[OreoCookie]

I've got an NAD C320BEE amp that are driving Wharfedale 70th Anniversary speakers. Great setup. In fact, my best friend likes the amp so much, he wants to get a NAD amp as well (I thought of the C325 BEE). So here's the thing: he has a Mac mini as his media center and he would like an amp and speakers large enough for a 30-50 m^2 room (the room is partitioned in two (dining + living room) at the moment, but he wants to take down the big shelf that separates the two). Most of the time, he'll be listening to music while working, though.

So I am a bit hesitant to recommend shelf speakers to him as the room is already rather large and he would like a little more punch. Would it be possible to use four shelf speakers instead of two larger speakers? Also, it seems to me that larger Wharfedale speakers don't get the rave reviews their small brethren get, so would you have any recommendations?

Another thing is the quality of the audio out of the Mac mini: he has bought this headphone amp a while ago, would that work fine with an amp?

Oh, his budget is between 1000 and 1300 €, but it doesn't have to be maxed out.

[Pendergast]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

I've got an NAD C320BEE amp that are driving Wharfedale 70th Anniversary speakers. Great setup. In fact, my best friend likes the amp so much, he wants to get a NAD amp as well (I thought of the C325 BEE). So here's the thing: he has a Mac mini as his media center and he would like an amp and speakers large enough for a 30-50 m^2 room (the room is partitioned in two (dining + living room) at the moment, but he wants to take down the big shelf that separates the two). Most of the time, he'll be listening to music while working, though.

So I am a bit hesitant to recommend shelf speakers to him as the room is already rather large and he would like a little more punch. Would it be possible to use four shelf speakers instead of two larger speakers? Also, it seems to me that larger Wharfedale speakers don't get the rave reviews their small brethren get, so would you have any recommendations?

Another thing is the quality of the audio out of the Mac mini: he has bought this headphone amp a while ago, would that work fine with an amp?

Oh, his budget is between 1000 and 1300 €, but it doesn't have to be maxed out.

Salut OreoCookie!

To have 4 speakers working simultaneously would not be a great set up, unless those speakers reproduce specific frequency ranges in stereo (2 bass speakers and 2 mid/tweeters). That being said, if your friend has a home theater set up, a SACD player would allow using 4 speakers in HT.

I use a Mac mini as my main multimedia server and all my equipment is DIY, which allows for pretty good quality for little price. I am quite happy with the Mac mini.

The headphone amp from Headphone is really basic and although I never heard it, there are some good comments. Back to the mini, as is, the sound is fine, especially if the music is to not interfere with work. However, an outboard DAC would do it good, and allow for quite an improvement in sound. There are some good DAC available for little price (Cambridge Audio for instance). There is also some diy kits to consider (look for monica2 dac).

As for the sepakers, the best to do is go and listen for yourself. Not all speakers fit everyone's taste, and you should not be surprised to find some speakers sound like crap to your ears, but blissful to others. You'd be surprised also of the prowess of some bookshelf speakers, as long as they are well matched with the amp: higher sensitivity with enough power can go a long way. My set up includes a 2watt per channel amp with 99db/1m sensitivity, and it gives me plenty of quality sound. 100 watt per channel may seem great, but with 80db/1m speakers, it may not be as exciting.

Also, a subwoofer may help giving "punch", but the musicality of a set up is in the definition of the mid frequencies. If the mid are aggressive, it will get tiresome rapidly.

My 2 cents.