atcbi5

Same here man. My Bose 901's will never be sold! Back of manual under power requirements it reads " 10 watts to unlimited". Believe me when I tell you that I have run them wide open with high powered amps. That's when they sing. You need at least 250 watts and not to many people had that much power. They are very much misunderstood. The problem is the equalizer they use. More of an active crossover that really loads most circuits ( pre amp section). Bose boosts the signal and then feeds a fat rich bass heavy input to your amp. Hence the 250 watt minimum power. Trust me if you power them with high current amps, watch out buddy.

Bob Rouleau

atcbi5 - I had a pair of the original 901s powered by a Crown AMP, 150 watts per channel. Over the years I spent a lot more money and still had fond memories of the 901s. Layter versions were far more efficient but lacked the punch of the original amp suckers

cobalt

Well I have to trust you on that. My experience with the original 901's I used a Yamaha receiver with IIRC 120 watts just never worked for me but the room was less than ideal. I still have a pair of Fried Model R Signatures that I feel the same about. One of the first transmission line speakers although these were version 3 when they switched to a 10" round poly driver I compared so many speakers at the time I even passed on a pair of KEF 104's which everyone raved about back then but powered by a pair of Hafler DH-200's bridged and upgraded using a straight-wire feed through a PS Audio 5.0 they sounded special for the time and what a bargain. One day I will re-foam the mids and see if they still sound as good as I recall.

mdrums

Only 1 does HDMI but it doesn't pass 3D...the other are like my Mac's and 1 of them is my Mac priced at $1900 and I sold it yesterday too. So far the Integra I just put in my system is great, no sound degradation and it does everything nd does it well.

mike33

I believe the weak link in your system is the power amp and not the processor. Long time back, Subhash (member HFV) had used this combo and returned the same as he felt the sound was just not there.

You should consider replacing the power-amp. If you can replace both pre and power then it would be great. I have heard the signature series in stereo driven by a NAD T 785 AVR. It just blew it off. It was driving them with utmost authority.

mdrums

The McIntosh amp is the weak link in my system? I don't think so. My system is not ultra high end and I don't pretend it to be...just doing the best I could with the money I had at the time but McIntosh amps are very good higher end amps.

Maybe my Klipsch Ref 7 speakers might be the weaker part but they do surprise a lot of folks during concert music blu-ray's and are great bang for the buck speakers...but..yeah there are other speakers I'd rather have.

My McIntosh A/V pre amp-processor was the weak link because it could not decode the new HD codecs and do HDMI switching. The Intgera A/V pre-pro I am using now is working out great...no sound difference between it and the McIntosh processor I had on regular Dolby Digital or DTS sound tracks but the Audyssey XT32 in the Integra is helping.

utkinpol

ref 7 with mcintosh are good combo, it is good power source for them. i loved big klipsches before my wife made me sell them, only grief i had was the fact that they needed a bit more power before they would sound really nice and even, but audissey should fix all that.

if you like ref 7 you may like tannoy speakers, i really loved them, they are extremely accurate and very sensitive and also have those combined speaker heads so they are extremely precise, sound stage was a bit better than with my current 805 b&w, but i like b&w tonality a bit better now, or may be i just got used to them.

mdrums

Paul...funny I looked at Tannoy back in 2004 when I bought the Klipsch Ref7's. Klipsch was just the best bang for the buck and I got them for a steal from a place I know from my music industry job. I also liked for Focal and large B&W 801 and 802 speakers. I liked all those. I had a budget but listened to some uber high end Wilson and other brands like that but the Klipsch just sounded real to me. As a drummer I know what drums/cymbals sound like. I auditioned lots of speakers with the same acoustic jazz and R&B cd's over and over...LOL

McIntosh does a great job for Klipsh speakers for sure!