The new B&W 702 S2 are awesome especially for the money. These speakers compare to B&W 800 series D3 imo.
But I wouldn't use a receiver for these speakers if you want to achieve a full potential of these speakers performance wise. I would get separates. FYI, I would stay away from Rotel av preamp processor or av receiver. If I were you I would get the new Marantz AV8805 av preamp processor with Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel amps. If you want to do Atmos and need more channels you will need more than one RMB-1585 as this is a five-channel amp. The Rotel RMB-1585 is an outstanding amplifier for the money. And Rotel and B&W alaways have great sonic synergy together. Rotel always sound great on B&W. They are meant to be paired together.

If you budget is higher I would look into Classe Sigma SSP MKII preamp processor with Classe Sigma Amp5 five-channel amp. And again you will need more than one Sigma Amp5 power amp if you want to do Atmos.
These would outperform the Marantz AV8805/Rotel RMB-1585 combo sonically especially for 2ch music.
Classe will also sound great on B&W. They are meant to be paired together.

If you like the forward sound profile of B&W which is evidently a hair less pronounced in the new 700 series which is less evolution and more revolution than a typical lineup change from the CMs. Compared to the 683s it will be a BIG step forward.

Arcam is very musical. Anthem makes an excellent receiver and would be worth looking at and would be a fine choice. If you can swing a Marantz Pre-Pro with a Rotel power amp, that will be spectacular. I had (lost in a divorce) marantz pre/pro and marantz power amp and it was amazing. Classe is even better but the price goes up a lot and the setup is much harder.

The reason I said to stay away from Rotel av receivers or pre pro is because its hdmi switching is very buggy. They sounded really good for music but have all kinds of issues related to its HDMI switching.
The new and Rotel's flagship receiver the RAP-1580 sounded really good esp for music but if you can just steer clear of any Rotel or NAD receivers or av pre pro.
NAD is the same way. They have the same problem as the Rotel. Both NAD & Rotel receivers sounded great. The same apply to av preamp processor products.
So whatever you end up getting just stay away from Rotel or NAD receivers or av pre pro.

I just noticed that you said you will be using the system for 70% stereo music and 30% movies (surround). If that's the case and if you can swing for the Classe Sigma SSP preamp processor MKii ($6k) or the original Sigma SSP ($5k) this will be a number one choise. The Classe Sigma SSP is optimized for stereo performance for music and for stereo music it will sound better than the new Marantz AV8805 or AV8802A or pretty much any av preamp processors for under $10k basically. Classe sacrificed lot of unnecessary connectivities, connections and features in order to bring the cost down on the Sigma SSP. There's no legacy analog video connections, no multi-channel analog audio inputs 7.1, there's only a pair of stereo analog inputs (xlr & rca). The xlr balanced outputs are only reserved for its front L & R channels only and the rest of the channels are single ended outputs but highly optimized single ended ones. The front L&R channels are fully balanced or true differential circuitry and the xlr balanced analog input (stereo) is also fully balanced. The Sigma SSP is a true differential or fully balanced preamp for only its front L&R channels only. Of course there are HDMI inputs, PC USB input, Ethernet, and spdif coax digital audio inputs as well as Toslink (optical digital audio) inputs.

The only difference between the original Sigma SSP and the Sigma SSP MKii is that the latter decodes the latest surround formats eg dolby atmos, dts-X as well as capable of 4k video passthrough and is equipped with hdcp 2.2, whereas the original Sigma SSP does not.
You can get the Classe Sigma SSP pre pro with the Rotel RMB-1585 power amps and they will still sound great together on the B&W 702 S2. But if you can swing for the Classe Sigma Amp5 power amp to go with the Sigma SSP pre pro that would even be better.

All Marantz av pre pros and receivers are capable of decoding all those new latest formats and codecs. So does the Anthem except for their Anthem D2 V2 Statement pre pro. The Arcam does too.
But Marantz and even Arcam av preamp processor (pre pro) are awesome for home theater (surround movies) but their stereo performance for listening to music or when used as a stereo preamp isn't quite compared to the Classe Sigma SSP. For surround sound (home theater) I think the new Marantz AV8805 pre pro will perform as good as the Classe Sigma SSP if not better.

Slash wrote:

Hi All,

Thanks for all the guidance.

Classe is going to be above my budget. I seem to hear from that Marantz is the way to go. I did hear Rotel issues, so if that's out the door, how does the Marantz compare with the Arcam AVR550?

By the way, I am just going up to 3.1 as the additional 2 will cost me a divorce.

I will add a poweramp later, but which AV amp can I live with for the time being? Thanks.

IMO the Yamaha is 90% of why your system sounds mediocre!

I would advise you to get the Cambridge Audio CXR120 receiver, and keep the rest of your gear. It has plenty of power for your speakers, and for 5.1 if desired.

That will make your system come alive; a world of improvement over the Yamaha.

IMO Cambridge receivers sound very very good, and the Yamaha very very bad.

NAD and Arcam also make very good receivers, but the Cambridge is great and is priced better (only $1199 at Audio Advisor).

Slash wrote:

Hi All,

Thanks for all the guidance.

Classe is going to be above my budget. I seem to hear from that Marantz is the way to go. I did hear Rotel issues, so if that's out the door, how does the Marantz compare with the Arcam AVR550?

By the way, I am just going up to 3.1 as the additional 2 will cost me a divorce.

I will add a poweramp later, but which AV amp can I live with for the time being? Thanks.

I would go with the Arcam AVR550 or the AVR850 if you can swing it for almost $6k. Any Arcam receivers will sound quite a bit better than any Marantz or Denon receivers. The new Rotel RAP-1582 receiver sounded even better than the Arcam AVR550 but Rotel's hdmi switching is very buggy. I would stay away.

Would you need a stereo power amp or a multi-channel power amp to add later on? Since you mentioned earlier that you are only doing 3.1 setup I would just get a stereo power amp to drive your front L&R speakers. I would highly recommend the Rotel RB-1582 MKii stereo power amp for $1600 new. It's performance is stellar and very good and musical sounding amplifier especially for the money. Very quiet, clean rich and warm sound and it will sound very good with the B&W 702 S2. And you can use the receiver's internal amp to power your center speaker.

If I were you I would just get an av pre pro (preamp processor) from say a new Marantz AV8805, or the Anthem AVM60 or even the Marantz AV8802. Or if you don't care about dolby atmos, dts-x, 4k video passthough or hdcp 2.2 equipped pre pro I would highly recommend you look into a used market on the discontinued Classe SSP 800 pre pro. The SSP 800 did originally retail for $9500 when new and today you can easily find this on a used market like Audiogon.com for around $3k or perhaps even less, which is less expensive than the Marantz AV8802 or the new AV8805. And the Classe SSP 800's stereo performance for listening to music or when used as a stereo preamp is better than any Marantz or Anthem or Arcam preamp processors. But the SSP 800 does not decode dolby atmos, dts-x or 4k video passthrough or hdcp 2.2 as this unit has been out for a while. And you can pair the Classe SSP 800 with the Rotel RMB-1585 five-channel power amp since you are going to have a center channel so you will need at least three-channel power amp to power all your speakers. The Rotel RMB-1585 retails for $3k new or unless you can find a used one out there. I sometimes saw this amp offered for sale in a used market.
This Classe SSP 800/Rotel RMB-1585 combo will sound very good on the new B&W 702 S2 speakers.

Slash wrote:

Hey all,

Thanks for all the guidance.

I was thinking of another alternative. Plugging a Rotel 1592 (which I am guessing will be good for the 702s) through HT bypass into the AVR.

So use only the AVR for movies and Rotel for music. Theorotically, I understand it works.

Does anyone know if the Yamaha's will pass on the audio signal to the Rotel without any processing?

By the way the Rotel 1592s are a bit more reasonably priced, but does anyone know if they are reasonably good (or very good?)?

Thanks again.

Yes the Rotel RA-1592 is really good especially on B&W 702 S2. That's a way to go.
I did get to hear the RA-1592 on the B&W 702 S2 last month at the shop and they sounded spectacular together. I mean, that Rotel RA-1592 integrated is a very good quality integrated and sounded very musical esp for for its asking price of $2500. The RA-1592 has really good sounding DAC as well.
Highly recommended esp for your B&W 702 S2. B&W and Rotel are meant to be paired together. B&W voiced and tuned their speakers using either Rotel or Classe amps.

The Rotel RA-1592 has one pair of Aux analog input that can be set as unity gain for HT bypass from a receiver. And you can save the setting for that particular input. I would set the volume at 80 for this unity gain Aux input and save that setting on that input. So every time you select that input it will automatically disable the volume control of the RA-1592. And you can run rca analog interconnects from your receiver's preamp out for front L&R channels only to this HT bypass (Aux analog input) on the Rotel RA-1592. So when watching movies you will control the volume on your AV receiver and it uses the power amp section of the Rotel RA-1592 to drive your front speakers and you connect your receiver's center channel speaker binding post to your center speaker.

I also heard this Rotel RA-1592 on B&W 805 D3 as well as 804 D3 speakers before too and they always sounded very good together. This RA-1592 is all around great integrated amp regardless what speakers it is paired with. It has more than enough power to drive most speakers and it sounded very good esp for the money. You can read some reviews of the RA-1592 on The Absolute Sound and other sites.

In regards to AVR choices I would highly consider either the Arcam AVR550 or the Anthem MRX 1120 or the new Marantz SR8012. I wouldn't get a Yamaha AVR if I were you.

The Rotel RA-1592 / B&W 702 S2 combo would be a perfect choice.

Slash wrote:

Hi All,

Although I have a system now but still considered pretty noob so would like some guidance.

The internet is full of reviews and comments, it just gets more confusing the more you read. So I guess I should post my points here and get a direct answer if possible.

I like to have a system that caters to both, movies and audio but I would say I lean more towards music maybe 70/30. I hope this is the right forum to address this. I am thinking of upgrading my system and would it to be more musical but also good for action movies.

I currently have:
- BW 683 S2
- BW HTM1 S2
- SVS PB2000
- Yamaha 1060 AVR
- Oppo 203

Although it does everything OK but I would like to improve audio quality. I am looking at the following:
- BW 702 S2
- BW HTM71 S2
- Keeping my SVS and Oppo
- Arcam AVR550 or Rotel RAP1580

I've listened to Revels, Harbeths but I still prefer the front sounding BWs. For Amps, I read that these 2 as the some of the most musical ones.

I am also not sure if I should keep my Yamaha and plug in a better musical amp. So I can use both Amps for different things. Some have adviced that I either go for movies or audio, but I like having both.

Advice appreciated.... Thanks.

If you have the room and budget, why not have both an AVR and a 2-channel system?

Yes, the Rotel RA-1592 integrated is really good and will sound really good on the new B&W 702 S2. Good choice.

But as for the avr I would upgrade from your Yamaha receiver. I would seriously looking into either the Anthem or the Arcam AVR550 or the new Marantz SR8012 for your home theater.
The Yamaha avr is not that good.