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How good are recievers these days?

Hi Folks. I haven't been on here in years. I sort of fell out of the high end audio about 8-9 years ago. Need some advice

So long story short, i have a set of Magnepan MMGw's i use as my mains which replaced a damaged paif of Jmlab Chorus.. I had a Denon 3805 and planned to pick up an outboard amplifier to drive the speakers. A friend loaned me an amp which had serious issues and killed my Denon 3805, so my amp budget got raided to replace it with a used Denon 3806.

As it stands now, it does not sound horrible, but i now have a small budget for an amplifer. between 500-1000 and i had planned on getting something used.

I ran into an old friend when i was picking up a 4k LED TV this weekend who worked at Best Buy (i can already hear your eyes rolling) at thier magnolia center. He mentioned they did multimillion dollar installations, full high end audio, etc. Today i asked him if he had any recommendations for a good 2 channel amp that can handle a 4 ohm load.

His response suprised me, he recommended a Pioneer Elite SC-81 receiver.

He does this stuff for a living, I have been out of the audio hobby and not been paying attention for the better part of the last 10 years. This receiver sports the D3 digital amp, and it claims to be stable with a 4 ohm load.

How good are these digital amps? I remember Velodyne putting digital amps in thier subwoofers a long time ago, but i know nothing else about them. Can that actually push the Magnepan MMGw? or should i go back to looking at a second hand Parasound or even some Adcoms?

Thank you in advance!
slappy
akg_ca's avatar
akg_ca
2,156 posts
 
Three points to emphasize:

- A receiver for 2 channel audio performance comparatively lacks the quality build and performance capability of a quality build integrated amplifier, particularly in the power supply. Published stats for "Watts RMS" alone are meaningless. IMO a used quality build Euro or NA integrated amp here on AGON are available within your budget.

- You only get what you pay for..... Full stop.

- System synergy matters - big time . Do your homework on which brands in a large arena of competing brands, work best with the rest of your system. Just because Brand X sounds good in one guy's system is nil assurance that it will sound good in yours .
schubert
7,386 posts
 
MMG are four amp rated speakers which can drop below 3 ohms
and blow a 4 ohm rated receiver. In fact I've seen it happen.
Personally, I would never buy anything not rated for 2 ohms.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Never trust what they tell you in Best Buy. They redefine the work incompetent. Do the complete opposite of what they recommend, and you'll probably be better off.
55dok
162 posts
 
If you can find a good used Luxman R117 receiver (real 160 watts/ch 8 ohms & stable to 2 ohms) it has an excellent amp and tuner and a good if not great pre-amp for about $300-400. Their M117 amp is also good to 2 ohms as is the receiver & runs $300-400. Most modern day receivers are just cheap crap. A really good integrated amp (no tuner) would be a Classe CAP151 (about $1000).
55dok
162 posts
 
You will probably not like the D amps used in receivers. The old pioneer elite receivers such as the TXI 56 (on sale on ebay for ($250-300) will sound better & be more stable. However, I have maggies and get great sound out of the luxman. The Magnepan company used to run some of their speakers with Classe equipment. Either way, I'd opt for:
1)Classe CAP 151 $1000 integrated
2)luxman R117 ($300-400)receiver or lower powered R115 ($200)
3)McCormack DNA-1 amp ($700+) or Luxman M117 amp ($350-450)
4)older pioneer elite receiver (non HDMI) EXI 56,49 ...
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