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Just finished auditioning some recievers, but the horror....the horror...


elgrillo

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I love B&K. Now if only I could find someone to give me a 50% discount.

frankie thats not a bad idea with the 325 and the parasound. Which parasound amp do you currently own? How would you think that the parasound compares to the 7200 amp? The problem I have with the 7200 is it is lacking a little with digital inputs. With just the current compnents that I am going to connect to it, I will fill it up. I don't want to have to use the front digital input. Maybe I am spoiled with my cheapie yamaha cuz it has a plethora of optical and coaxial inputs. Lastly the looks on the HK isn't the greatest. I have fallen in love with pioneer elites. They are my female version of shannon elizabeth. Man o man is she yummy.

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ELite is absolutely the best looking stuff out there but I want something that'll last until I'm ready to give it up. Not until the first repair in the first year. I'll take Yamaha any day but I'm ready to move on and replace my tube amp and hybrid pre amp. I think the B&K is the only worth while receiver for me to look at. Even if I do get a used one.9.gif

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Just curious, why must the receiver be 7.1 and not 6.1? Essentially, they're the same thing. The rear channels for both 6.1 and 7.1 play the same thing. IMO, it seems pointless to have two speakers playing the same thing when one will do just fine.

BTW, out of all the receivers mentioned thus far, I would go with the NAD T762. I have one and it's fantastic. Nice warm sound, lots of power, preout/amp-in loops, HDCD, all of the latest digital formats except for DTS 24/96, what more could you ask for?

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B&K are the absolute kings of the receiver world... if you can affoard them. I have a stereo preamp made by them, and it is built like a tank, even considering it's smallish size (only about 17 by 10). thick aluminum front plate, all metal body. personally, they're the only receivers I'd ever own (I have now gone the ruote of seperates for my reference system). sorry, but I really have to push the idea of seperates on you. I'm aware they are slightly out of your price range, but I would really urge waiting a bit longer and looking into a Rotel system, or even a Rotel receiver, as I feel that would outperform the denon, onkyo, or hk, especially in terms of build quality. as for the choice between HK, Denon, Onkyo, or Pioneer? personally I really don't like either HK or Denon (no offense to the thousands of owners here) so I would go with the onkyo or pioneer. though I'm slightly leaning towards the onkyo because I have one of their dvd players in my ht, and it's built very solidly, plus I've heard the pioneer elites have problems with over heating and shutting down in the middle of movies from many people, even salesmen.

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Prodj, I would like to go for seperates but ya its the price that is a killer. You reccomend rotel seperates, but I have read some issues about how they are bit too bright with klipsch. Have you found this to be true? Is the rotel seperates about the cheapest you can go with seperates and still exceed a recievers quality?

AS far as onkyo as I stated in my original post it was a bit disapointing when compared against the HK. So Onkyo for me isn't really an option. Hey out of curiousity for you rich people, what would be the better of the 2 recievers? Sunfire Ultimate or the B&K 507? THey both go for about 3K. The one big plus that I would give for the sunfire is that it has the firewire connection on the back and it looks pretty sweet. Thoughts?

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On 6/10/2003 11:11:58 PM prodj101 wrote:

plus I've heard the pioneer elites have problems with over heating and shutting down in the middle of movies from many people, even salesmen.

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I don't think I've ever seen a Pioneer HT receiver that didn't have shutdown problems - Elite or otherwise.

Only Pioneer I'd ever buy would be a big old SX series stereo amp. One of the best SS stereo receivers ever built.

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I just used a rotel amp yesterday downtown, and while it wasn't with klipsch speakers, I thought it was rather nice sounding myself. personally, I think even the cheapest seperates systems will out perform a high end receiver. the main advantages they have are seperate chassis so you have better component isolation, and more room to work with so the manufacturer has more options as far as transformers, capacitors, and so forth, the other big advantage is the seperate power supplies. in a receiver you're running a processor, preamp, tuner, and amplifier all off of one powersupply, which can hamper the performance of each function. in seperates systems you don't have this problem, so you can get better dynamic headroom, and cleaner sound. I've never talked to anyone who went the seperates route and looked back. As for the B&K vs. Sunfire question, I'd have to go with the B&K. I have had good luck with them, and I have never heard a bad word about them, plus, the build quality is great. You can go the seperates route for under 2 grand with rotel, but there are many other cheaper solutions. I believe HK makes a 5 channel power amp for around 500 bucks. you could probably find a similarily priced pre amp to go along with it.

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This may not be a great analogy but it seems to me that the receiver vs. separates argument is similar to the 16 guage vs.8 guage wire argument. I mean no disrespect to the various opinions here but can it really sound THAT much better to warrant having 2 boxes instead of one? Maybe its just my ignorance since I have never A/B'd the two side by side. Another thing that I find a little curious. We talk about build quality all the time but what does that really mean? Is that the way the receiver feels when you touch it? I probably actually physically put a hand on my HK less than once per month. I really dont care what it feels like as long as it performs as expected and has the features I care about. Just some thoughts.

Dan

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On 6/11/2003 4:09:14 PM Danartdis wrote:

I mean no disrespect to the various opinions here but can it really sound THAT much better to warrant having 2 boxes instead of one? Just some thoughts.

Dan

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I would say a big yes. To me the Anthem gear is twice as good as the Denon 4802 I had. In hindsight yes, it was worth the extra money.

Not only do I get an extra power supply runing separate boxes, but my pre has two power supplies. One for running the buttons and the front display and video circuits, and another for the audio section. At this point I can't see ever wanting to go back to an integrated.

On build quality, personally I run things manually (w/o the remote) often.

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Of the B&K line up the avr-202 is the best buy at just under $900 used. Unfortunately, I just realized that it doesn't have Pro Logic II. This is a bad development. I'm not spending $2500-$3000 for a new avr-505. It looks like Denon or HK will win by default.

Denon seems to be the next logical choice for me because it is also upgradeable for future for future technology just as the B&K is.

Now I don't know which way to go. 8.gif

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WOW,this things all over the map.It really does come down to your preference.While some would say x is a beautiful avr,I think it looks like a cheapo.While some say x is best sounding,I have found them very unreliable.While some would say x has got everything,I found it lacking critical features.Your initial post was correct,you really need to have them at home for a real demo,I did.We all have different taste and thats the best way to know what yours is,good luck!

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You are absolutely correct Fish..

This is becoming a monumental task for me. Now not only do I have recievers to look into, but seperates are starting to creep into the equation. This is getting to be such a nightmare that I am thinking of just sticking with what I have 15.gif But the damn upgrade bug just keeps nibbling on my ***. Why wont that thing die.

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FWIW, this is my plan - you may end up heading this direction, or not - but it's worth thinking about.

1) Purchase a modestly priced integrated receiver with 6.1 channel preouts (I'm zoned in on the Yamaha HTR-5660) with a fair amount of power (in this case, 85wpc)

2) As funds become available, purchase (or in my case, build) tube amps for your mains, rears, f/r centers, and possibly monoblocks for your sub.

3) Upgrade to a really top-notch preamp, and donate the old integrated unit to a poor soundless room elsewhere in your house.

Net result - get precisely what you want, without having to go without sound in the interim.

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I went through 2 plans like that. I am not really willing to compromise my 2 channel, but HT is not as important to me.

I was using all seperates for music only, then added an external Yamaha DSP unit when I went to pro-logic. My Adcom Preamp had a processor in switch that made it easy to bypass.

When I went to digital, the processor loop was not going to work, so I decided to go with a receiver. I demoed the Onkyo at home & found that the direct setting worked very well to feed my external amp, so I now use that as the preamp in direct mode for music. The Onkyo also has an external amp in, so while I feed the front channels out, I feed the sub back in to the internal amps (105wpc) & use them for my 2 subs.

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frankie thats not a bad idea with the 325 and the parasound. Which parasound amp do you currently own? How would you think that the parasound compares to the 7200 amp? The problem I have with the 7200 is it is lacking a little with digital inputs. With just the current compnents that I am going to connect to it, I will fill it up. I don't want to have to use the front digital input. Maybe I am spoiled with my cheapie yamaha cuz it has a plethora of optical and coaxial inputs. Lastly the looks on the HK isn't the greatest. I have fallen in love with pioneer elites. They are my female version of shannon elizabeth. Man o man is she yummy. ----------------

I have a Parsound HCA-855A with my AVR325. It's more than enough power for any Klipsch speakers. I don't know how it would compare to the 7200 cause I've never heard it. However, it's sound is much more full and dynamic than any receiver I've had in my system. A few of the better receivers I've A/B'd it against would be the Yamaha RX-V995, Pioneer Elite VSX-35TX, HK AVR520, and HK AVR325. The Parasound was by far the superior amplifier(as should be expected). I also know of one member of HTF who has an HK AVR-8000 but prefers using the same 85w Parasound amp I have.

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I auditioned the B&K 307 and the Denon 4802 last night. I knew B&K was good but until last night I didn't know how good. The B&K is definitely in a class of its own because the Denon couldn't come close. The Denon did sound good but why settle for mediocrity when you can have greatness.16.gif

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