
* Rotel 1075 Power Amp

Considerations: ($???)
* Sub - just spend $500 and get a B&W ASW600 sub for good performance or need to spend $1200-2200 for an AWS800 or REL sub to exploit much more noticeable performance??
* 805 stands - B&W's are expensive and don't look spectacular, how much needs to be spent and what will work well on wooden floors of my room?

What do you think of the decisions and what advice do you have on the sub, stands, etc.? Thanks in advance for all of the great insight, as always!

Shawn :)
tradershawn

Showing 2 responses by tradershawn

Thanks for the replies above. I'm also not a "bass" person that wants to sit there and hear thumping. I have heard REL systems that blew me away in how they disappeared and fooled me that the bass was not coming from the mains ... I even put my hand on the cabinet because I didn't believe the sub was on/working. Amazing. So, just trying to see how I can get that level of performance ... where does it lie - at what price point? I guess I'll have to do some more A/B auditioning to find my sweet spot.

On that note, I can appreciate the 805sig recommendation --- it's a sweet sounding speaker. At the same time, I listend to sig and non-sig and the additional cost wasn't justified for ME. I know all the things that make it better, but as you'll notice from my picks above, this system is to be one of those "sweet spot" packages, where you can definitely make it better, but for the money spent I believe it is going to be very effective. Since I took the seperates route, once I have the desire to upgrade to better components (ML amp?), I'll do that to get more out of the system, but I think for now this should serve my needs and be relatively a non-compromising system.

My question regarding stands was about the need to spend a third to half the cost of the speakers for them or can I buy a lower priced quality set from a reputable non-totally-high-end brand? I don't know if Sanus is a good example of that ... again, keep in mind I'm not trying to max everything out, I'm going for the sweet spot. Spending $600 for stands on a $2000 pair of speakers seems too much, but I'm open to being shown that I'm wrong.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it - keep it coming! :)

Regards,
Shawn
Great comments Nrenter/Valleyplastic ... a) I think I'll go for a Strata III, especially if I can find one for less than retail here or elsewhere. Also, how typical is it to get gear for less than retail price?

All the local stores I've visited gave the presumption that you would pay full retail price, no questions asked. Is this the case or is it negotiable to a certain percent (10%, 20%, etc.)? If I can get the 805 stands for $460, I may as well do that and be done with it.

In general, if I'm spend $7-10K on a system, what is reasonable to ask in terms of a discount/break?

Shawn