How to spend my $2500, anyone?

[timlovesrita]

Hi,
I recently posted a question for a friend. Thanx to all that responded.
Since I now have more information, I’m revising the question to include and to simplify and hopefully get the information my friend needs. Ok first of all, my friend is completely blind; so obviously sound quality is very important to him. He currently has a pair of B&W Matrix 802 Series 3 speakers. He wants to build a system around those 2 speakers. He has a ballpark budget of $2500 to spend and for that money he wants three things all new, not used. A great receiver/pre-amp, a great amplifier, and great cables to tie it all together. He will get other sources later like turntable and CD player etc. When we asked the B&W rep about an amp, he responded, “recommend using a 200 watt amplifier on the Matrix 802’s. This means that you will want a two channel, 200 watts per channel amplifier. I would recommend Rotel, Classe and Mac.” But we are not sure if these comments by the rep are true and/or relevant. So anyway if someone out there could help us for a minute by putting them selves in my friends position and say to yourself, “ok if all I had was those 2 speakers and $2500 for a great receiver/pre-amp, a great amplifier, and great cables to tie it all together, I’d buy (fill in name and model numbers of all 3 things). Thanx in advance.
Tim for Arthur in Watertown, MA USA

[Rich-n-Texas]

Just a slightly off-topic but hopefully not off-color question: If your friend is blind, how will he be able to use a turntable?

[timlovesrita]

I work with a lot of visually impaired people and I guess people not exposed to them as much as I am don’t realize, or probably even think about the level of independence they can achieve. Anyway, my friend is amazing; he does everything by himself, cook, clean, and even does landscaping and much more, so for him, operating a turntable is a very simple task. This is a man who travels from Boston to New York by himself on a regular basis using public transportation. Now to me, that is incredible. Anyway, back on topic, what should he buy? Thanx <smile>

[blackraven]

$2500 for a great amp, preamp and cables is asking a lot for new equipment. I think you can find good equipment but not great. Consider the Emotiva XPA-2 power amp, B&K reference 200.2, Parasound Halo A21, A23, and 2250 amps, Outlaw audio, Vincent Audio SP-331 Hybrid amp and SAT-1 preamp to name a few. Then I would look at a good preamp. Van Alstine makes nice hybrid preamps as well as amps.

Also, strongly consider the new Cambridge Audio amp and pre amp (840E and 840W) which got excellent reviews in Hi-Fi Choice Magazine, august issue.

I would put most of the money to the Amp and Preamp and then consider Bluejeans cables which are good cables and will do no harm to the music.