While our typical
hotel coverage involves HDTVs and/or special programming, we'll make an exception for the
Marantz/
DALI audio setup getting dropped into the Empire Suite of Manhattan's Carlyle hotel. We won't make any guesses about what the rack rate is for the duplex suite in the swank hotel, but it's got to be cheaper than the audio system, which combines four MA-9S2 mono amps, an SC-7S2 preamp and SA-7S1 SACD deck from Marantz's Reference lineup with a pair of DALI MEGALINE III speakers. All told, that's about $47,000 of Marantz gear and another cool $60,000 for the speakers, all to deliver good old two-channel. Might we suggest staying in and ordering room service?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mugatu @ Jun 12th 2009 3:51PM
4 mono-blocks and 2 speakers. Why/how do you run 2 mono-blocks per speaker? I seriously just don't know because I don't have the experience with something like this. --thanks
makabak @ Jun 12th 2009 4:17PM
Either bi-amping or bi-wiring.
Bi-amping splits up the audio spectrum and sends specific frequencies to certain speakers (lows to woofers, highs to tweeters, for a basic example).
Bi-wiring is using two sets of wires between the amps and the speakers. This is mostly so that wiring companies can sell more wires, but on extremely-high end audio setups, the wiring can actually affect the sound. Using two types of wires allows you to "blend" the audio.
Like I said, bi-wiring is fruity.
mugatu @ Jun 12th 2009 4:56PM
Wouldn't you need a Pre that outputs 2 sets of right and left to do this? Something has to get the signal to each amp. Why would Marantz make a stereo receiver with this capability?
makabak @ Jun 12th 2009 5:05PM
@ mugatu:
If they're bi-amping, they need a crossover. It's likely in this scenario that there's some non-Marantz gear in the signal chain.
If they're bi-wiring, they might just be using splitters. I hope they got 'em at Radio Shack. >:D
mugatu @ Jun 12th 2009 5:24PM
@makabak
Ahhh, some sort of bridge between amps. Doesn't seem like the best solution but I'm way out of my price range. They're driving those sweet speakers some way, I sure would like to hear them. Thanks for the info.
chuckdaly @ Jun 13th 2009 12:02AM
Dali Megalines have an outboard active crossover, so each speaker requires 2 channels of amplification. One channel is used to power the 7 foot ribbon tweeter, and one channel to drive the 12 6" woofers. So they are using 2 monoblock amplifers per speaker.
Marantz isn't using a receiver, but a preamplifer. Most Preamps have 2 pairs of outputs. In this instance, only one pair of outputs are used to connect to the crossover.