need some advice on receiver selection

[sonic_debauchery]

After reading the posts, i would like to say that i found an sc55 on amazon for 1099. SC57 for 1499. The beauty is that you wouldn't have to buy a power amplifier or amplifiers.

Whoever said they are overpriced should compare getting a good class A/B receiver and a 9 channel power amplifier. Gonna be more expensive. An emotiva XPA 5 899; XPA3 699; XPA1 849 [There is a sale on emotiva power amps right now] to equal 9 channels driven. Pretty good price for the Pioneer.

Here is the conclusion to the review of the sc57. Remember the difference between the 55 and 57 is very minimal.

Conclusion
If you can get past the less than user-friendly GUI and instruction manual and the unintuitive first-time setup and make it a point to tap the smartphone app, you’ll find that using the SC-57 is a pleasure. And while Pioneer’s MCACC setup and room correction software may have an ungainly name, its effectiveness is impressive, even transformative.

This AVR’s nine-channel, three-zone capabilities (including HD component video available to Zone 2) offer unparalleled setup flexibility. If your speakers can be biamped, I’d bet the sonic improvement would be noticeable. The system’s somewhat dark character will work better with speakers that are either bright or relatively flat on top and less well with already dark speakers that tend roll off the highs. But whatever your speakers’ tonal character, there should be more than sufficient power to drive them to their full dynamic potential.

As an old stalwart, I still prefer a good Class A/B amp. But the Pioneer Elite SC-57’s Class D amp is so good that in some ways it’s more a matter of different than better or worse. I can understand why some might prefer its sonic character. In the end, the SC-57 offers a lot of everything—including great sound—at a very reasonable price


Finally here is the link to the entire article for you to read.

http://www.hometheater.com/content/p...eceiver-page-2