I certainly hope to!
Musically is where things get complicated. It's always been this way for car systems I have made. I truly listen to every kind of music there is, except for Opera. I draw the line there lol. But in all seriousness, I will be listening to Alice in Chains unplugged, then an original recording of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, then on to heavy metal song by Five Finger Death Punch, then on to a great Sinatra Song, and then on to a Trance song. What's always been important to me is a balanced sound, and the ability to sit on the couch, or my morris chair, or at the desk working on my computer, and hear great sound. All my music is stored on my computer, most in FLAC or wma lossless format. Everything goes through the HRT DAC before going on to the amp.
The speakers I really liked the sound of in the retail stores were the B&W 600 and CM Series. They just sounded amazing. I was able to hear a pair of Totem's that were being showcased while I was there, that truly sounded amazing. The bass response was spectacular coming from such a small enclosure. I also like the sound of the PSB Image series, though the highs were tad on the strong side.
From research, ideally if there were a way to do it, would be to build a small tower, or slightly oversized bookshelf that incorporated a quality woofer- able to be crossed over easily to the two powered Energy subs I have, a nice tight mid- that would have a great punch, and then top it off with a compression driver and waveguide to more evenly disperse that amazing sound throughout my entire room. I would like to be able to sit just about anywhere in the room and feel like I am getting great sound.
I do watch movies as well, so down the road, I will end up building a center speaker as well, but for now, even when watching movies, I would be more than happy with just my 2.1 (or 2.2) sound.
While eventually I may end up going to a more powerful amp, doing the research I did seems that power ratings are many times fluffed and that power output is many times not a direct cause of louder output of the speakers. My marantz, similar to the NAD I almost got, are both reputed to be underrated for their power. I have heard 92DB speakers driven by a NAD316 that sounded far better, and able to driven to reference levels, than amplifiers that touted ratings of 150 wpc. My Marantz will handle 6ohm loads as well, which gives me a little wiggle room, but would rather an 8ohm speaker that dips down to or toward 6 in certain bands, but not a 6ohm that would drop into the 4's from time to time. Don't get me wrong, I have heard some amazing systems that were putting out thousands of watts, that's just not the style of system I am looking for. Also- as we live in a typical Baltimore style Row Home- space is a bit limited so a huge rack for gear just isn't an option. The listening room is our living room, probably about 14x 14 to 16 x 16. Pretty crappy acoustics, all walls are plaster, lots of windows door openings to other rooms, staircase etc.
At some point I would like to try my hand at making my own tube amp. Seems like it would be a fun project, they look downright cool, and would be a great way to drive some small speakers in my bedroom.
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