Audiophiles look away! In search for some decent floorstanding speakers for the living room my parents chose a pair of B&W 684 S2's to complement a Playbar when listening to music. It is a pretty reasonably sized room (80 m2), other speaker options are welcome. So we went to a shop and the 684's fit the bill. Neither of my parents are audiophiles, they just always have music playing in the background and value simplicity over superior quality. My mom even cares more about the aesthetics, which is partly why they chose the slimmer 684 over the 683 or CM8. At the store they recommended that we pair the 684's with a dedicated amp (Rotel RA-11) and the Sonos Connect. First of all this adds another 'box' which needs to be hidden away somewhere out of sight (yep that's Mom), and secondly (probably most importantly) the amp will have to be manually turned on and operated. This defeats the purpose of getting the Sonos system in the first place.
So my simple question, can we pair the 684's with the Connect:Amp. I know we will probably sacrifice some audio quality but is this noticeable to the plebeian ear. Looking at the specs I feel like it should be, but your opinions are appreciated!
So my simple question, can we pair the 684's with the Connect:Amp. I know we will probably sacrifice some audio quality but is this noticeable to the plebeian ear. Looking at the specs I feel like it should be, but your opinions are appreciated!