Welcome!

That certainly is a great combo of speakers. ;\) You can't go wrong with that.

For 'blow your hair back' performance in a larger room you're going to need serious amplification. You knew that already. But 16x14x9 is not that big of a room, ~2000cu/ft. I'd think that many popular AVR's ought to be capable of lighting your hair on fire in a room that size. The extremely popular Denon 3808 is a wise choice. I'm a fan of Pioneer Elite gear so I have to put in a plug for the SC-05 and SC-07. Either would be capable of driving your proposed system to your desired level, are very lovely AVR's, and can often be found at steep discounts (<$1k).

The A1400-2/8's are amazing amps, but they're not cheap. If you never want to buy another amp, they're a great choice. ;\) But there are many other manufactures out there that make very good amplifiers at slightly lower price points.

I would say to take a peek at Outlaw Audio's offerings. They are pretty highly respected by many. Very good amps.

I would also tentatively recommend Emotiva amps. Though I know others here will disagree. There have been some problems with a few of Emo's amps and a few M80's - so some hesitation is warranted. My LPA-1 has been flawless and is capable of "blowing back my hair" when required, and my room is just a couple hundred cubic feet larger than your room. I would have to think that a UPA-7 (successor to the LPA-1) would be equally able to power an Epic 500 system quite nicely.

If past performance is any indication, the Oppo BluRay player is *the* one that you should get. It may be a hundred bucks or so more expensive than other brick-and-mortar BR players, but it will have features that should put it on the level with multi-thousand dollar flagship BR players.

Oppo's players enjoy an absolutely stellar reputation. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say that their BR player is one of the most eagerly anticipated devices in the AV world right now.

Last edited by PeterChenoweth; 04/07/09 01:48 PM.

M80v2 | VP150v2 | QS8v2
SVS Pci+ 20-39
Emotiva UMC-1 & LPA-1
M22ti + T-Amp, in the Office