Receiver/Amp Set up question

Eastern,

Welcome to the Polk Forum.

It would help us if you gave us some more information.

1) Do you already own the Odyssey amp or is that going to be included in your overall budget?

2) What is your overall budget...you mention something about being on a tight budget.

If you can get the Odyssey amp relatively cheap and want to use a receiver as a pre-pro on a budget, I would look into a refurbished Harmon / Kardon direct from their website.

If your budget allows, forget the amp and listen to some of the Denon models 2803 / 3803. Lots of folks in here running Denon with RT speakers. Marantz would be another choice as there are a few folks running Marantz receivers too. If your budget is $800 - $1200 then I would listen to NAD / Rotel.

Eastern,

Is the Odyssey amp a "MUST" have? For $2,000 man you are talking about flagship TOTL receivers that would mate excellent with your RTi70's. Rotel RSX 1065 would be a killer match.

You could also get into Outlaw seperates or Adcom and have a pre-pro and powerful 5 channel amp at the same price under $2,000 US dollars. But you have to like how they sound.

I always like to think with the end in mind also. If you must have the Odyssey amp and get a cheap receiver for a pre-pro now, what would you eventually upgrade the processor / pre-amp to?
Also are you planning on upgrading your speakers in the future also? I think the Odyssey may be overkill for the RTi70s. There are plenty of flagship receivers that will and can run the 70s awesomely.

Okay, back to what you really want...the Odyssey.. how many watts / channel is it?

You can get a H/K AVR 520 here for $498:

http://www.harmanaudio.com/search_browse/product_detail.asp?urlMaterialNumber=AVR%20520-Z

That's about the lowest level I would drop off for a "cheapo" (actually a nice AVR) receiver that I would replace in the future.

It has been my experience that the pre-amp has a more significant sonic signature than the power amp does on one's system. You're kind of going on a backwards approach to this in my opinion. Hey ultimately you do what you want as you should. I think the H/K or a Marantz receiver as a pre-pro would achieve what you are trying to do short-term as others are doing this as well.

I personally have a Rotel RSX 1055 receiver I use as a pre-pro with a Rotel RB 1070 amp that I just got this week to drive my mains and it cost me right around $1600. I got the amp off of Audigon. Sounds awesome.

I think the floodgates have opened man. For $2,000 you are going to get a lot of recommendations on what people would do. Ultimately, if you are in love with that Odyssey amp though and have to have it people are going to have to give you advice on what path they would take. But at the same time, you are going to get plenty of other options as I have presented.

Paul

Eastern,

WOW! The Stratos is a killer amp; I wish I could hear it! 106 consumer reviews and a 4.98 / 5.0 rating on audioreview. Very impressive. 20 year warranty you only usually get with something way more expensive too.

Here's a Soundstage Review:


http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/odysseyaudio_stratos.htm

I can see why you want this amp, but you are not going to get the killer results with a budget receiver used as a pre-pro. You will not get the full potential of this amp I'm afraid. That's okay for short term if you want to get a dedicated preamp / processor in the future like a Rotel 1066, B&K Ref 50, Anthem, Outlaw 950, there are a lot of choices here.

Then again, you may just be thrilled with the results because of the significant upgrade you are making coming from the Panasonic. Ultimately, decisions like this are difficult to make because you are going to get a lot of different opinions and advice on what to do.

If it were me though, I would stick with a flagship receiver for the speaker setup you currently have and be done with it. Rotel 1055, 1065, Denon 3803/4802, Marantz, NAD T762 would do the RTi70's some serious justice.

I'm going to shut up for now and let others chime in on this one.

i can tell you how to do it cheap but i dont know how it will sound. you can get the gitegs that turn a out from a amp and turn it into a pre amp sigonal. they are used in car audio to hook a amp up to a stock car system.

I tried this once, in a car stereo system I had. JVC receiver with no preouts running to one of these guys to get a line level signal then to a Fosgate Punch amp. I didn't care for the results. Sounded compressed and distorted. Got a Denon car cd player with preouts..much much better.

Something about amplifying a signal then trying to get it back to a line level and then reamplifying just doesn't seem to be the best solution for me at least. It is cheap but it wouldn't do that Odyssey amp justice.

P.