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Speaker and amp advice needed

Thanks in advance for any advice.  Love great sound, but far from an expert.  Current set up is in an 18x21 foot room.  The ceiling is 8 feet tall.  I sit toward the back of the 18.  It is set up that way because of a beam that runs along the ceiling and only way the home theater will work.  I have Sonus Faber Olympica bookshelf speakers than I use with an Anthem amp that runs the home theater, and a roon and Moon streaming device.  The rest of the room is Sonus Faber as well, and I also have a Sonus Faber sub.  I would like to upgrade the two channel sound.

Was wondering a couple of things:

Is the room, especially the ceiling height too small for a large speaker like a Sonus Faber Amati Tradition (which I would get used)?  Or, would I be better going with better bookshelfs, such as the Guerneri, or the Focal Utopia, or something like that?  Also, was thinking about getting a Mcintosh amp, such as the MA352 since I like warm sound.  

Thanks for reading, and any thoughts would be helpful.  I tend to drive myself crazy overthinking things and never get anything accomplished because I over analyze.  I listen to mostly vocals, and really love female vocals.  But, also enjoy most other music other than rap and heavy metal (which I don't listen to in the listening room).

Thanks

Jonathan

dodgers5559
woots's avatar
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woots
284 posts
 

Sonus Faber + McIntosh = Good Match

Focal + McIntosh = Not Such a Good Match

Suggest you demo some different combinations of equipment until you find the right match for you. 

eagledriver_22's avatar
eagledriver_22
75 posts
 

OP, do you have sloping roofs on both sides? And do you have two walls or one open wall on your 18ft?

If yes, your room is very similar to mine (which is upstairs, have a look into my virtual system). In this case, both floor stands and bookshelf speakers could work nicely for you. They do with me. I am sitting as well near the end of the 18ft side, open wall in my back.

What I had to do when moving in with my gear was concentrating on the placement of the loudspeakers, including some room treatment (using wooden crates for the vinyl records). I found out that sitting not too far from the large front speakers (about 6ft) is the ideal position for me. Especially small Jazz groups and femal voices sound very very nice to me in this room.

Sometimes, I am also listening to music using the bookshelf speakers being part of the HT system as surround speakers. Adding the sub, I had a great sound experience just a couple of weeks ago when ’tweaking around’ with my sitting position.

I can imagine that both kind of loudspeakers will work for you as well. BDW, your Olympica 1 should not be the weak part of your system if your room has a sloping roof.

Best, eagledriver

 

eagledriver_22's avatar
eagledriver_22
75 posts
 

BDW, some time ago I have changed the placment of the floor stand speakers in moving them about 1 feet closer to the listening position and away from the back wall. So, the pic with the speakers in the virtual system is outdated.

dodgers5559 OP
2 posts
 

Thank you all who responded.  My room has walls on all four sides, and I usually sit about 2 feet out from the rear wall.  The speakers are about two feet out from the wall where the screen is in the front.

I appreciate the comments.  One thing I have learned over the years is that if I search for the "best" I will drive myself crazy, and it will take me forever to make a decision.  I do that when I buy cars.  In the meantime, you lose the time you could have been enjoying something that is 99% as good.  

So, given the advice above, it sounds like I should stick with the Sonus Faber line, and simply upgrade the speakers, look into room conditioning, and Audio Research as a possible amp.  Now that is about the number of decision points I can handle!  :)

Thank you all for your comments.  Really appreciate it.

Jonathan

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