I hate to say this, but whatever audio equipment you bring into this large room, you will have to make some sizable acoustic treatment investment to get the best sound out of it. Make sure you set aside at least $5,000 to treat your room accordingly. Specially with the 20ft ceiling at apex, wow! Instead of talking to an audio dealer first, I would contact someone like Gik asap, give them a detail drawing of the room and ask for their advice. They will do that at no charge. As you can see in my house of stereo, acoustic treatment is a major part of the listening room.
Recommendations for HiFi Listening Room
Newbie here. Wife and I are looking to turn our Great Room into a listening room. It’s roughly 21’X’19 and has a cathedral ceiling that is 11’ tall at the wall and 20’ tall at the apex. Spoke to a good hifi dealer in the area who made the following recommendations/proposal and I’m curious if this group may have any input for getting maximum bang for my buck. Basically, with a budget around 35k (or thereabouts) would you buy something similar or are there any components you’d add or swap out?
Paradigm Persona 3F
McIntosh MA8950
Pro-Ject Xtension 9 w/ Ortofon Black Cartridge
Sony ES DSD Music Server (this one concerns me a touch in that it appears to be an 8 yr old product line).
Thanks so much in advance for your collective expertise. My wife isn’t going to let me drop money into this for another 15 years so I need to get it right the first time.
If it matters, our musical taste is quite varied: classical, jazz, classic rock, alternative, hip hop. My mother complained in my youth that if i had 10 bucks I would just buy a CD with it. She is still right.