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Opinions on a good HT/Music AVR

Hi Everyone,

Been looking at my finances and I may have to rethink some ideas. I am looking for what y’all would recommend as good HT/music AVR. Right now I have Von schweikert l/r and center with dipole rears. The l/r are the bookshelf type. I am planning on Vr-33’s in the future. I have a Nakamichi avr that I have had for years, but am looking to upgrade. Will replace my dvd with the oppo 95 soon. I like a clean and simple op system and don’t really need 7.1 or 9.1 as I will not ever have that many, but I know alot of avr’s this is standard. I am willing to spend up to $3k. I have a large room so a little power would be good. Look forward to your input.

Joe in Mobile
magsterone

Showing 3 responses by ckoffend

ckoffend
684 posts
 
If you really want to maximize stereo performance, buy a used $250 AVR receiver but get a 2 channel stereo amp and a 2-channel preamp ($2500 combined) with HT pass through. I can tell you from experience, there isn't a 5+ channel amp that can compare with a two channel amp for the same price (or even less for the 2-channel amp).

This is by far and away the best way to go. There isn't an AVR Receiver that will even come close to sound performance for music taking this route.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
For $3G, do not buy a new AVR Receiver of any brand that will be worth about $300 in 3 years. You are just throwing away money. Value drop of AVR is 60% 1 year, 75% 2 years, 90% three years.

Get a Krell Pre/Pro and a 5-channel krell amp for $3G, used of course. Musicwise it will best any AVR that I have heard. If you are not crazy about Krell, then pick another brand that makes real audio equipment. Parasound (as mentioned above), Cary, and the list can go on.

Personally, I would avoid Arcam, NAD and Rotel as I have found they deliver about the same as a Dennon AVR but at a higher price. But that is just my experience, use your ears and visit some of the many HT shops around.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
A $3000 Audio Video Receiver will be worth about $300-$500 in a very few short years! I bought my one year old Pioneer Elite Series which sold for something in the $2000 range (I believe) for $175 on eBay. I have had it a few years now and it does everything except 3D. It has Dolby truHD, some other true HD, upscales video, has a second zone, iPod direct hook-up with controls for the iPod via the remote.

Is it good? Yeah, I guess its okay. Not quite as good as my old 507 Series 2, but pretty close. Not as good as my Krell HTS 7.1 with multiple amps (Theda Dreadnaught II, Krell TAS, CJ 5-channel amp) running into 3 Watt/Puppy 5.1s for fronts and Wilson Duettes for rears with Rel subs. But for my (obviously) lowered movie requirements its (Pioneer Elite) good enough. I can tell you that even my old Melos Sha Gold and 30 year old Dynaco tube amp blew away all the AV systems when it came to music by a very long and wide margin.
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