All,
Sorry to have delayed posting an update. I am currently sitting in a bar in Galway as I write this on summer vacation. The Galway races are taking are here and I have never seen such a wild scene! i did go ahead and pulled the trigger on a pair of Emotiva XPA-1's. I am very pleased...
All,
Again thanks to all for sharing their observations. Emotiva seems to be one of those hot button subjects. I find it interesting that there is a relative lower number of mainstream audiophile publication reviews. Of course the publications may have other motives for limiting the reviews...
Dan,
Thanks again for sharing your experience and perspective. With regards to the Denon receiver, I chose it mainly due to it's feature set and not necessarily for it's musical characteristics. As I mentioned Apple Airlplay is a great feature. On the Denon it works much better than the DNLA...
Dan,
Thanks for the tip on why the speakers are fatiguing. It now makes sense to me. For some reason, I seem to choose low impedence speakers!. My Axioms in my condo are 4 ohms. I have a Denon 2808 enclosed in a small space. I had to worry about the receiver overheating in the closed space...
Spike,
I will try to seek out some others in the Chicago area. It is so hard to demo products many of which are at such a high end, you cannot find them in the bricks and mortars store. There is The Little Guys store close to my home. I may check them out to see which products they offer...
Bernard,
The cables and wall treatments will be some of the last steps. My rack is in the back of the room. I have a built in cabinet with plenty of room for the amplifiers. I will have to watch the outlets. I have a total of 4. The back of the cabinet opens into a storage room. I have...
Not to bore you all completely
Again, thanks to all who responded generously with their time and expertise....it is truly appreciated. There is quite a deep base of knowledge here! Feel fortunate to have had the help.
The system is moving along. I just ordered the new subwoofer yesterday...
Bernard,
Opening up another can of worms? And I thought I was getting closer to finalizing all the decisions and now I have to worry about the interconnects/speaker cables. I was planning to connect the amp to my Denon with decent RCA cables alone. Will I have to do another 2 hours of...
Danvu,
Really appreciate the advice. The Denon 3311CI is no slouch as a receiver. It seems to drive the 7.2 system I currently have without straining too much. It should have no problem driving the center, side surrounds and back surrounds. I will get either 2 monoblocks or a 2 channel amp...
I won't pretend to be audio expert but I agree with regards to the center channel. Even though the Stage Center is a good sized center, it is so much smaller than the Theos. It is going to be impossible to be a perfect match across the front stage. I think you are right about the amp on the...
The Music Fidelity M6i is definitely outside of my price range. Just to explain my priority. I have decided that the 2 channel experience is where I am the most demanding. I am more forgiving when I watch a movie where you are more wrapped up in the story and the 7.2 experience. I would...
I am definitely leaning in the direction of the monoblocks. Committing to a 5 channel amp is a point of no return. It would just give me more flexibility to pick up 2-3 monoblocks and expand the system slowly.
I have to correct the listening position distance. Finally measured it this evening. My depth perception must be off. I have a 96" wide projection screen with an Optoma HD-180 Projector. The Martin Logan Theos are just to the sides for the screen about 30" from the wall. The main listening...
Thanks to all for sharing your expertise. I have 2 goals for the sound system. I would say I am using it 50/50 for movies & Music. The room is not that large. It is about 21 x 18 feet. The main listening position is only about 5 feet from the front speakers. I want to get the most out the...