Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater @#&&^! Receiver

Good to know, thanks Lampy.

Yes, Rob; A4L is highly reputable and is a fully authorized Onkyo(and more recently, Denon)dealer. Their offerings are quite popular on the various audio forums. As to factory refurbished, yes my experiences have been entirely satisfactory, to the extent that my attitude now is that I would feel more confident in buying one rather than a brand-new unit, even disregarding any price saving.

Just about any modern unit has the features that you mention. Also, the ones you're considering can all be considered to be fairly similar in maximum power capacity, and the ratings are made pursuant to the FTC(Federal Trade Commission)amplifier power regulations and have to be "honest".

As a practical matter, probably the most significant feature on whatever you get will be the auto-calibration and room equalization system used. Manually using an SPL meter and tape measure isn't likely to match the accuracy in calibration that any of the auto-cal systems achieve(especially with subs)because the element of human error is added. Also, no room equalization can be done with a meter and tape measure, and this is going to be a significant factor in the final sound.

Over the years here preferences in receivers have changed as they've changed. Onkyo and Denon have selected the Audyssey system in preference to their former in-house auto-calibration and room EQ. Primarily for that reason my suggestions have centered on them, with Onkyo being more frequently mentioned because of somewhat better prices being available for similarly-featured units.

The SC series of PIO amps are different beasts then the usual elite line up, the SC series is much more robust IMO.

I thought that the 1121 and the SC-52 were essentially the same?

If I recall, that was the first model year where Onkyo receivers performed well. The previous two models had overheating issues.

Since the SRxx6 models reviews and feed back have been consistently positive.

I was actually eying the 706 when I found a good deal on the 2808.

Its interesting that Pio is making their own class D amp. IMO class D has come of age. There are more and more quality class D amps coming to market.

Drr... there is no SC-52... That's the VSX-52. Disregard...

Another vote for refurbs. I picked up a refurb HK over 6 years ago, still going strong. Interesting thing about amp design. My HK is rated 70W per channel and my new Onkyo I picked up for our family room is 100W per. The HK probably weights as much as 2 or even 3 of the Onkyo's, heh.

H/K's are notoriously underrated from the factory, IIRC most that have been lab tested usually output around 100W.

Not many of us H/K owners around anymore I don't believe, I am very happy with mine.

i got a H/K a few months ago; i'm not using the internal amps, but everything else works fine.