Denon 3802 vs. Onkyo 797 vs. Yamaha 2200, which is the best for Polk speakers?

tjschrad

I am building my first A/V system. I will be using my LS90's for the fronts, bi-amped with my old Adcom GFA-545II (100 watts x 2)from my stereo system. The center is a CS400i, the rears are F/X500i, and the sub is a PSW450; that I just bought.
Question: Which is the best A/V receiver to go with Polk speakers? I am going to look at the Denon AVR-3802, the Onkyo TX-DS797, and the Yamaha RX-V2200 or RX-1200. Does anyone have one of these receivers (or maybe one and change to another), hooked-up to a similiar speaker system.
All comments would be greatly appreciated on these receivers.

juice21

i do not own any of the above receivers, but have heard the onkyo paired with polks and it sounded very good. i have heard the denon as well (not paired with polks however) and it sounded great as well. IMO, these two recs. are both great values for the $. there will be posts soon to follow from owners of these respective recs., as i know there are owners of all these recs. on this site, and have them paired with very similar set-ups as yours. my advice, is go out and listen to them for yourself, and see what sound you prefer. in home demo's if you can. it's your ears, and your $, you want them to be well spent...

welcome to the forum...:D

shack

They are all quality receivers and I think you will find serveral on this board who use these with their polks. The problem is that each person has chosen their particular receiver because of how it sounded to them. They may have had Onkyo and switched Denon. Then again you may find somone who has gone from Denon to Onkyo. I have read post after post on this forum and others about each of these receivers and how much their owner likes them with their particular speaker including polks. I could tell you I think my Denon sounds great with my Polks (which is true) but you may prefer the sound of the Yamaha. I don't think you can go wrong with any one of the three. Go and spend as much time as possible listening to each one (with your speakers or some similar if possible) and decide which one sounds best to you and then decide which one has the features that meet your needs.

shack

Juice - this is scary - our two post only 2 min apart are way to similar- maybe great minds think alike LOL/

juice21

right on shack!:D

in evidently writing at the same time...

rskarvan

I have the Denon 3801.
Its ok. I'm not thrilled with it.
The 3802 is supposed to be a bit better.
I have an old Yamaha also.
I like the Yamaha a little better - though, its just a pro-logic
receiver. Cleaner sound - imo.

scottvamp

You picked 3 great recievers. I have lots of experience with Onkyo's. The 797 is an awesome reciever - out of the three the Onkyo gets my vote. The features are amazing and sounds great with Polks. As a second chose the new Denon line is a very good chose also. Just remember to have fun with it. (IMO) Yammy's have not been impressing me in the last decade. The build quality and features havnt been up to par with the competition. Yammy WAS a good reciever in the late 80's and early 90's. I really enjoy my Onkyo 787.:cool:

rskarvan

I agree..... I don't know what happened to Yamaha in the last decade. I really liked their "loudness" control on the old receivers. Rather than pumping up the bass and treble, it would simply detenuate the middle. Result = very crisp sound at low volumes (normal background music). It WAS a nice feature.
Newer yamaha's are disappointing.

mantis

I normally am pretty general with my post's on helping with receiver's.But in this case I will have to favor.Denon is simply the best that I have found to mate with older Polk's like your ls90's (awesome by th way).My friend still has a pair of them mated with a Yamaha rxv995 and he lost sound quality for more dynamic power for the rears.His room at the time was real wide and the older Denon avr3300 was having a hrad time running the rear channel's to reference level's.But in 2 channel, it sounded much better then the Yamaha.The Denon avr3802 is a completly better receiver then the 3300.Better power, more open sounding and can handle home theater duties easier.For the money it win's hand's down in it's price class.You need to step up to a better receiver to get better sound like the 5800 or the 4802.They will mate better with your ls90's the best.But if that s out of your reach, go with the Denonavr3802.
I also don't like to say thing's like this but the Onkyo isn't as good as they used to be.They really sound awefull.Squeeky, lousy,etc.We have the top of the line Integra 9.1 and everything under it, and I can't even find 1 pair of speaker's that mate well or at all with it.Polk speaker's are to bright to mate with such a receiver.I really don't know what sound good on the Onkyo/Integra lines.Polk's sound like ****.But i'm sure there's a speaker out there that mates well.
Go for the denon,it will last you a long time and has tons of cool features.
Dan

nascarmann

Well, well, well? I like Yamaha. Still have my first, 20 year old receiver that works great, never had to do anything to it. Using an 800 for a pre-amp for HT setup. It sounded great as a receiver before I hooked the amps to it! But, it's just my preference?:)

mantis

different strokes for different folk's.........or something like that!!:D

arnoldz

Denon, baby, Denon.

mantis

Denon all Day long yea baby!!