Help-a-rookie. Speaker recommendations for a mish-mash of vintage and contemporary

Ok, not a tech nerd by any stretch but this morning I won a bid on a Marantz 2225. Can't wait for it to arrive but am looking for a suitable speaker not only for the receiver but also my Cambridge Audio azur 752bd universal disc player and a Rega RP3 with an ortofon blue cartirdge.

Basically I'm trying to seek out a good all-rounder pair that won't break the bank and will compliment all these differing components. A lengthy search and I'm simply overwhelmed by the selection out there and I'm still studying so I don't really have the disposable cash to experiment.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

If the Marantz hasn't been gone through, you might want to have that done, those vintage Marantz units usually need some work. They might work, but could be far out of spec.

 

Size of your music space including ceiling hight, listening position (from prospective of speaker placement in feet), how far apart can you place your speakers (in feet) and floor standing or stand mount (book shelf)?

That receiver has in factory correct condition 25 Watts per channel. So efficiency is the order of the day. 90+ Db. I would look for a nice set of vintage Klipsch KG4 or similar (assuming you have the space for them). Lots of great choices out there but look for something efficient.

 

Yes. I'm a speaker engineer and so can say that the trend has been towards smaller, more power-hungry speakers. Finding truly efficient models is made harder by the fact that I don't believe hardly anyone's sensitivity numbers. If they say "90 dB 1W/1m" is it really? Stereophile tests indicate sometimes not. And on Crutchfield.com the Klipsch numbers quoted are just too high, no way I believe them (although I am confident their models are much more sensitive than most speakers). Some older speakers were more sensitive, but not necessarily all.

Due to physics, to get efficiency you end up with larger speakers. So if you want tiny speakers this Marantz may run out of power. The 2225 does not have the pre-out /main-ins to add a subwoofer properly to help out.

You can look at places like this
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=hug
which is a kind of an extreme, a lot of folks with SET (Single Ended Triode) very very low power amps, with a lot of kit speakers. But you could ask what you need there. That means, as asked above here, you need to specify what size and type of speakers, where they fit in what kind of room, and your BUDGET

 

Definitely a beautiful receiver! and yes, may be a good idea to have it looked at (but where? I have no idea). Hard to recommend speakers without knowing your room size, tastes, budget, etc.. I see you're in the UK, don't know what's available over there, but my speakers (Triangle Titus (France), 2002 vintage) are well known for being easy to drive. The floorstanding models (many versions over the years) can be had for not too much money, and while they aren't known as bass monsters, are tight and tuneful in the bass (at least my monitors are, and reading reviews seems to back up that opinion).

It is possible to hook up a powered subwoofer, parallel some cables to the 'high level' (speaker level) inputs on the sub. It'll not load down the receiver, in this mode the speakers will run full range but the sub can 'augment' the low bass. Another option is to connect the speaker terminals on the receiver to the sub's speaker level inputs (same as the other way) but then connect your main speakers to the sub's high pass speaker output connectors. this way the amp would only drive the speakers above whatever the crossover frequency is set to. (I may not be exactly right on that point tho ... too late at night ZZZZzzzzzzz...).

Hey, certainly B&W may be a good match, but they may not be sensitive enough. Tannoy is well known for sensitive speakers too ... many choices, and I'm only familiar with Triangle.

If you want to go for more expensive speakers, Monitor Audio may be a good match. I just got some Silver 8s (scratch and dent sale versions thru Crutchfield, $1700), and am driving them with my new Marantz AVR. Sound great. MA Bronze are more affordable but should also sound excellent with Marantz gear, assuming the 2225 sounds similar to more modern Marantz models? I have no idea.

Of course you could go with horns too ... Klipsch La Scalas? I have no real experience there other than anecdotal.

Good luck in your search!

 

Settled on a pair of Tannoy m20's. Don't think I'll be upgrading for a while! Everything sounds gorgeous!!