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My first real hi-end audio system Please advise

Hi, this is my first post and I've just started to really get into the wonderful world of Hi-Fi audio. I'm a student at U of IL and live in a small apartment.

My father is upgrading his system and to my pleasant surprise decided to give me ALL of his audio equipments!!! I'm ridiculously excited since his equipments, although mostly 10 years old, are awesome. They include McIntosh (MC7300, C40, MCD7008, and MR7083) and a pair of 2 year old Revel M20 speakers.

The question I had was, would these gorgeous speakers sound as good in my apartment room? (about 10ft x 14ft)

I'm also thinking about selling all of the system but the speakers, and buying a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver, 3 more speakers and a subwoofer for a 5.1 system. Now, I don't have much $$$ as I'm a student, and I can't quite ask my parents for more audio equipments... I was wondering if 3 Aperion (aperionaudio.com) bookshelf speakers and a Sunfire True superjunior subwoofer would complement the Revel M20s well.

I know the sunfire receiver and the subwoofer aren't cheap for my standards, but I've done some research, and I think they'll last me a long long time and be a great entry system to the real hi-end audio world for me. As for the Aperion speakers, which I intend on using for center and surround speakers, they are only $180 each and have been receiving awesome reviews.

Has anyone tried these Aperion bookshelf speakers, sunfire ultimate receiver and the little subwoofer? Would you recommend any other system combinations for this price range? Oh, I almost forgot, can anyone also recommend a good DVD player for around $1000 or should I just connect my Apple G5 computer to the receiver? Would the computer's audio quality be a lot worse than a $1000 DVD/CD player?

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm just excited and giddy that I'll be able to treat my ears to some really good sound while I'm at school!

Thank you in advance
seongoh9f94
slappy
903 posts
 
Seriously, listen to these guys. DO NOT SELL THAST GEAR TO ANYONE EXCEPT ME FOR 20 BUCKS!

Really though, you got some real good stuff there, no sunfire reciever will match it.

Another reccommendation, is MAJOR IN SOMETHING USEFUL!
Better yet, get a PHD and a fat high-paying job and make some serious bank so you can keep up in this hobby.

I am doing pretty good myself, but im seriously behind everyone else in quality of gear.

Then again, now the woman is gone i get to spend more on it.

Keep the equipment, Keep it real, get a great job, and enjoy this hobby, and BE GRATEFUL you got some nice gear given to you, this hobby gets REAL expencive.

Happy listening buddy! nice to see another younger (under 60) person enjoying this hobby. >:)

Just kiddin everyone, i know that some of you are 50 years young. Not all of you are tacking the nails in the coffin lids.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Im gonna get smacked. hahaha

-Sllllaaappy
bigjoe's avatar
bigjoe
680 posts
 
your kidding me, right? the gear you listed as what you are thinking about getting dont even scratch the ass of the mcintosh rig your father has gave you.

dont be fooled into believing that new is better beacuse in this case it isnt,if this is your first step into hi end then you should really be thinking about this deal .

your mcintosh gear is worth right around 4500.00$ on the used market & you will get that price fairly easy,do some more research on sunfire & see what all the sunfire gear you listed will be worth this time next year & how long it sits before it sells.

what your talking about doing here is trading in a 10 yr old corvette for a new fiat.

mike.
goatwuss
875 posts
 
Don't sell the Mac gear! It'd make me cry. Movies with a high end 2 channel + sub setup are SO MUCH better than a medicore 5.1 setup, and there's NO WAY you could put together a 5.1 setup sounding decent in that small of a room, and even if you did have the room, it'd cost you more than $10,000 to do it right.

-Todd
ellery911
549 posts
 
I hate MAC...i think it is butt ass ugly and would never want it in my living room...but that is just my opinion...but I have to agree with ALL the other posts that are against wat you are doing. KEEP THE MAC!!! KEEP THE MAC!!! KEEP THE MAC!!!
rsbeck
887 posts
 
I agree with most of the other posters. The Revel speakers should be a good match for that sized room and you can add a sub-woofer for more low end and movie effects. *I* wouldn't try to do surround in that sized room, but that's me and I am not a big surround fan. Been there, done that. I had a great surround set-up as part of my music system and I ended up separating it out and putting it in another room. If anyone can name me more than 10 movies that even *require* a surround system, I'd be surprised -- and most of the ones that do -- it is only for a few minutes here and there. So, you get a surround system for parts of about 10 movies -- and they tend to be movies I wouldn't be watching unless I want to show off my surround system.
You end up watching the Pod Race from Star Wars any time someone new comes over. It is ironic to me that people are waiting on SACD because there are only some 2,000 titles available, but then go for home theater surround systems when there are only a few movies that actually use surround. You'll be spending all your time putting your ears up to the rear surrounds wondering if you calibrated your system correctly because there's hardly ever anything coming out of them. A 2.1 system is just fine for movies. Finally, a receiver *is* a big step backwards in sonics. So, you'd be sacrificing sonics on 100% of your music listening in order to watch the pod race from Star Wars over and over. Okay, I am exaggerating a little, but not by much. Keep the gear, add a sub-woofer. Put the surround money into a good sub-woofer, a cheap one is fine for movies, but will sound like crap for music. Just my opinion.
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