Best Of

I'm not saying Denon and Marantz receivers won't run a full home theater system, but am saying most receivers alone won't get the best out of the Reserve speakers above a certain point. Pioneer Elite receivers with Class D amps were an exception but the two I still have don't really sound all that great to me by themselves for anything but movies.

Anyway, the main topic here is high quality amplification for stereo listening enjoyment rather than watching a movie in surround sound. I do agree that B&K amplification was way ahead of most because they cared about their customers in that regard. They went out of business not because of their amplifiers but because of not being able to bring their own processors to market and compete. Parasound learned that lesson before it was too late for them. I ran through a few B&K pieces and really enjoyed them but once the company was gone so was my B&K gear.

FWIW, I've been tinkering with home theaters for a bit since I was a youngster back in the days of Dolby Matrix surround in the 1980s. I had an excellent high-current Akai integrated amp back then that broke after a couple years and no longer had repair parts available and the company offered me a brand spanking new comparably priced "home theater" receiver as a replacement. The integrated amp had no problem powering my main speakers and sounded a whole lot better than the receiver and the receiver had a habit of blowing out the tweeters on my speakers. Fortunately just needed a trip to Radio Shack for replacements back then. But, lesson learned long long ago.