Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Which receiver HK,Denon,NAD?????

Hi again!! I think I've decided on the speaker setup to go with. 7.1 surround M60's, VP 150, 4 QS8's, EP 500. Now I'm looking at receivers. Axiom suggested HK, Denon, and NAD which I've never heard of. I've been doing alot of research but I'm still overwhelmed. What about Sony and Yamaha??

Thanks????

HK (Harman Kardon), Denon and Yamaha are probably the most popular receivers on this board. NAD is highly regarded but doesn't seem as well represented, partly because HK and Denon are Axiom's top recommendations.

I'm pretty sure NAD is a Canadian company these days -- used to be a German (or was it English) / Canadian joint venture if I remember correctly. Very nice as well.

Lots of happy Yamaha owners here -- only caveat is that if you think you might upgrade to M80s in the future there seem to be a few more concerns about running some of the Yamahas with 4 ohm speakers.

I don't remember seeing many Sonys here -- general feeling seems to be that the high end models are good but that you can do better than most of their low end and midrange models. Then again, you can buy the Sonys for a good price normally while 15% of the posts on the board involve where to get HK or Denon at a better price

Between HK and Denon it's a tough choice. The HKs are sort of basic feature-wise (but have the most flexible bass management in the business) with a fairly striking look, while the Denons have more rated power*, more features and a more elegant look. Denons seem to be a bit more intuitive to use.

*HK's power numbers are really conservative, though, so it's generally accepted that comparably priced HKs and Denons are pretty close in terms of useable power.

The reality is that it's pretty hard to go wrong with any of them (including Yamaha). I know this sounds awful, but I tell people to buy whichever one they think looks nicest, but check back here before buying to make sure they're not paying too much

Chad, try not to be so overwhelmed, because whichever one you pick will go very well with the excellent speakers which you're going with. No "matching" of speakers and receiver is involved. If you haven't specifically considered the new room equalization feature developed by Dr. Toole's group for the new HK635, note that it's available here for $770 with free shipping.

Hey Chad,

Welcome! JohnK and Bridgman have pretty much summed it up...when people are looking at M80's, which are 4ohm speakers, Axiom usually recommends Denon or HK or Seperates(amps and tuners) that can handle the low ohm speakers. Since your looking at M60 mains, you really have a lot of choices. I decided on Denon, but Pioneer Elite, Onkyo, Yamaha, and HK were next in line. The Axiom speakers you have selected are very efficient and easy to drive. I'm not sure how much your looking to spend, but there are a lot of great receivers out there. I like looking for receivers that are "Full Bandwidth Rated" or "High Current models" Some lower priced receivers are not rated with all channels driven for the entire bandwidth of frequencies. I can't believe you've never heard of Denon or Harmon Kardon, wow!

good luck

M60's VP150 EP350 4-Qs8's
Denon AVR2805
Sanyo Z2 projector
Toshiba DVD
Samsung HD receiver

I do believe he meant he never heard of NAD.

aaaaaah English was never one of my stong points

By the way, nice catch on your avatar picture...Randy

Thanks,it was a biggin

And it's Harman/Kardon.

Bren R.

Dang, I should have spell checked my response I'll just go back to listening to my Axioms on my DANON 2805 and eating my yogurt.

Alright, so someone tell me why Harman/Kardon lists such 'conservative' numbers, because I'm sure it deflects at least some of their sales since most people don't know that their power rating is low.

I mean, is it that the actual output winds up being more than their rated wattage, or do they have a technology inside that amplifies the output or something. :?

It's just H/K tests their amps with all channels driven and not all companies do that.Check out this site and you will see H/K is one of few that tests out true to what the ratings claim.

I have often wondered that myself. I guess part of the answer is that they don't have any trouble selling a lot of product even with the conservative specs they have.

One answer is that HK rates with all channels driven to full power at the same time; most other brands rate with only two channels at full power. HK does have "stereo" power ratings with only two channels driven -- those are typically 20% higher than the "all channels driven" rating but that still seems conservative compared to what the receivers can do.

I have seen "power vs distortion" curves in magazine reviews for HK and other receivers -- unfortunately I didn't pay enough attention to them at the time. What I do remember is that the HK receivers had a bit of a different shape from most -- the distortion line started to go up at lower power than other receivers, but went up quite a bit more slowly than most. The interesting thing was that if you cut off at, say, 0.5% distortion the HK actually put out MORE power than the comparably priced receivers even though if you cut off at 0.07% the HK produced less power.

I'm guessing this means higher power supply voltages on the HK (might explain why they idle hot) but that really is just a guess.

I read the Output portion of that matrix on the link you gave me correct? If so, it seems H/K actually outputs more wattage than they advertise (per channel).

However I do appreciate this matrix, because it really helped me in my decision cycle of Denon vs. H/K as the stats for this particular test show Denon way over H/K for noise/distortion etc.

Glad to to have helped.

>>Check out this site and you will see H/K is one of few that tests out true to what the ratings claim.

Wow. That should be required reading for everyone buying an HT system. I liked the Sony comment -- "the manufacturer advised that their product is not designed to provide full power into all channels simultaneously"

My vote goes to the Harman if you're doing strictly 5.1 movies. If you're going 6.1 or 7.1 I'd go for the Denon because it has superior processing for multichannel matrixing.

In my history with NAD...I wasn't as impressed as I was hoping I'd be because I really wanted to buy one.

I owned an H/K, my friend has owned two Denons and I've demoed NADs. That is the basis for my recommendations.

Also I've owned a Sony and Yamaha. Yammys sound kind of sterile to me, not bright, sterile. And Sony will blow up on you unless you get a higher end model. Stay away from the bottom dwellers. I had mine go in for repairs 3 times and it was a $600 model from Best Buy.

Good luck!