HELP, Receiver to drive B&W 803 + HTM3

K

Kobus

Guest
I am busy constructing a sound room / theatre. ( 6.5m x 4.5m )

I was going to purchase B&W 603's etc and decent components do go with it. Last week-end at a friends house which I have not been to in a year, I noticed that he has B&W 803 speakers. I was obviously full of admiration. These type of speakers was never in my budget (still is not).
Then he told me he is upgrading to the new 802D speakers and to cut a long story short I ended up taking over his 1 year old pair of 803 for half price.

Now, with that I am forced to buy matching HTM3 (old HTM1) for centre. As you can imagine, I have now blown close to my hole budget.

I do realise and this is confirmed from reading the forums that you do need a decent receiver/amp to drive the 803 \ HTM speakers. Mostly you guys talk about stuff that is either way over my budget or that might not be available where I come from.

My question: Will a decent receiver like Pioneer AX5ai (10i) or the Denon 3805 or the Marantz SR 8500 or equivalent Arcam be sufficient to drive the speakers? (or am I in big trouble)

Thank you
 
They will drive them, but you won't get the best out of the speakers with the amps you mentioned (apart from maybe the Pioneer AX10i).

With those speakers, you should really be looking at a processor and power amp setup. What is your total budget for the amplifier?
 
Budget, ? I truly do not know. I suppose I will easily at least double up on what I would have spent on the mentioned amps.
 
What amp do you have at the moment?
As it might be a good idea to use it as a processor for the time beeing and buy a/some power amps. Then later when cash allows buy a processor.

You could go with monoblocks, several stero or a multichannel power amp.
 
I do not have an amp at the moment to use.

At what price range can one set up a system based on seperate power amps?

How "bad" will the receivers that I mentioned sound?
 
The receivers won't sound 'bad', but they will not be able to drive the speakers as well as a good solid power amp.

My advice would be to get a cheapo AV Amp, use it as a processor (as gaz said) and buy a good 5 channel power amp, or a series of monoblocks.

Parasound, Primare and Chord spring to mind as possible brands with the equipment you would need.
 
I've been looking at a series of nad 272's although 3 of those would be £1200+ and you could get a decent 5 channel rotel for that. Nad also do a 12 channel power amp, this alows bi-amping of 6 channels.

It al depends what you want, if you go the monoblock route you could power the 3 fronts and then upgrade later for the rears (even for 4 rears or more if you feel the need)
 

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