First Time B&W Owner

[audiojunky]

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased my first set of B&W speakers. After hearing many good reviews, I purchased a set of B&W 704 speakers. They should be available for pickup within a week, so I can't wait till they arrive.

I am yet to pick up electronics for the speakers so if anyone has any recommendations, or tips I would greatly appreciate it.

It feels great to be part of this elite crowd!!

[miner]

A good start-up 2 ch companion would be a Rotel RC-1070 preamp & RB-1070 amp. That is where I began. You can have both pieces new for around $1200 or $800 used. I have recently upgraded to the RC-1090 preamp & RB1092 amp. It may help us to know what type of funds you arre wanting to spend. www.audiogon.com has a good listing of used pieces. Enjoy your B&W - upgraditis will soon bite you.

[LikeCoiledSteel]

Hi Audio,
Welcome. I have the previous speaker to the 704, the CDM7nt. I like them a lot. Remember that B&W's need a lot of break in time when new. It will take sometimes 200 hours to fully break in so do not be discouraged if they do not sound great our of the box.

For the B&W 700 series, Rotel gear is very common and a good match. The better the gear you can afford, the better the speakers will sound in general. I recommend full seperates. Check out the used market for better deals. www.audiogon.com.
Good luck and welcome to the club.
Steel

[ShadowZA]

Welcome to the club, audiojunky. Also, congrats on your new B&W 704 purchase. I'm sure that you are going to enjoy yourself here. There is stacks of info around ... just search the threads & feel free to ask questions as you get to grips with what other ppl have.

Regarding electronics ... it all depends on your budget. Rotel products (there's a separate club on the forum ... go take a look) are not too costly and match well with B&W speakers. Of course one can go more expensive than this.

Also, if you are a 2 channel stereo (audio) person, your components you choose might want to be more geared towards that. If you are more home theatre (ht) orientated, you might want to buy gear that is more suited to that need, etc. If you are into both, you may want to go slowly and get a good 2 channel thing going first ... with an opportunity to upgrade later on. This is sort of what I did/am still doing.

Basic rule of thumb: Read up & gather info like mad ... then listen before you buy (not always easy, nor practical).

Good luck :T

[audiojunky]

Thank you for the posts. Wow, the RC-1090 preamps seems really expensive compared to the RC-1070 preamp. I wonder why that is so.

Isn't the RB1072 the new amp from Rotel? I was checking it out on the website - seems really nice. I didn't understand what Class-D amps meant. But they sound powerful!

I did go through a lot of the forums before posting and found the information extremely helpful. For example, I was debating between a CD player and a universal player and found that folks prefer CD player to universal player for stereo listening.

ShadowZA - this system is mainly for stereo, atleast for now till I can invest in a 5.1 setup.

My budget is around $2000-$3000 and for which I was looking at the Rotels (since B&W owns them!), and a few others such as McIntosh (too expensive), Krell, Mark and Levinson, NAD, Cambridge Audio etc. I also looked at Denon and Onkyo but found that they do not sound that good. Most of the ones I liked were too expensive given my budget but the Cambridge Audio, Rotel and Krell (Integrated Amp at $2500) seemed to be a good match.

[sharger]

I would recommend the Arcam route, I myself have an AV8/P7 which enables me to biamp the FL & FR. It makes for an extremely tonal match both for HT and music and you won't be disapointed.

Enjoy your speakers :T

[grit]

If you're looking for mostly music with the ability to add HT later, consider this: Rotel is due to update their pre/pro's later this year, or early next year. Not much sense in spending lots now when you can get the latest technology next year. I'd say go for the RC-1070 (I've heard the 1090 does sound AMAZING, and while the 1070 is good, it's no match for the 1090). Then I'd put my money toward a good amp. If you're serious about an HT investment, consider the 1075. It's a great 5 channel amp for $1000 (retail). The last thing I'd suggest is a dedicated CD player. I know this may sound silly to someone just getting into this hobby, but you'll find that a good, dedicated CD player will make a surprising difference in clairity, separation, and sound stage. People usually describe the sound of Rotel's 1072 as being "more musical" than listening to a CD through a DVD player.

So, if you go that route, you'll fall within budget, and only need to upgrade your RC-1070 when you want to run 5.1 HT (and add a DVD player).

[BTB]

Hi AudioJunky

welcome to the forum. Good advice here so far, I use the Rotel RC 1070 and RB 1070 with my 704's. My speakers do 95% (or more) music and 2 ch movies when I feel like it (clearly not a movie buff then?). If music is more your thing you may do fine with building a 2 ch only system (for movie duty as well) and definitely consider the suggestion of getting a dedicated CD player, well worth the expense, then get a cheap DVD player for the meanwhile.

One bit of advice regarding the Rotel route. Get the bigger 200w per ch RB 1080 power amp if you can afford it, I suspect it will add just that little bit of extra "magic" to really get the speakers going. I will probably sell my 1070 soon and do the same. Maybe others will agree? Otherwise there are plenty of other options out there, as you've already mentioned.

Welcome again.

[audiojunky]

Hi AudioJunky

welcome to the forum. Good advice here so far, I use the Rotel RC 1070 and RB 1070 with my 704's. My speakers do 95% (or more) music and 2 ch movies when I feel like it (clearly not a movie buff then?). If music is more your thing you may do fine with building a 2 ch only system (for movie duty as well) and definitely consider the suggestion of getting a dedicated CD player, well worth the expense, then get a cheap DVD player for the meanwhile.

One bit of advice regarding the Rotel route. Get the bigger 200w per ch RB 1080 power amp if you can afford it, I suspect it will add just that little bit of extra "magic" to really get the speakers going. I will probably sell my 1070 soon and do the same. Maybe others will agree? Otherwise there are plenty of other options out there, as you've already mentioned.

Welcome again.

Thanks!

Glad to hear that you own a pair of 704 as well. Why do you recommend the 1080 verses the 1070? The 1070 seems adequate enough to power the 704, right? So does the additional power make a difference?

I am leaning towards the Rotels, though the dealer I went to also had NAD and Krell. I auditioned them both and the Krell sounded a little better than the Rotel. However, the Rotel seems to have a better price/performance ratio.

I've heard about getting a dedicated CD player several times on this forum - seems like a worthwhile investment.

[audiojunky]

If you're looking for mostly music with the ability to add HT later, consider this: Rotel is due to update their pre/pro's later this year, or early next year. Not much sense in spending lots now when you can get the latest technology next year. I'd say go for the RC-1070 (I've heard the 1090 does sound AMAZING, and while the 1070 is good, it's no match for the 1090). Then I'd put my money toward a good amp. If you're serious about an HT investment, consider the 1075. It's a great 5 channel amp for $1000 (retail). The last thing I'd suggest is a dedicated CD player. I know this may sound silly to someone just getting into this hobby, but you'll find that a good, dedicated CD player will make a surprising difference in clairity, separation, and sound stage. People usually describe the sound of Rotel's 1072 as being "more musical" than listening to a CD through a DVD player.

So, if you go that route, you'll fall within budget, and only need to upgrade your RC-1070 when you want to run 5.1 HT (and add a DVD player).

So what differentiates the 1070 from the 1090? On the Rotel/B&W/Classe information sites, they refer to Rotel as mid-fi while Classe as hi-fi. I don't understand why they refer to the Rotels only as mid-fi. Then where does Denon and HK fall??!!!

Upgrading the RC-1070 for 5.1 seems a good option since I do eventually want to go that route. I'm quite happy with my existing 5.1 setup though.

So, where did you get information about Rotel's upcomign products? Is there a website where I could get further info? It might be worth waiting for those to come out perhaps.

[audiojunky]

Oh, and I should add that while I'm not a movie junky (I'm an audio junky ) I do really enjoy listening to multi-channel music and I have a not-too-bad collection of about 50 multi-channel SACD and DVD-Audios.

[BTB]

Hi AudioJunky

Yes, the RB 1070 is perfectly capable of driving a pair of 704's. Yet the reasons I suggest the RB 1080 (if budget allows) is because with the added power you'll get better dynamic performance, you're less likely to drive the amp into clipping (thereby saving your speakers from the potential harm caused by clipped signals) and subjectively, the output of the 1080 sounds a little better than the 1070, only an opinion. Add to this the fact that your lovely 704's (like many quality speakers) really "open up" something lovely with a bit more power behind them. I'm sure most will agree. So simply put, it's not strictly required, but if you can afford it, I doubt you will regret it.
That said, I presume the Krell you tried would have been the KAV 400, if you could afford that amp, it would be a great way to power your B&W's although you are probably correct in saying that the price/performance ratio of Rotel is pretty darn good!

Then regarding the dedicated CD player... It is simply a MUST if you're passionate about music, which you seem to be... good for you! I use and Arcam CD 73T in my setup, I reckon it's a perfect compliment to the lively, dynamic nature of Rotel amps. Combined they can really counterbalance the slightly "laidback" nature of the 704's.

Considering your Hi res disc collection, you might want to check out some of the 2ch SACD machines from the likes of Marantz and Denon which seem pretty affordable (although alot pricier than a machine like my budget Arcam!) and have been picking up some pretty good reviews too.

[miner]

I used a RB-1070 to drive a current hungry pair of B&W N804 and never once did I experience any clipping problems AND I really pumped the music at high volume into them. The RB-1070 will drive the 704 just fine BUT if you can let go of the extra $300 the RB-1080 will keep you from upgrading in the near future. Personally, I could not tell a difference between the 1070 & 1080 at normal listening levels - only when the 1070 pre volume knob was past 1 o'clock (very loud) did I get a hint of difference. BTW, the RC-1090 is no longer available in the US - I was able to find one through my dealer.

[grit]

So what differentiates the 1070 from the 1090? On the Rotel/B&W/Classe information sites, they refer to Rotel as mid-fi while Classe as hi-fi. I don't understand why they refer to the Rotels only as mid-fi. Then where does Denon and HK fall??!!!

Upgrading the RC-1070 for 5.1 seems a good option since I do eventually want to go that route. I'm quite happy with my existing 5.1 setup though.

So, where did you get information about Rotel's upcomign products? Is there a website where I could get further info? It might be worth waiting for those to come out perhaps.

Dunno about their upcoming products... they're a bit tight-liped. I get most of my info from the Rotel forum on this website.

You're going to find you've jumped into a completely new class of audio. Denon and HK don't really get mentioned in this circle. They're the best of mainstream electronics. Rotel, Krell, Classe, Anthem, Ayre, etc. are all in a different class, and there's little point to comparing them to Denon or HK. Rotel is at the bottom of this group, which is to say you get great quality at a very reasonable price. Thus, Rotel gets labeled "mid-fi". You can get better, but it'll double (or more) the cost of Rotel.

I'd agree with what other people said about the 1080 w/200 wpc. More power is always better. And there's headroom to consider. The amp may be called on to put out more power briefly during a song. That headroom is what lower power amps lack. As for your 704's, I think 120 wpc of Rotel or better power will be fine until you upgrade your speakers. As I pointed out, since you have an interest in 5.1, the 1075 amp is 120 wpc into 5 channels. It does not have as good of stereo reproduction as the 1080, but you gain 5 channels too! I ran my 703's on a 1075 for a year, and thought it was WONDERFUL! It's a great amp and a great place to start, esp if you want to get into 5.1. Later, if you want to upgrade to a better amp for 2-ch music, you can get a dedicated 2-ch amp and move to a 7.1 system.

Again, I'm trying to make suggestions within the budget you listed and with your application and desire to eventually move to 5.1. As the budget increases, my recommendations will change. Got $50,000? I'll suggest Wilson Audio WATT/Puppy 7's and some Nagra tube amps.