Ok soooo... I've been slowly acquiring used components from two generations of this guy's A/V system.. I'm at the point now that I don't know what to do with it all...
Initially I acquired a two B&K AVR 505's and 6 Bowers and Wilkins CWM 650 in-wall speakers and two CWM Cinema in-wall center speakers as well as a Sunfire Super Junior active/passive subwoofer.
One of the B&K's crapped out on me, so I kept one in my studio and when I came across a Yamaha RX V665 at a tag sale for $50, I snagged it for its HDMI connectivity and ability to power a full 7.2 environment as opposed to the B&K only have 5 speaker outputs and no HDMI.
My mains are a pair of KEF C35's -- I was initially using my Totem Model 1's, but ended up putting those in my studio for secondary reference purposes.
So now this guy drops his old McIntosh stuff on me... an MC58 eight channel amp and a CR16 multizone control center as well as a 5 CD changer and AM/FM tuner.
In my recording studio, I don't require an A/V controller, although I do like having an audio set up in there for reference, gaming and man-cave listening purposes (without using the powered ref monitors/mixing console etc)... so the CR16>MC58 is fine... beautiful lush stereo goodness... buuuut....
Naturally, since I also acquired a nice turntable and cartidges, I was looking forward to running my big system through the McIntosh stuff.. at least the amp.... my sources, other than the turntable are a PS3, Rotel CD player, Teac C3 (might keep that in the studio), Chromecast, etc... realistically the PS3 will be the dominant source for now, or some other "smart" HD source. So as far as native quality, much of it is being "up-converted" .. something I read bad things about concerning the Yamaha.... Initially I yanked the Yamaha and went into the B&K, then individual line outs to the MC58, bypassing the speaker outputs on the B&K... by the time I got untangled, I couldn't get the center channel working, and the test-mode on the B&K wasn't sending to the line-outs.. and the sound I was getting, compared to the sound of either integrated amp was pretty effed up.. like it needed to be dialed in I guess... so I gave up... ultimately, (for now), I just set the Yamaha back up... it works fine and sounds fine... esp since I haven't boxed in the CWM speakers yet.. so it's really about making the KEF's sound good. I guess my question is if I were to drop a couple grand into this whole thing... would be better spent on a McIntosh AV controller like the MX121 so I can use their DIN cables and have everything neat tidy and compatible? or is it not even worth it, considering the speakers that I'm using? Running stereo through the CR16 into the MC58 in the studio sounds GORGEOUS through my Totems... but I do like having surround in the living room.... so if I want that, I'll be converting from optical in either the Yamaha or the B&K and then sending discreet channels directly to the power amp and dialing everything in manually... which is honestly more of a chore than I think I'm up to.. unless y'all say it'd be worth it. My wife is about to kill me with all the switching around lol.
SO in a nutshell... I'd like to use this McIntosh stuff in the living room. It's big, old, cool, lights up, sounds amazing (at least stereo thru the Totems), and I have a great cabinet set up for it.... problem is I don't have a PRE that's specifically designed for my needs. I could use one of AVR's that I have (is there a significant difference in conversion quality between the B&K and the Yamaha?), but as I said.. it seems hodgepodged... should I splurge on a McIntosh AVR to match? or start thinking about better speakers.....?
