xtreme4099 Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Wait what ? Upgraded to HK 354 from Panasonic SA-XR57 and the panny still sounds better? Long time viewer, first time poster. I have an all Klipsch 7.1 setup, 2 Front Klipsch Forte II's, Academy Center, Surround Quartets, and Surround Back Quartets, and a SVS PB12/Plus for a subwoofer, people kept saying that klipsch's need warmth to sound their best, although awed at my Panny's sound, it sounded somewhat bright, but it was crystalline sounding with most of the music i threw at it, including most all the blu rays, shrill maybe, but about 80 percent of the tunes and movies sounded very good and musically emotive with the klipsch's, my quaf with it was that it didnt have enough HDMI inputs and did only 1080i, and a friend kept saying you havent heard your setup unless you have a nice warm sounding amp, reading reviews about various amps under 600, i looked around and it seemed like the HK 354 fit the bill, some say a rebranded marantz, a step down from tubes if your looking for tube warmth, bought it, waited the week, got, turned the box upside down getting it out, set it up, yes it had its issues right out of the box, fixed it with the latest firmware, but it was the sound I was interested in. Impressions It sounded muffled, things that i had were clearly heard in the panny sounded muffled in comparison with this HK, blu rays, like cloverfield, kung fu panda, transformers didnt have that twang and zipp that i was so familiar with, yes it had punch, but what is this warmth people kept talking about, it seemed more euphonic than real detail, Im a headphone afficianado as well, have a pair of Sennheiser 580s and Grado HP1's the cheaper hi fi for some, its like a small dose of whats out there in expensive speaker land and its given me the chance to try all kinds of so called headphone amps from SS to Tubes, i have various friends that send me gear to try out, I've heard some crappy tube amps that have been called euphonic and magical, and ive heard some fabulous tube amps with real detail, maybe im more of the detail type, something that gives you that sense of REAL without etching it in your brain, full bodied with presence and treble, and treble is where i live, i think ive heard that mentioned here somehwere, maybe thats what im looking for without the negative connotations of brightness and sibilance, hmm.. I think its gonna cost me to find that again. In the meantime Ive also had a chance to swap in some non standard power cables into both the of the receivers, with great effect, the panny had a c7 connection, i got an c7 to iec adapter for it from element cable, i dont care what people say but a simple upgrade in cables even if its a cheapy power cable like ps audio's 12 gauge power punch cable, it does make a difference, i like it in the panny better than in the HK, i have a friend coming over sometime this week with some new power cables to hook up to the HK, to see how they play together, silver rhodium ends with a high purity copper cables, a diy effort with hopefully good results, i liked the effect in the previous rhodium cable he brought did to my other panny, oh yeah did i mention i had two of them, i have a 7.1 JBL HLS setup for my PC hooked up to another Panny 57, not quite klipsch's but it was cheap fellas, and they were purchased before the great horn gods fashioned some good sound into me and made my main theater setup, which will probably be upgraded at some point with some Crite related upgraditis that everyone gets here once in a while, anyways we'll see what happens with power cable upgrades, maybe i have to retrain my ear, whatever that means, maybe im just ranting, hahaha, Over and out -Sergio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vital Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Well it's all subjective. You would probably love a Yamaha receiver then. To me the HK sounds better than Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha but once again it's all subjective. I have no experience with a Panasonic receiver. If you really like it better then I'm sure that HK will sell very fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtreme4099 Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Hmmm... The new panny bx-500 s upsampling features are nill but it does support 1080p, has more inputs, more wattage, remains digital and has slightly warmer sounding mosfets to take the edge off, http://www.jr.com/panasonic/pe/PAN_SABX500/#productTabDetails - I'm going to try to tweak the HK's sound further, i like what i hear, soundstage wise, the warmth is nice, but with a little more top end sparkle it would be just T*Ts, we'll see what happens with the power cables and the conditioner my friends bringing over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eskimo1 Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I hope this doesn't come across wrong... You've got quite a bit of cash invested in your setup, easily over 10 grand... You're even trying different power cables in the quest for good sound. And yet, you want to put not only all the processing requirements, but also all the amplification requirements into one box, and pay less than $600. $575 will get you an Emotiva UPA-7 amplifier, which will wake up those speakers faster than speed-guzzling 4 red bulls. Once you've relieved the pre-amp of its amplification duties, you'll also find you can save a few hundred by going to the HK AVR 254, which is the same pre-amp, just without the nearly-worthless ipod dock. Honestly, if the absolute clearest, more revealing sound is your thing, the Emo MPS-2 might be a better fit, but it's a little more pricy. My point is that receivers are a compromise... and someone like you needs real amplifiers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seven77 Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 It sounded muffled, things that i had were clearly heard in the panny sounded muffled in comparison...didnt have that twang and zipp that i was so familiar with, yes it had punch, but what is this warmth people kept talking about, it seemed more euphonic than real detail warmth doesnt have twang and zipp, thats why they call it warmth and euphonic is the antithesis of detail Id run that receiver for a week or so before passing any judgment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtreme4099 Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 I plan to, with a couple tweaks in the works, good old burn in, and I in no way spent 10k on my setup.. Forte II - 400 bux Quartets Surrounds - 250 Quartets SurroundBacks - 200 Academy Center- 380 HK 354 - 516 shipped Panny 57 - 170 SVS PB12/Plus - 500 U can thank craigslist for my Klipsch finds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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