New mint B&W CDM 1NT speakers

[bjdalton1]

Hello everyone,
New speakers, now need a receiver. Thinking vintage from the 70's, Sansui, Pioneer, Yamaha. Need power too. Looking for advice of what, where to purchase and what to look out for.
Thanks,
The Wulf

[Feanor]

Hello everyone,
New speakers, now need a receiver. Thinking vintage from the 70's, Sansui, Pioneer, Yamaha. Need power too. Looking for advice of what, where to purchase and what to look out for.
Thanks,
The Wulf

Congrats. The CDM 1NT generally well reviewed in their heyday. I had an extented audition of them at home but found they weren't suitable for me at the time.

The CDM 1NT are pretty "analytic" in character and don't tolerate bright upstream equipment very well. If you are looking for vintage, stick to Marantz or Sansui which are generally warmer sounding, rather than Yamaha which were generally a brighter, more forward sound. Pioneer and Sony were in the middle

[bjdalton1]

Thanks Bill. The speakers are a bit bright. What do you think of a sub woofer or do you think the next receiver will make a difference? I have and old Pioneer that only puts out 15 watts per channel and I need about a 100. I am hoping that a new receiver will make the speakers perform much better.

[Feanor]

Thanks Bill. The speakers are a bit bright. What do you think of a sub woofer or do you think the next receiver will make a difference? I have and old Pioneer that only puts out 15 watts per channel and I need about a 100. I am hoping that a new receiver will make the speakers perform much better.

On the subject of power, how much you need depends not only on the speakers but the size of your room, the furnishings, and how loud you listen. You mention a "vintage" unit; by that do you mean from the '70s or early '80s? If so, receivers and amps of that era were pretty conservatively rated; I'd look for 35+ watts, or if you listen fairly loud maybe 50-70 wpc, but 100 wpc is probably more than necessary.

By the way, if you don't actually listen to the radio very much, you might want to consider an integrated amp (without tuner) rather than a receiver. Amongst vintage gear the integrateds are significantly cheaper on average.

A good sub could work out well, but bear in mind that the vintage amps had no "Sub Out" connection. However a quite a few had "Preamp Out" and "Main In" connectors. You could tap the Pre Outs to feed the sub, though you might need a 'Y' connector to feed both the sub and the Main In at the same time.

[bjdalton1]

Bill, I was wondering how much power I really needed. I would listen to the radio if it could draw stations. My old 15w Pioneer 450 I got for $25 at a garage sale years ago is bad. My room isn't large.