Receiver help

rbedrock

Hi,
First I wanted to thank everyone that responded to my last post and as I am new to this I wanted to ask for some advice.

I am going to upgrade my receiver soon and I would like to stay around the $700 range. My current receiver is a Pioneer VSX-815 and my speakers are monitor 30's and 40's and a cs1 center. I currently experience some hissing with vocals and I am hoping a better receiver will rectify the problem.

I am looking for some advice as to what receiver is good at that price range and will match up well with my current speakers. I said current speakers because the way things are going it may not be long before I upgrade them also. This hobby is very addicting!

Here's what I have found so far at this price range:
Marantz SR7500
Denon 2805
HK AVR 635
Onkyo TX-SR703

I know that there are many, many other brands as well but I am not as familiar with them. Any advice would be appreciated and I would like an explanation why also if you could. I'm not worried about inputs or outputs on the back what I'm most concerned about is the sound quality and reliability.

As I said I am new to this and I also wanted to ask another question. Why do you guys have a receiver and a seperate amp and will that be the route that I will eventually take in the future? As I said earlier this hobby is very addicting. Thank you.

cbl117

I'd recommend HK receivers with polk speakers. I thought that denon and onkyo sounded a little bright with polks, denon not as much but onkyo especially. You can find the HK avr635 on internet shops for around $650 new. The avr635 would work very nicely with polk upgrades down the road. The Monitor and RTi series sound really good with HK receivers. If you plan on getting RTi10s or RTi12s a separate amp would be a good idea, but not a requirement. The external amp would connect right into the pre outs on the avr635. The reason for adding a separate amp is to give power hungry (big) speakers cleaner power. With an external amp your speakers will sound cleaner, clearer, and have very tight bass response.
I have no experience with marantz, so maybe that would be a better deal...Hopefully someone can chime in with some more advice.:o

Maestro

If you have a Fry's nearby, they currently have the AVR635 at $599.99! I believe this is in-store only, but you can check online at outpost.com.

*Seby*-Polk-

My recommendation is Yamaha RX-V1500. Great performance with Polk speakers in movies and music.

Other great brands....Harman Kardon and Denon. Forget Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo....

cfrizz

Hi Rbedrock welcome! Here are somethings I wrote up sometime ago to explain the benefits of separate amplification.

"In a word, Power!

Receivers have everything all in one box, which makes it convenient, however, there is a compromise there in that most of the receivers focus on the processing side while the amp portion takes a hit since if it is 7 channel receiver, it has to split that 100 watts 7 ways, and at the same time doing all the fancy processing for your movies, ect.

Meanwhile, a Preamp/Amp is just that. Each box focuses on only one function thereby devoting all of its resources to that function. So your amplifier is truly supplying 100 watts per channel to your speakers, and your preamp is able to focus on doing its thing. Naturally you will need more space & outlets for this setup.

A good compromise is to get an up-to-date, but cheaper receiver that has pre-outs & plan on buying 2-7 channel amplifier to support your speakers when you have the cash."



"Holydoc, If I knew then what I know now what I would do would be to buy a 5 channel amp from Outlaw Audio @ 200Wts per channel & be done with it.

You should buy as much power as you can afford. You blow speakers by not giving them enough power & making them work too hard by turning up the volume.

I subscribe to the addage that more is better, that way no matter what future speakers you get you will never again have to worry about having enough power to drive them.

And as you correctly noted, the amp can be attached to any future upgrades you make, including the jump to a separate pre-processor!"

janmike

Welcome to the forum. Yamaha RX-V1500 works for me. Lots of good recommendations. Good luck.

rbedrock

Thank you for the responses so far. I was hoping for a little more though. Does anyone else have any opinions or advice for a newbie?

nebborjk

Re-Read post #5.

Assuming your present AVR has pre-amp outputs, a 5-channel amp can be found for under $700. This will smoke any receiver you'd buy for under $700.00

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1145343926

nebborjk

If your opposed to separate amplification and really want a receiver, check out http://www.ubid.com. They have good deals on refurbished and B-Stock models including many from Denon. I believe they currently are offering the 3805 for $649 and the 2805 for $550. They also have a Yamaha RX-V2500 for $439.

thuchien

Pioneer VSX-72TXV or denon 3805

rbedrock

One more question, back to post 5 it said:

"A good compromise is to get an up-to-date, but cheaper receiver that has pre-outs & plan on buying 2-7 channel amplifier to support your speakers when you have the cash."

My receiver is a Pioneer VSX-815, would this be adequate with a seperate amplifier? A preamp's job is to amplify a weak signal to a certain level so it can then be amplified by the main amp. I may be wrong but wouldn't most receivers be good enough to use as a preamp?

If not what would be better to do first:
1. Buy a seperate amp now and then in the future (when I have the cash) upgrade the receiver. (Who knows I may be happy with the result from this setup with the current receiver).
2. Upgrade the receiver now and then eventually add an amplifier.

Thanks again.

cfrizz

Yes your Pioneer has preamp outputs so you can buy a separate amp to run all of your speakers.

I have separate amps for my main & center channel speakers & let my Denon handle the surrounds.

If you are happy with your receiver, just get separate amps & enjoy!

just_visiting

thuchien wrote:

Pioneer VSX-72TXV or denon 3805[/QUOTE

I have both the Pio 72TXV and the Denon 3805. I much prefer the Denon.