Pyrrho, this is exactly the setup that i want, as my avr (5.1) is setup in my tv area which is about 18ft (L) X 15ft (W) .. pretty squarish area. the pre-amp + amp + speakers is going to be setup for another livingroom area which is about 75ft (L) x 24ft(W).. a stretched up rectangular area.. this setup has nothing to do with my squarish tv area.. i just want a setup that is crisp and fills up the room in the morning when i'm listening to my classical music, and be warm and bassy enough when i am having guests rockin pop music or whatever that uplifts the mood...
recommendation in terms of setup: so far it seams two speakers with a sub/w seems more suited to my situation.
brands? both for amp and pre-amp?! and speakers? So far we have had Magenpan, KEF R, and JBL 530.. Anything else on your minds? Anyone else wants to chime in!? thans!
You need to decide on your main speakers before deciding on anything else, or, if you are planning on subwoofers, at the same time, as there is no point in spending extra on main speakers for deeper bass if you are going to use subwoofers anyway. With my home theater, I briefly thought about going with the tower speakers that use the same tweeter and midbass driver as my bookshelf speakers, but had an additional, larger woofer, but they would have cost me about twice as much as my bookshelf speakers (which retailed for $1500/pair), and since I use a subwoofer anyway (actually, two, but the principle is the same regardless), there was no point in spending the extra money to get the tower that could do bass that the subwoofer could easily handle anyway.
But you first need to figure out what speakers you want, and then you worry about the amplification to drive them. If you have difficult to drive speakers, then you need to spend more on the amplifier, but if your speakers are easy to drive, then something modest will be fine. This has nothing whatever to do with price or sound quality; some very expensive and good speakers are easy to drive, some are difficult to drive. Pick the ones you like the sound of best, and then pick amplification appropriate to them.
Magnepan speakers are generally 4 ohm speakers (all of them that would be appropriate for your budget are 4 ohms), and honestly 4 ohms (i.e., without nasty dips in the impedance curve). They are best with an amplifier rated for 4 ohm use (but it does not matter if it is able to deal with lower impedances) and plenty of power is a good idea with them as well. So with them, you will need to spend more on an amplifier than with some other speakers, but not as much as some others (there are some 1 ohm Apogee speakers that have been made, and for those, really robust amplification is required). A famous example of an expensive speaker that requires very little power and can be driven by virtually anything is the Klipschorn. I have heard a pair of them driven by a boombox (seriously), and it was not bad.
(The reason for the boombox driving them was that the owner's house had been broken into and his electronics were stolen. The Klipschorns were too big and heavy to be easily taken, and were not stolen. He still had a boombox, so he hooked it up and used that until he got replacement gear. Klipschorns are rated as 8 ohms, with a sensitivity of 105dB @ 1 W @ 1 M, so even 1 watt will get higher volume than you would be wise to listen to for an extended period of time.)
Anyway, listen to a bunch of different speakers before making up your mind. At your price, I would probably go with the Magnepan 3.7, and maybe add a couple of SVS subwoofers. However, what I would do is a function of what I like, as well as what I can get in the U.S. for the money we are discussing; they may not be available in your country, and consequently I may do something else if I were there. But regardless, you should listen to speakers with radically different designs from each other, as well as "ordinary" designs, and pick the ones you like. It does not matter what anyone else prefers. It is only after you have decided on speakers that it makes sense to look at amplifiers, as what you need there will be dependent upon the speakers. 1 ohm Apogee speakers require significant amplification, Klipschorns don't need anything special at all (just a really low noise floor), and so if you want to get the best sound for your money, you will not be buying an amplifier until after the speakers are selected.
