Paul B

Okay, so I'm an old dude moving out of his big office of 25 years into a smaller, kinda hidden office that will be where I play out the fourth quarter. The kids are grown, I gave up being an audiophile decades ago and have Sonos hanging everywhere in my life — but this fourth quarter move is feeling old school, which, for me, means two brands: McIntosh and Klipsch. My office is about 12 feet wide by 20 feet long, not big, not small. But definitely narrow, it does have high ceilings, about 12 feet I'd guess. There is a conference table in the room, chairs, a wall of glass (covered with curtains) and lots of hard and soft stuff for things to bounce off of, good and bad. The office will be soundproofed in the walls and ceiling, hearing loss requires inappropriately higher volumes. I want a bone simple 2 channel system; an integrated amp and two speakers, connected by a real wire. Audio-in will be Spotify via my computer, that's one massive tech convenience I can't give up. Purely for the old school look I want floor standing speakers, either the Hersey 4s or the Forte 3, which are utterly badass. Small space, big speaker — but this is the last dance. My problem is the amp, I really don't want to spend $5k on a McIntosh integrated amplifier (MA 5300). What was it they told us in the 70s, "spend your money on the speakers." The speakers will be placed in the far corner of the office apart from each other. Siting on the floor they will be below the narrow conference table and I'm sitting at the other end of the office, but my sense is there's enough sonic horsepower to fill the room so I don't need to worry about a clean shot from the grill to my ears. Obviously I could hang a pair of Play 5s from the ceiling with a sub, but I really don't want to do that. So here are my questions: For that small space which speakers do you like best, the Hersey or the Fortes? Or does it matter. Certainly the Fortes sit higher so that might be better given all the stuff in the room but if this is massive overkill to the point its stupid, I don't want to do that. What integrated amp? I don't want to use a receiver because I don't want all the buttons and programming, I want a big *** magnet. And I really don't want to spend $5k on it. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Finally, any tips on my Spotify in? I know that's not ideal, is there a cleaner way to get the high band (their best quality setting) Spotify streaming into the amp as opposed to running it through my Mac with a USBc out. This is an area I'm pretty clueless on. That's it. Blessed problems to have. pb