onkyo tx-nr709

DracoAmericanus

I picked up this AVR a few weeks ago and found for stereo that i did not like the low end at lower voulme, i use the fronts as pre out to an onkyo M-504, i solved part of this my setting the AVR in pure direct and put an older adcom GTP-500, i set the adcom flat for movies but music played from a usb connected hard drive i up the bass on the adcom and at moderate levels i like the sound while not being audiophile in a more direct sence i like the results, has any one tried this? i have thought swapping out the adcom for a hitachi HCA-8300 as i can make a remote turn on easier due to no micro controlled switch, the speaker are SDA 1B, maby i should have bought a diffrent AVR ?

Joe08867

It's not the AVR's fault that the Adcom pre to Onkyo Amp combo sounds better. In my experience of listening to a pre-amp vs AVR I have never heard an AVR that sounded better then a separate preamp to amp.

To explain you are taking the music down a more direct path to the speakers. Bypassing all the little bells and whistles that the AVR has for HT and Effects. You are also beefing up the power using a amp. It will give more transient attack to the sound compared to the amplifier in an AVR. It also doesn't hurt that the Adcom stuff is quite good sounding compared to most pre's out there.

I have never heard the Hitachi pre you spoke of but have read good things about the sound of it. If it were me I would look into better amplification. That Onkyo is pretty sterile compared to the likes of B&K or Rotel.