[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by wrickem

Maybe not the best for a true audiophile or somebody who loves to play with settings but it sure is easy and sounds pretty good. I've got an old house (1864), so wires are a PITA but even on new construction I think today's technology becomes tomorrow's dinosaurs (like those Nutone intercoms from the 1900s.

Feel you pain. Installed a theater w tv and front speakers on an exterior wall of my brother's colonial-era (believe 1800) stone farmhouse. What a fucking nightmare.

[P1]

I've done the math a few times, and it keeps coming back to the fact that buying the Sonos AMP gives the most flexibility and is the most affordable. One Sonos AMP powers four speakers and creates a single zone. I am not finding a solution that is more affordable than that.

[lsturbointeg]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

It's not an amp amp. It's a phono preamp. Vincent Audio PHO 700. It's a two piece system with the box on the left being the power supply and the box on the right being the tube phono preamp.

Here are the rest of the electronics:

nice equipment!

[m630]

Originally Posted by P1et

I've done the math a few times, and it keeps coming back to the fact that buying the Sonos AMP gives the most flexibility and is the most affordable. One Sonos AMP powers four speakers and creates a single zone. I am not finding a solution that is more affordable than that.

Yup, it's the easiest solution and can run your choice of speakers. I would test the power and sound of driving 4 speakers off one AMP, I assign two speakers per connect amp in my setup for optimal power to the speakers.

[P1]

Bit of an update. Had the professional come through and terminate all the speaker wires correctly. Found out that the ones which were supposed to act as rears as in my TV room don't terminate all the way back to where the rest of the speaker wires are. There are two extra wires in there that aren't speaker wires. Mysterious! But at least I can enjoy the six in-ceiling speakers, and I installed new outdoor speakers (Yamaha).

Finally have speakers wires long enough I can connect to an amp.




Plus an amazing score on Craigslist today! I don't even want to mention how little I paid for this...

[wrickem]

Nice update! Glad you got it squared away. Enjoy the great sound.

Looking at your pictures makes me even more sure that I made the right choice for me going with Sonos and perhaps giving up some sound quality for simplicity! I don't miss the mess of wires or small fiddly buttons on the remote or components! nope...not one bit.

[zx10guy]

Saw the pic you sent me last night via email. Very cool. I'm so glad Rotel is still around. Rotel to me is a brand back in the era of audio nostalgia where manufacturers were producing things for outright sound quality and not mass market gimmicks. Rotel, NAD, Adcom, B&K, just to name a few. Many of those audio companies I think fondly of are either out of business or have taken a turn for the worse and are only a shell of the company they once were. An example is Mirage. Back in the day, they produced the legendary M-1 and M-3 speakers. I remember lusting after the M-3 as it seemed attainable price wise with my then meager salary. I ended up with their more budget speaker the M490. Still sounded great and I still have it after buying it 20+ years ago. Now Mirage has gone the other way with just mass market products.

On the speaker cables and terminations, looks pretty good. I tend to shy away from banana plugs as I worry that they plugs will wear out over time and not provide a solid contact. So I tend to favor spades...especially when the connections at the equipment have binding posts. Allows you to crank down on the binding post to create a solid connection. But I did use banana plugs for the rear speakers in my multichannel system. The interesting thing is I did the cable pull and terminations myself. The audio shop I bought the cables from had the recommended banana plugs and a tool they loaned out to me. Seems like I did a decent job as I've had no problems with the terminations now coming up on 10 years.

[P1]

Originally Posted by wrickem

Nice update! Glad you got it squared away. Enjoy the great sound.

Looking at your pictures makes me even more sure that I made the right choice for me going with Sonos and perhaps giving up some sound quality for simplicity! I don't miss the mess of wires or small fiddly buttons on the remote or components! nope...not one bit.

Thanks! In all fairness, you still need to hook up your speaker wires when you use Sonos. You cannot get around that. I'll hook this receiver up to my Sonos Connect, so will enjoy the best of both worlds.

[P1]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Saw the pic you sent me last night via email. Very cool. I'm so glad Rotel is still around. Rotel to me is a brand back in the era of audio nostalgia where manufacturers were producing things for outright sound quality and not mass market gimmicks. Rotel, NAD, Adcom, B&K, just to name a few. Many of those audio companies I think fondly of are either out of business or have taken a turn for the worse and are only a shell of the company they once were. An example is Mirage. Back in the day, they produced the legendary M-1 and M-3 speakers. I remember lusting after the M-3 as it seemed attainable price wise with my then meager salary. I ended up with their more budget speaker the M490. Still sounded great and I still have it after buying it 20+ years ago. Now Mirage has gone the other way with just mass market products.

On the speaker cables and terminations, looks pretty good. I tend to shy away from banana plugs as I worry that they plugs will wear out over time and not provide a solid contact. So I tend to favor spades...especially when the connections at the equipment have binding posts. Allows you to crank down on the binding post to create a solid connection. But I did use banana plugs for the rear speakers in my multichannel system. The interesting thing is I did the cable pull and terminations myself. The audio shop I bought the cables from had the recommended banana plugs and a tool they loaned out to me. Seems like I did a decent job as I've had no problems with the terminations now coming up on 10 years.

Agree with you. I've always lusted after the big Rotels since I was a little kid, and could only ever afford their smaller integrated amps when I was in high school. Picking this up was a real treat. It's massive, and incredibly heavy. Large power supply, and five discrete amps probably are the reason.

[wrickem]

Originally Posted by P1et

Thanks! In all fairness, you still need to hook up your speaker wires when you use Sonos. You cannot get around that. I'll hook this receiver up to my Sonos Connect, so will enjoy the best of both worlds.

True, but they are just one plug into an outlet for each speaker. It's very clean I don't use a bridge or boost or connect.

full systems are a labor of love and a hobby, I understand that,and I'll bet yours sounds beautiful!

[KingOfJericho]

I LOVE my B&K amp (it powers my Martin Logan ESLs). I had always heard that Rotel was more on the harsh side compared to the others mentioned but I don't have any real world experience with them. I was always fond of the B&K's simplistic design. I also still fantasize about picking up a Proceed amp but am fearful due to their questionable reliability and expensive repair costs.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by P1et

Agree with you. I've always lusted after the big Rotels since I was a little kid, and could only ever afford their smaller integrated amps when I was in high school. Picking this up was a real treat. It's massive, and incredibly heavy. Large power supply, and five discrete amps probably are the reason.

I'm so glad I was able to get my Bryston 6B-ST as a dealer demo in very good condition. The beast weighs in at about 80lbs for a 3 channel amp. Each amp channel is an actual independent amp. They're discrete modules contained in the same chassis. The only thing they share is the power rail from the single power cord feed. Plus their checkout procedure is crazy and all higher end manufacturers should consider doing the same QA check. Each Bryston amp before it leaves the factory goes through a 24 hour full power stress test. If it passes, then they're pretty sure the amp will be good for the rest of its service life. I even got the checkout sheet which showed the measured performance of the amp when it was bench tested. I guess that's why they still have a 20 year warranty on their amps.

There's an online only company called Emotiva which seems to provide very good value or the money. I have two of their XPA-2 amps and these things are also built like tanks.

Originally Posted by KingOfJericho

I LOVE my B&K amp (it powers my Martin Logan ESLs). I had always heard that Rotel was more on the harsh side compared to the others mentioned but I don't have any real world experience with them. I was always fond of the B&K's simplistic design. I also still fantasize about picking up a Proceed amp but am fearful due to their questionable reliability and expensive repair costs.

If I recall correctly, Proceed falls under the Harman family of companies. I've also heard of issues with the Proceeds. The amps I've lusted after are from Classe, Krell, Boulder, Audio Research (mmm...tubes....), Mark Levinson to name a few. I remember my first taste of audio bliss when I auditioned some Apogee Stages being driven by a set of mono block Krells. Something about electrostatic speakers and class A amplification.

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

If I recall correctly, Proceed falls under the Harman family of companies. I've also heard of issues with the Proceeds. The amps I've lusted after are from Classe, Krell, Boulder, Audio Research (mmm...tubes....), Mark Levinson to name a few. I remember my first taste of audio bliss when I auditioned some Apogee Stages being driven by a set of mono block Krells. Something about electrostatic speakers and class A amplification.

Proceed was the more affordable branch of Mark Levinson, which has since been scooped up by Harman, which was just scooped up by Samsung. Proceed was killed off many years ago, though. Connecticut is/was a hotbed for high end audio, including Harman. In fact, Dan D'agostino (founder of Krell), lives in the next town over and some of my friends have been in his house and seen his setup. They left his house very different people than when they entered it.

[P1]

So I think I have this project wrapped up.



I ended up with:

1) Rotel amp plus a Sonos Connect for powering my outdoor speakers
2) Sonos AMP to power my formal dining room in ceiling speakers
3) Sonos AMP to power my master bedroom and master bathroom in ceiling speakers
3) Sony ES amp to power my 2.1 speakers for watching TV
4) Sonos Play 1 in the kitchen
5) Sonos Play 1 in the formal sitting room

Total speakers: 12 plus a sub

Appreciate all the feedback everyone.

[Big Nodge]

Nice setup.

This thread got me interested in Sonos and I now have a Connect AMP powering two DefTech AW6500s on the back deck, a Connect hooked into my main home theater system in the living room, two Play 1s in the dining room, and Play 3s in the master bedroom and the garage. Sonos works great for my non-audiophile whole house needs. I agree that it's not the ideal way to go for home theater though.