Hello all, A friend of mine recently purchased a Rotel receiver (1056 I believe) and was asking me if I had any speaker suggestions. I know Rotel and B&W match well and possibly Paradigm from what I've researched. Could anyone please provide me with a list of good matches to begin with that he may direct his search to audition? I believe he is looking for 5.1 set-up for a small/medium sized condo living room. Thanks for your input.
paradigm speakers go very well with rotel. Also, I would take a look at the MartinLogan Frescos. They are not cheap, and require a subwoofer, but reproduce sound with a planar magnetic driver, vs. a cone like the majority of speakers on the market today. This will usually (but not always) give you a faster, much more transparent presentation.
They are not for everyone, but many people that have MartinLogan will not listen to anything else.
Thx for the suggestion Gavin. I will pass that on. Has anyone ever heard rotel paired with NHT. I was thinking of the new Classic series from NHT might be worth checking out to pair up with a Rotel receiver.
I have had rotel with NHT. 2.9s were the speaker, and I belive the rotel 985MK11? Been a while, so I cant remember model, but it delivered 120wpc. To be honest the rotel (for me) didnt deliver enough power to sufficiently drive the NHTs, everything thinned out at higher volumes, and also during dynamic peaks in either music, or HT. The NHTs will open up quite a bit more, and perform MUCH better with more reserve power, just like most speakers really, but the NHTs require more than the norm, but are an incredible speaker when given enough juice, better than either the paradigm, or MLs in my opinion.
Hi Davidpa, havn't seen you for a while. I have that amp, 985MK2, and you must have been listening awfully awfully loud for the amp to fall off. I run low impedance Psb's(different animal, yes), and the amp is200w+ wpc at full out(I have run them full out many times). I am surprised, was all correct in the system?
No normal person could stand in the room at volume, let alone assess the qualities.
hey nuck, yes that was the amp, its still in the family, my brother in law has it, and he does love it. My problem was the NHTs paired w/rotel, and they were bi-amped, lower half w/A1 amps. And I do listen obnoxiously at times, still like to act young occasionally. At moderate volumes the pair was just fine, but when loaded with floyd everything took a momentary lapse of reason. That amp w/more efficent speakers would be OK, it also struggled w/some hafler pro series I had for a while(they liked to eat too) Not dogging the amp, nor the NHTs, I just dont think they are a real good couple. If the new classic line is anything like the 3.3s, 2.9s, 1.5s etc, and require lots of juice, I would recommend monos for best performance (works that way with all speakers) but NHTs are more demanding than most. Good to see ya.
MartinLogan are a much better speaker than NHT, especially the classic series, which went against the NHT house sound, which favored accuracy and went for a midbass hump and goosed mids.
Gavin, what makes the MLs better? Your opinion or mine? I dont like the MLs period, you may not like the NHTs, or much of anything else besides the paradigm, or ML, but that doesnt mean they are a better speaker. They are all up to personal tastes. Ive stayed away from the forum for a while because of the constant repetetive recommendations, for any situation, or budget, it gets old. Ive owned the NHTs, demod just about everything I can get my ears on, and it all comes down to personal taste, some speaker lines are much better than the NHTs, no question about it, MLs and paradigms are two that are not, at least on MY list.
to each their own, but the paradigm signature series s8 will compete nicely against any speaker, reguardless of price, that I could think of, including the wilson audio alexandria, without embarassing itself.
I wouldn't say the same about NHT. They simply aren't accurate enough.
But, like you said, sound is a personal preference.
and yes, I DESPISE NHT, the classic series anyway.