After reading through many posts on this site, want to ask a question others have asked, though specific to our situation.

I'm excited to have ordered a pair of the Triton Ones and looking forward to taking delivery in late June hopefully. After falling in love with the Triton Two's, I decided to take the leap of faith and pre-order the Ones. That was my starting point since my priority was quality music, followed by a L/R anchor to a 7.1 HT system. We will use the SCXL for a center and use 2 pairs of Invisa MPX for the sides and rears for the remainder of the system. The room is 21' X 23' with a ceiling height of 8'.

I understand that the speakers are efficient and that, coupled with the monster built in amps, will allow them to be driven with modest power.

The part I'm struggling with is the avr or separates to drive the speakers. Initially I was thinking the Marantz sr6008. The dealer/installer is pushing the sr7008 because he thinks I will need the extra power as I enjoy listening to music at louder levels, at times. That said, I enjoy classical, jazz, rock, electronic, etc. And no, I don't always have the volume up. Not to mention that there's not a huge jump in wpc between the two avr's.

Given the $800 difference in the avr's, I feel like that money is better spent on an amp, perhaps the Emotiva XPA-2 or XPR-2 (yes more expensive) and use it to power the L/R while going with the sr6008.

Another question is what combination of separates would people recommend for under $4K? While I'd be spending more up front, at least the amp is more of an investment that will last while the pre will likely lose value and become outdated fairly quickly, mostly from a video aspect.

And I'm willing to go used. Have checked Audiogon, but don't feel knowledgeable enough to feel confident on what would be a good deal and a good fit for our needs.

We'd use the Oppo 103D, iTunes (lossless), and possibly AIFF files for sources. The marantz has a DAC which seems decent -- feel free to share your thoughts on that as well.

Thanks.

Dear Shaker,
Good to have you on here, I am a mover, we needed a shaker. Well, I used to be a mover until my back went out!!!
But you Sir (Madam?) are going to have a WONDERFUL sounding system!!!!
Jealous here!!!!
Will you be listening to two channel music much? Or surround music/concert dvds? Or will this system be mostly for movies? Those answers will help us give you better suggestions. if you don't mind.
I use the Marantz AV7005 and am completely sold on separates, but the idea of using the Marantz receiver to power the rest of your system and outs to separate L and R channels is a great one. I think you will want really good amps with your Triton 1s. And, as you said, they are an investment. A great amp lasts a LONG time.
Saying that, used ones are fine as well, see above.
Power? Well, we don't know, you won't know until you have them. I would just make a couple of observations here. Dynamic speakers like to play loud (HEY, what a great thing, we LIKE to listen LOUD!!!) and they like POWER. Yes, I know, there are built in amps for the subs and therefore they should not, do not need to have all that much power to sound great. I am just talking from Triton 2 and Triton 3 experience here now. Your ears will thank you if you give those puppies more power. There will be more headroom, more ease in the mid-range and upper registers, and more bass too, don't ask me why. But it is true.
I found the Triton 2s needed more power so I am now driving them with 20W pure Class A and in Class AB 200 WPC Vincent SP-T800 mono amps. The music sounds sweet as. Concerts--big and great sound. And movies, WOW!!!
OK, hope this helps.
There are com-padres on here that will recommend the Emotiva amps, I have never heard them, so will let them do that. I have tried some Class D (pretty OK) and some great Class D, the Bel Cantos (more than OK) and real power from my Aragon 4004 Mk II, but I like some tubes in there, so the hybrid Vincents are proving to be the cat's meow for me.
In ANY case, you are building a GREAT system, I don't have to tell you to
ENJOY,
God Bless,
Wayne

Hi Shaker, welcome to the forum. I will try to answer your questions, but I may miss some so feel free to respond with further questions. (Sometimes it is best to list specific questions so forum members, or I, can easily identify and respond.) So:

1. I would not bother to spend extra dollars on a higher power same-brand receiver, although the next model up may have features you want. A power amp (2ch, or more) would be the much better solution and use of money if louder and more dynamic is your goal. If "better", not just louder, is the goal, just higher power is not necessarily the best choice.
2. The Marantz is certainly fine, one of the brands we often recommend. Separates will be much better, generally, but probably 4x the price for ones that yield a meaningful improvement.
3. The DACs in the Oppo are probably better than the receiver's.

Hope this helps!

Wayne,

Thanks for the lukewarm welcome

Seriously though, I appreciate your advice and insights. Have been fighting the flu so have been out of commission since posting earlier this week.

To answer your question, yes I will be listening to a good amount of 2 channel music -- maybe 60% of the overall listening time. I imagine I'll listen to some surround music and concert DVDs, but that will probably be a minority of the time. HT will probably be about 35-40% use.

Because of that mix, including HT, as curious as I am to try the Peachtree 125, it doesn't fit our plans.

After more thought and research, given our budget, I'm thinking it may make sense to go with the Marantz AV7701 for the pre and then use the Emotiva XPA-1 x (2) monoblocks to drive the Triton Ones (60W class A that can then do 600W class a/b) and use the XPA-5 (200W x 5) for the center/sides/rears. I haven't heard the Emotivas and no one I know has them, so I'm not crazy about jumping in blind, but they have a 30 day guarantee.

Not sure there's much else that would compare to the above given our budget, but if anyone has thoughts/recs please chime in.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Mod,

Thanks for the welcome and advice.

Addressed your first two points in my other reply to Wayne, so will leave it at that.

As far as the DAC, I'm sure there are better DACs then the built in DAC of the Marantz, including the AV7701. And since we're putting a new system in from scratch, our budget is already stretched so the DAC has been on the back burner to date.

That said, I am still trying to decide how to build our music collection moving forward. Besides CDs, and Apple Lossless files on iTunes, I was initially contemplating building with AIFF files since they are supposedly iTunes compatible and have good SQ. Unfortunately, one of the few negatives of the Marantz av7701 is that it does not handle AIFF files. Not sure what they best way to add hi quality music files and try to control it all through our Harmony 1100 or iPad Air/iPhone. Any thoughts would be welcome!

Thanks.

Hey Shaker,
You got a lukewarm welcome from me because I am envious of how great your system is gonna sound!!!!
Ha ha, I know you were joking, that was a warm welcome.
But I like the track you are on now much better, IMHO that Marantz processor with separate amps will be a REAL WINNER!!!!
Others here will cheer the Emotiva amps, I know nothing about them, but if they live up to their billing, that surely will be the way to go. Separates are great sonically and for upgrading your system in the future.
Great choices IMHO.
Now about the DAC. I hate to reiterate what the Moderator Dude said, but again, the DAC in your Oppo 103 will almost certainly be a better one than in the Marantz. I run everything through/play all the time with an Oppo 95 and it is some kinda good. I think the 103 (I am sure the 105) enjoy an even better DAC. So, with the Marantz, the Emotiva, the GoldenEar 1s you and the US economy ought to be pretty well set!!!!!
Go for it!!!! And ENJOY
God Bless,
Wayne