30 Minute Decision for Reciever

sk1939

I need help to make a decision for a new receiver that has to be ordered in the next 30 minutes (have to have it by tomorrow). I like them all equally, but have no idea which to pick. The source will be strictly two channel, a DVD player, and a PC, both via DAC, and the speakers are TSi 200's, and a PSW12. I'm leaning toward the 3490 at the moment. Help?

Choices:

HK 3390
HK 3490
Onkyo TX-8050
Denon DRA297

EndersShadow

HK 3490. The Onkyo has built in streaming for Pandora, etc, but if your using a PC as our source your fine.

P.S. I have the HK 3490 + Monitor 60's connected to my PC via Coaxial and like it lots. The PSW125 will be moving from downstairs up eventually.

The HK weighs more and they are known for having not fibbing as much on their RMS per channel.

cnh

I haven't heard anything but the HKs, of those, definitely the 3490.

The Denon is the weakest (power-wise) of the bunch so I'd eliminate it.

But the new Onkyo seems to have the 'most' features. Something you might want to think about...like USB ports and other digital media friendly options.

I guess I'm not helping (the 3490 or the Onkyo if you want more up to date features--that's a brand new model for them).

BTW, your Onkyo TX-6500 is probably better sounding than both! Great vintage Onkyo!

cnh

EndersShadow

cnh wrote: »

But the new Onkyo seems to have the 'most' features. Something you might want to think about...like USB ports and other digital media friendly options

Yeah I eliminated the Onkyo as he said he would use a PC as a source via a DAC, so most of those digital freindly things on the AVR will be done at the PC level (iTunes, Pandora, etc).


To the OP, what DAC are you using? You could just use the one in the HK since it does coaxial and optical, if you need to save a couple bucks. Not sure how good a DAC its got though...

TECHNOKID

Hk 3490 is definitely a sound choice...

cnh

I have an HK 3490 and the DACs on that unit aren't bad for an economy computer set-up. I was rather surprised by it in fact.

cnh

sk1939

The 6500 is built like a tank, and with 100W of true power, not exactly a lightweight. There's no way I'm parting with it though, it's the only receiver I've used that can power most anything I throw at it. There's a funny/sad story behind it actually. My Uncle (the original owner) gave it to me during his divorce to keep it out of the hands of his now ex-wife. I also got a Sanyo computer controlled tape deck, and some sealed Sanyo? 4 or 5 way speakers which are around here somewhere....

I'm more worried about sound quality rather than features, this is for my office rather than my home if that makes a difference.

The DAC I have is a Gefen D/A convertor, although I'm looking into a real DAC at some point, probably the one with the Wolfson chip from S.Korea (forget the name). I also have a JBL turntable that will get added at some point, but not immediately.

It seems like the consensus is the 3490?

cnh

The new Onkyos and HKs do sound different (I own a BA Onkyo AVR). To me the Onkyo is a bit brighter than the HK--very good for HT but the HK might be better for music. I don't know, though, if this would apply to Onkyo's stereo receivers?

cnh

sk1939

I have no idea. If I use the DAC on the HK, it will need to have 2 digital inputs but does it? Or should I just connect something via analogue inputs? The Onkyo sounds nice as far as features, but I'm not sure if I will use them all? I think I'll get the 3490, if I don't like it I guess I can always send it back or resell it.

EndersShadow

sk1939 wrote: »

If I use the DAC on the HK, it will need to have 2 digital inputs but does it? Or should I just connect something via analogue inputs?

The 3490 has 1 coaxial input and 1 optical, so you have a total of 2

If you connect something to it via analog then the source is doing the decoding. That works if the DAC's in the source are better than the DAC's on the HK.

Try it both ways and see which you like.

I personally plan on getting a DAC for my computer (my ONLY source on the HK 3490 system) so I can send Asynchronus USB to it to get a really nice bitrate since I have all my stuff in FLAC on my computer.

sk1939

That will do just fine then.

I'm really quite bad about the quality of some of my music. Most of the recent additions (last 3 or four years) are at least 320 mp3, but much of the older stuff is down towards 128-160 (mid 90's acquisitions so space was precious on a 10 gig HDD).

sk1939

Last question, I have an Onkyo C-7030 as my Cd player, is it decent or should I upgrade to something better? I really only want to drop no more than $200-250 on a CD player though.

polkfarmboy

sk1939 wrote: »

Last question, I have an Onkyo C-7030 as my Cd player, is it decent or should I upgrade to something better? I really only want to drop no more than $200-250 on a CD player though.

Your money could be better spent towards a DAC and you could use the onkyo as a transport .DAC's will usually beat out any cd player equal to their value by many times .

There is some great threads and shootouts of budget dac's on the forum