Decent mini hi-fi under £400 to power x4 ceiling speakers and Mac compatible

[deansplit]

Hi

I had a Marantz M-CR611 for a year before a plumbing leak broke it. Was going to replace it with the same unit but wondered if there's a better one out which is Mac compatible or plays music stored on an external HD, which that unit didn't (only a music centre which I understood meant buying a complete new piece of kit for £300 odd). It aslo has to be able to powere 4x ceiling speakers which are individually wired (not daisy chain) and I understand that the Marantz is one of the only units which does this, otherwise it's one which has one amp and strains it. It needs to have a CD player, digital radio etc and the room it's for is a kitchen diner, 47m2.

Thanks for any help.

 

[davedotco]

Its a decent size room so I would think speaker matching would be important.

Do you have the speaker units already? What impedance are they?

 

[deansplit]

Again, speakers were trashed too - had Monitor Audio CT165's – sound was amazing (for what we need) so wanted to get the same but understand they're now replaced with C165's which have better cones.

 

[davedotco]

Acording to monitor audio these have an impedance of 6 ohms. In bi-amp mode you should be fine.

Power drops significantly in this mode, probably about 10-15 watts for each speaker of that impedance. Should be fine unless you want party levels.

Most other small systems will not match easily with two 6 ohm speakers per channel, the Marantz looks like your best bet.

 

[Leif]

If you can handle used, the previous version of the Arcam Solo Movie can be had for small money on ebay. You might find a nice one near enough to your home to inspect it before purchase. Reviews describe it as audiophile quality whatever that means.