Which separates for 7.1 B&W Matrix, turntable, TV?


The initial responses from my other post said to go with separates, and just make them easy to operate for family members. To recap the environment - a sunny open 19x14 room with all B&W speakers - Matrix 803 fronts (2), Matrix 805 rear surrounds and center (3) and DS6(wall mount) surrounds. I wired 2 pairs of good grade silver wire to each of the (4) surrounds, to bi-wire them if I so choose, and I have the massive B&W ASW 850 sub. My speakers are done!

Now I want to upgrade my electronics - an Onkyo TX-NR 900 and matching SACD/DVD player to higher quality gear in the 200wpc and higher range. The HT unit will be used by family when I'm not there, so simple operation is a must.

My bud Sasha (Worldys)- a veteran of this forum and audio / HT suggested I look at Krell Showcase, Classe and Rotel, and the good folks on this list suggested Bryston for separates or Arcam AVR 350 for integrated. But Krell's showcase is only 135W and I'm hearing that separates are much better and that the B&Ws LOVE mucho power. I know I'm going to spend $5K or more, but $10K and more is really pushing it (although "accessories" like power management and cables may take me close to $8k or $9k).

I'm still playing with a final budget, but, after looking around, I don't believe I can afford McIntosh, and it doesn't seem to be a good sonic match for B&W anyway. How do I drive these classic speakers well without selling my firstborn to pay for it, or being disappointed with the quality?

Oh, (not included in the above budget) I'm also looking for a good quality turntable so I can pull my LPs out of storage, and a 50+ inch TV that will work well in a big sunny room with ceramic tile floor. Suggestions?
celt16

Showing 1 response by sailfishben

I was adding things up in my head. I thought about TV's and amps I'd like and it was easy to blow the 5k budget just on those.

Seems like you might want to consider giving your speakers (at least the front three) some serious power in a 3 channel amp.

Keep your Onkyo gear for now and let it run the amps and power your surrounds. It also may have a built in phono stage too.

If the onkyo has phono stage, use it and spend as much as you can on the table, couple that to a decent cartridge. My experience is it all starts at the table first. Get that as right as you can afford first. As a side note, a table also may make quite a showpiece in your room.

Then you still have to afford a Video Monitor (TV) and a system controller to make life easy for everyone.

All of these thing could eat up your budget easy. Only you will know what's important to you. That's why I might just use the Onkyo for a processor still as you can always change it out later. It gives you more money to work with to get better gear that you need now.

If you really need more modern processing, take a look at Yamaha's RX-v2700. 140 watts to power the surrounds, video processing and up-conversion for all video sources to HDMI (that new T.V. will love having it), phono stage built in and stellar H/T processing. It's a great unit and will be value packed as a hub. I actually have one and i sounds amazing.