Before you buy your next AV receiver!

[Johnny Vinyl]

Found this on CNET today. Thought it was interesting enough to share!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-99....html?hhTest=1

[JTK]

Originally Posted by John72953

Found this on CNET today. Thought it was interesting enough to share!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-99....html?hhTest=1

Nice find.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=738511/

That thread dovetails nicely with that article.

[JasonR]

Good article, thanks for the read.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by JTK

Nice find.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=738511/

That thread dovetails nicely with that article.

Agreed! And thanks!

[meckel]

Good read, love the last line of the article.

[Heart&Soul]

Put your money into the speakers.

[Intamin]

I agree with this article. I compared the yamaha rx-v663 with an Integra 7.8 on Thursday, and while I could hear a very slight difference, it wasn't much considering the price difference.

[allstar780]

i agree and disagree with the article... if you're paying for features then its not really worth it... but if you're paying for wattage... the example he uses... 90 vs. 120... with my 90 watts per channel receiver i can do 117 decibels with my tower speakers, if i was to upgrade to 120 watts I could do i believe 124.... which is of course much, much louder

[RUR]

^^^^^
Guess it depends on whether you want louder audio or better quality audio.

[The Guardian]

There are a lot of other things a good amp can do that a bad one can't - it's not just about max sustainable power, and for receivers it's not just about the features. There are also the peaks and how quickly it can get to them... ie it's really quiet and all of a sudden really loud. There are more subtle things too like the quality of the sound.

But again it's the sort of thing where at least 98% of people don't know what they're missing. Even my receiver is somewhat lacking in these areas, and these cheap Denons sound worse. I would have to get up into the 2800 series of Denons to have better sound.

[allstar780]

Originally Posted by RUR

^^^^^
Guess it depends on whether you want louder audio or better quality audio.

true... but if i went for a 120 watt per channel receiver I would go high end... but my 90 watts suits me just fine because 120 dB is too loud anyways and I usually have the receiver around half volume

[Stephan.klose]

I totally agree with that article. I have Vienna Acoustics speakers. (cost for the 5.1 set about $6000-$7000).

I now have that onkyo 605. Before I bought it I took the 805 and 705 home to test. There really wasn't that much of a difference. That's why I opted for the smaller model. Even though it's really a cheap one compared to the speakers. It used to be connected to the Yamaha 3090 the first AC-3 Receiver from yamaha. I bought it back then together with the speakers.

[donutman925]

Originally Posted by John72953

Found this on CNET today. Thought it was interesting enough to share!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-99....html?hhTest=1

This seems like its gonna be a sweet receiver for the money. Looks like it may be my next. very interesting read. thanks

[silversnake]

Originally Posted by donutman925

This seems like its gonna be a sweet receiver for the money. Looks like it may be my next. very interesting read. thanks

+1. Thanks for the link OP

[prerich]

Originally Posted by John72953

Found this on CNET today. Thought it was interesting enough to share!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-99....html?hhTest=1

This is the very reason I advised Beta Man to use his Marantz receiver as a preamp so he can have separates! Are you out there Beta?!!! I'm using a Yamaha RX-V663 but I have 165 and 200 watt power amps connected to this system (and one 250 watt beast when I get my M-80).
No need for an expensive receiver if your going to use it as a pre/pro. (unless you need more features like THX, better eq's ect...)

[mx2004]

There's lots of good reasons to buy a higher priced receiver, among them:

• increased musical ability (i.e. are you connecting a high(ish) end turntable, sacd or cd player via analogue?)
• higher quality amplification
• higher power to drive more 'difficult' speakers
• more 'grace' to the sound if you need to play really loud and you're not driving the amplifier to its limits

It is true that the law of diminishing returns will kick in, and large increases in price will bring smaller increases in sound quality. In the end, you and your ears are the best judge - if you think the improvement is worth it then do it.

When I bought my Denon THX amp some years ago, I had previously been using Meridian amplification with one of those clever Yamaha add-on Pro Logic decoders for the Home Theatre side. I wanted DD & DTS at the time, as my DVD collection was growing. The cheaper receivers I listened to were fine with movies but didn't press my buttons with music. I ended up with the AVC-A1D (European equivalent of the AVR-5700 I believe) as I felt the movie performance was wonderful, and it was the first amplifier that delivered in Audiophile terms to compare with my old Meridian. This sort of finesse with stereo music, I think, costs money.

I think it all depends what you've had in the past and what your expectations are... my advice would be to not buy based on spec sheets but to listen at length, with a variety of music and movies. Listen for subtle cues and atmospherics as well as the explosive stuff. Try your chosen combination of speakers and receiver together if you can. See if you can book a demonstration room so you can deliberate in private. Take your time and trust your own ears.