2. amps-preamps
  3. 150924-135683

Where do I start!?!

Greetings!
I recently moved and actually have a small 12'x13' listening area in my new house and wanted to fill it with amazing sounds.  I currently have a Denon AVR-4500H AV receiver hooked into a pair of Monitor Audio Silver RS6 speakers.  I lucked out and got the RS6's at a really good price about 10 years ago and they're easily the best speakers I've ever owned.  I used this setup for casually listening to lossless music from a central server and very much enjoyed it.  I made mention to my father a couple weeks ago that I would like to get a nice turntable and maybe upgrade my sound package a little and he tells me that he recently ran into a pair of Acoustat speakers that he recently fell in love with and bought that he had his older system in a warehouse collecting dust.  When I went to look at it I was amazed to find a pair of McIntosh MC1.2KW monoblocks with a pair of McIntosh XRT1K speakers and a Thorens TD309 turntable in the corner.  He said I could have them if I wanted them but I would need to find something to run the monoblocks (he kept his C1100 and MX160 setup).
My biggest question now is this:  What in the world do I do with these things!?  The speakers are MASSIVE (fortunately I have 10ft ceilings) and the monoblocks are like 150lbs each!  Is 12'x13' enough room for this setup?  I thought I had a list all laid out of what components I wanted to get and how I wanted to set everything up but I was not expecting anything close to this kind of setup and it's got me pretty overwhelmed with options.  I know I need a preamplifier for the turntable but where do I go with the monoblocks?  Can I just go with a preamplifier that has an XLR output (e.g. Pro-Ject Phono Box RS) directly into each monoblock or do I need to get an AV processor to handle that transition?  Out of fear for my sanity, I haven't even started looking at cables yet.  I'm sure that'll be fun too....
Thanks for reading and looking forward to reading the replies!
thomaswells02

Showing 2 responses by glennewdick

glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,763 posts
 
I have to agree with a few here talk to your father and see if he minds you selling the equipment and upgrading to a nice integrated amp -  smaller separates and speakers. I hope he will understand that your just optimizing the system to your room and not wasting a gift. 

 I've lived in a room similar to yours and as much as people would like to say larger systems will work they really wont work optimally in that size room, your better to down size at least the speakers to a small floor stander or monitor and you will get closer to the full potential out of your room speaker interface. Room treatment is going to be a consideration for sure. 

I tried to run Proac Response 2.5's years ago in a room very close to the size of yours and they just did not work well. I had to put so many bass traps and other room treatment just to get it ok but never great. 

Regardless of near field or not you will be better to optimize the room speaker interface with an appropriate sized speaker for the room. 

Another consideration is speakers designed to be close to the wall or in the corners. AudioNote AN series comes to mind there are others, but that will optimise your space much better.  

glen
glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,763 posts
 
I'm not sure why you think selling off something will require him to buy some "Junk" Elizabeth. regardless of the prices involved, as that's irrelevant as all used equipment has taken the depreciation hit. 

Who's to say he can't trade in his mono blocks for another lower powered stereo amp and preamp (with a phono section) from McIntosh or a top shelf integrated with similar sound quality.  

Also that trade in money would go a long way to optimizing his whole system and room treatments. 

you have some good points though about trying it first and if that's a possibility go for it. 

in the end he will have to spend money to get the system working up to par with room treatments and a proper preamp with phono stage of similar quality (or what's the point). lets not even get into wires-cables-stands and racks etc. 

This is why I feel he's better to trade-sell and start a system approach rather then try to make something work in his room that was designed for a larger space.  
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