Ok guys, I found a guy in Anchorage that is selling a Marantz NR1604 with an Episode ES-SUB-TRP10-500 sub both for $100.00 does that sound like a fair deal? Or no?
I know those slim line Marantz units. They are quite nice, I got one from my eldest son. However he has a fairly small space and is using speakers of my design which are very sensitive and an easy load to drive. He also only uses a stereo pair, no center or surrounds. Which Polk speakers do you own and how large is your space? A lot of Polk speakers are difficult drives.
Those Marantz units are quite small, and 70 watts per channel. There are pre outs for the sub obviously but also the right and left mains. So it would give you the option of using an external amp for the mains, but you seem short of funds. Those are not the sort of units I would want to push hard.
I think the price is very good. The question is whether it will be adequate for your needs at a power that will not stress it.
The sub I have never heard of and know nothing about it, other then specs which are not helpful. They do sate and FR down to 30 Hz but do not state a 3 db point. From its design I doubt it actually qualifies as a sub and is probably pretty useless. It looks more like what is known as a bass module. Personally I would avoid that one.
Decent amplification is important. My other son has a pair of the same speakers. He had been using an older audio only Sony receiver which recently blew up. So I kitted him out with one of my Quad 33 preamps, and Quad 405-2 power amps. It had been sometime since I had heard those speakers, which had won the US Audio Sound off, driven by what I would consider decent amplification. It was a huge improvement with clear room filling sound. He has a large room. The bass was full and anybody would have been looking for the sub when there was none.
