125 watt or 80 watt?


I am looking to purchase a carver amp. I want either the 505 or 705 that has 80 watt and 125 watt with thx rating. I currently have a marantz sr7400 that is up for sale here. Will i be able to tell a differnce with the 80 watt? i am in a bedroom that is medium sized, will the 125 be overkill? How good is the carver amps? I can get the 705 for 350$, would i be happier with 705 or 505? i know there are alot of questions but i need to know if this is worth it. Thank you for the time
athens14

Showing 6 responses by dlcockrum

The 805 does do Dolby TrueHD as well as DTS Master Audio.

I gave my 805 to my son-in-law and he just sold it to a friend. He 'upgraded' to a Denon 4308ci ($2800 retail) and I think I like the 805 better.

Here's the best deal I could find on a new one:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=204791593&listingid=45439694&dcaid=18006
Athens14,

You really can't predict the sound quality of amps by the wattage only. I haven't had any experience with Carver amps since the late 90's when a Carver TFM45 (rated at 375 w/ch) went non-linear and blew the ribbon tweeters out of a brand new pair of Apogee Stages. Maybe their newer stuff is better - don't know.

Marantz has a reputation for good sound quality and good reliability. Your Marantz AVR is rated at 105w/channel. Your Snell E3s are known to be very efficient so you should not need more power than that for your medium-sized room. Focus on quality not quantity (watts) when you decide to trade up to more hi-end equipment.

If you sell your Marantz AVR and buy a Carver (or any) amplifier, what are you going to use as a preamp/processor?

My advice is to keep the Marantz, save your pennies, do more research on Audiogon and Audioasylum (and other) forums, go to several reputable audio salons and listen to a lot of different equipment, and then buy something that you know more about. Don't get in a hurry!
You would be better off with a good used Onkyo 805:

http://electronics.shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=onkyo+805&_sacat=293
I think at your pricepoint you may end up with a bunch of antiquated junk if you are not careful. The only way to get the latest features at that price is an AVR.

I had a Onkyo 805 for a while and it is a nice AVR with all of the most current features - bitstream D/A conversion of CD/SACD, Dolby TrueHD, DTS Master Audio, etc. and Audyssey room correction. It is also very powerful and has a very good power supply (it weighs over 50 lbs!). Just pair it up with a Oppo 980H universal player ($150 on Amazon.com) and you are good to go.

Since the 806 just came out, you should be able to find a 805 cheap ($400-$500) if you are patient. This unit does run hot so you will need fans - I used dual fans that I bought on ebay - they plug directly into the AC outlet on the back of the AVR. Very nice. You will be pleased.
Hey man, that hurts! I would never try to solicit a sale on a post without saying so - my ebay ID is 'crossramz28' - you can see that I am not the seller.

As for the Pioneer VSX 819: it retails for $299. That means the dealer pays $180 (60%). That probably means that the total cost to manufacture it is about $75 (COGS) if that. How good do you think a full-featured AVR can be for $75 COGS?? The best amp in the world cannot sound better than the preamp driving it. Think about it.

But this is the most important concern: I looked at the 819 on Pioneer's website. The spec page only says that it has "sub/surround back L/R" preamp outputs. If that is true, you cannot do what you are trying to do if there are no L/C/R/LR/RR preamp outs.

http://www.pioneerusa.com/PUSA/Products/HomeEntertainment/AV-Receivers/PioneerReceivers/ci.VSX-819H-K.Kuro?tab=B
There are two 806 (current model) AVRs for sale on Audiogon right now. A silver used one for $595 and a new-in-the-box black one for $670. Can't beat that.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?miscrcvr&1248625324&/Onkyo-tx-sr806-silver-avr-used

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1249762491&/Onkyo-TXSR806-7.1-receiver