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My Favorite Receivers And Why


ka7niq

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14 hours ago, ka7niq said:

I hear absolutely little if any difference between this receiver, and high end solid state preamps

 

I've been saying this for years.  ..Modern day amps/ integrateds and receivers that are engineered to be linear will sound pretty much alike so long as they aren't driven into distortion and these days that would include pretty much ALL such components..  Nowadays THD, S/R, Channel Separation, etc - even in cheap AVRs - is cheaply accomplished and exceeds the threshold of our ability to hear differences.

 

My guess?  ..A vintage Onkyo Receiver?

Feature you'll never go w/o?  ..Tone controls

 

Personally, I'll NEVER again buy an integrated that lacks tone controls or a Mono switch.

 

Maybe this??

 

EDIT: oops, I shoulda read the whole thread.  I see you’ve already revealed your answer.  

 

1291188546_ScreenShot2022-06-18at6_35_44AM.thumb.jpg.7a7d8e1fd26fc72fc01c95f9151560bd.jpg

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1 hour ago, ODS123 said:

 

 

Feature you'll never go w/o?  ..Tone controls

 

Personally, I'll NEVER again buy an integrated that lacks tone controls or a Mono switch.

 

Maybe this??

 

EDIT: oops, I shoulda read the whole thread.  I see you’ve already revealed your answer.  

 

1291188546_ScreenShot2022-06-18at6_35_44AM.thumb.jpg.7a7d8e1fd26fc72fc01c95f9151560bd.jpg

One of the BEST Receivers I have ever owned was a Pioneer. It was only Dolby Digital, and no HDMI either, but it had Bass and Treble controls only, no equalizer. But, it had 16 presets for the Tone Controls! So, you could set preset one with Bass up 1 and Treble up 1, and preset 2 could be Bass up 2 and Treble up 2, then preset 3 could be Bass up 1 and treble down 1 for instance, and so on, and so on. Then, as you listened to music, you simply went through all the preset memories by remote control, until you got the very best sound.

It was very very seldom that any piece of music sounded better, with no tone correction provided. I was almost always able to improve on the sound, with some combination of the tone controls!

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2 hours ago, Full Range said:


I think you will need a crow bar to pry this unit from Dave @Dave1291


 

The best receiver I have heard so far is ( and I still own my unit ) 

JVC RX- DP10 

 

 

Although it’s an old classic model before digital

My favourite tuner receiver is the Sansui TU717 

And here it is in my system 

 

53-BB67-D1-6-D13-4-A94-B735-5-D696-FF1-C

OMG, the Top Of The Line JVC! I Had one of those, a very impressive great sounding device! I also had the top of the line Sherwood, the one with the Trinnov Processor. It had an awesome sounding amp in it, but had serious HDMI Problems, so I sold it.

 

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I've never owned one of these... and don't know how well it measures, etc..  But still, audio was more fun back in those days.  ..Yes, the buttons, sliders, knobs, etc.. got rather scratchy rather quickly, but the flexibility and adjustability was great.

 

486766125_ScreenShot2022-06-18at8_09_16AM.thumb.jpg.9fbb9779dc19bfaa3550c16e6411a2c6.jpg

 

compare that with today...  ...There are high dollar integrateds that don't even have balance control.  Ugh..

 

 

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24 minutes ago, ODS123 said:

I've never owned one of these... and don't know how well it measures, etc..  But still, audio was more fun back in those days.  ..Yes, the buttons, sliders, knobs, etc.. got rather scratchy rather quickly, but the flexibility and adjustability was great.

 

486766125_ScreenShot2022-06-18at8_09_16AM.thumb.jpg.9fbb9779dc19bfaa3550c16e6411a2c6.jpg

 

compare that with today...  ...There are high dollar integrateds that don't even have balance control.  Ugh..

 

 

I owned one of those too, back in the early 80's. Loved the Scope! 

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My favorite receiver, and I still have it, is a Marantz 4400 Quad Receiver that I purchased new in 1975 at the Navy Exchange in Yokosuka, Japan.

 

Edit to add: To me, the Marantz always had the purest and pleasing sound of any receiver I ever owned. I used it with a pair of Sansui SP-3500 front speakers and Sansui SF-2 rear speakers. In 1988 I purchased a Carver CT-7 Tuner/Preamp and Carver M1.0t Power Amplifier and started using it with my SP-3500’s and eventually my Klipsch KLF-20’s that I bought in 1998. I still have all of this stuff except for the Sansui speakers. Here is a scanned picture of the Marantz and Sansui speaker setup in 1979.

 

1324628669_1979Virginia_0025Sharpened.thumb.jpg.be36042d3c87cff12e4e5eec3dc8d7ba.jpg

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17 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

Receivers might have a place in a gimmicky home theatre setting. That’s about it really.

 

You make the point about the thing weighing 50 lbs. You have 5,6,7 or more channels of amplification, a preamp, a processor, and a tuner in one box. So 50 lbs is impressive for all that? 

All I can say is enjoy if you think it sounds good. I’m sure it doesn’t sound terrible, but it just depends on what you are trying to achieve.


 

That is not me on the video - if that is what you are referring to ? 

I just searched for my JVC model to find more information and came across that video and thought to add it to my post 

 

The JVC RX- DP10 - was an integral part of a home theatre system and at a flick of a setting it drove the 2 channel system 

It was coupled to 7 custom made speaker cabinets that housed Lowther full range drivers 

 

The Lowthers are super sensitive and very accurate and I gotta say that the amp performed beautifully 

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Always with the receiver hate in here. 😆

 

Demo’d way more expensive components before buying the MAC7200 Receiver - Solid state separates, tube separates, hybrid integrateds, SS integrateds. The Cornwall IVs definitely aren’t missing their mid-range, I promise. Soundstage is like a freaking 3D hologram. Currently rocking the MoFi Master Tracker moving magnet cartridge. Looking to make the jump to MC with the MoFi Ultra Gold…and then will need to hit one button to switch from MM to MC on my Gimmicky receiver 👍.

D37CBA6B-0324-4441-B30D-3AAA46BB6FCF.png

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D2A13485-CB9D-4E33-95FB-9759C2C37A87.jpeg

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1 hour ago, salbake said:

Always with the receiver hate in here. 😆

 

Demo’d way more expensive components before buying the MAC7200 Receiver - Solid state separates, tube separates, hybrid integrateds, SS integrateds. The Cornwall IVs definitely aren’t missing their mid-range, I promise. Soundstage is like a freaking 3D hologram. Currently rocking the MoFi Master Tracker moving magnet cartridge. Looking to make the jump to MC with the MoFi Ultra Gold…and then will need to hit one button to switch from MM to MC on my Gimmicky receiver 👍.

D37CBA6B-0324-4441-B30D-3AAA46BB6FCF.png

170A214F-A3F5-4DA9-B7DC-C3A63B15A425.png

D2A13485-CB9D-4E33-95FB-9759C2C37A87.jpeg

Receivers of today have come a long way, and will easily beat many separate components, unless you have speakers that are extremely power hungry, or a crazy load. In the better receivers, the amp/preamp are designed to work well together, where in separate components the components MIGHT work well, or they may not play well together.   

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1 hour ago, ka7niq said:

Receivers of today have come a long way, and will easily beat many separate components, unless you have speakers that are extremely power hungry, or a crazy load. In the better receivers, the amp/preamp are designed to work well together, where in separate components the components MIGHT work well, or they may not play well together.   

 

Not true. 

 

The big stick in the mud with any preamp, receiver or integrated is the potentiometer. Some better integrated amps and preamps have constant impedance attenuators, but I guarantee that no receiver has anything other than a cheap ALPS pot. The attenuator is the heart and soul of any preamp and you can clearly hear the difference when you go with something better. Receivers are built to a price point and cannot feasibly include the better parts of higher quality separates or integrated amps. It's just the economy of scale. They are mass produced and designed to be feature rich for the non discerning buyer. That's ok, there is a demographic for that. But high performance audio it ain't....

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38 minutes ago, Shakeydeal said:

 

Not true. 

 

The big stick in the mud with any preamp, receiver or integrated is the potentiometer. Some better integrated amps and preamps have constant impedance attenuators, but I guarantee that no receiver has anything other than a cheap ALPS pot. The attenuator is the heart and soul of any preamp and you can clearly hear the difference when you go with something better. Receivers are built to a price point and cannot feasibly include the better parts of higher quality separates or integrated amps. It's just the economy of scale. They are mass produced and designed to be feature rich for the non discerning buyer. That's ok, there is a demographic for that. But high performance audio it ain't....

Back 80 years ago, stepped attenuators were the industry-standard for broadcast, recording mixers, etc. . In that era, they didn't have the technology to build good audio-taper potentiometers that were rugged enough for "industrial" ab/use. So stepped attenuators were the order of the day. Stepped attenuators have more recently seen popularity in very specialized applications where precise gain or attenuation setting is required. Like mastering or test gear, etc.

IMHO, other modern applications of stepped attenuators are audiophool territory where it just looks/feels/smells "cool" without significant benefit over quality modern potentiometers. Two major downsides to stepped attenuators are lack of continuous control (that is why they are called "stepped') and considerable extra cost for no apparent practical benefit. YMMV.

 

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and considerable extra cost for no apparent practical benefit. YMMV.

 

 Unless you count that pesky sound quality. But it’s not just about stepped attenuators only, it’s about constant impedance which is very important and very easy to hear the improvement.

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I only have Vintage gear and have been partial to Harman Kardon and Kenwood.

I'm currently driving my CW II's with an HK330b as a pre-amp and HK870 amp.  It sounds super good!

I blew up the HK825 pre-amp a couple weeks ago, and when I get it back, it really better be good to replace the 330!

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3 hours ago, Shakeydeal said:

and considerable extra cost for no apparent practical benefit. YMMV.

 

 Unless you count that pesky sound quality. But it’s not just about stepped attenuators only, it’s about constant impedance which is very important and very easy to hear the improvement.

I have had several 2 ch preamps with stepped attenuators, in the past. IMHO, the thing I liked the most about them is absolute repeatability for blind listening tests. In listening tests where you are comparing different products, exact listening levels are critical. Notice I said BLIND listening tests ?

There are very good reasons for blind listening tests, so your mind does not enter the equation. The Human Mind is a very powerful thing, and sometimes if we expect to hear differences, these "differences" disappear, once we can't see what we are listening to, LOL

IOW, the differences were not really there in the first place, but were generated by our minds.

 

 

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