I was trying to keep the receiver and/or seperates to around $2,000(give or take a couple hundred). However, if a little more money puts me in that next higher grouping of components, I'd consider it. It seems to me that people are either in that $1,000 or below reciever range, or way up in the $2,500++ seperates catagory, with nothing in between.
I really want the system to sound full, enveloping and vibrant, and that's why I was leaning toward the seperates. Not saying that todays better receivers won't put out good sound, I just want GREAT sound(I know,I know, it's the holy grail!). I think the Axioms are a good start, but the pairing of hardware is the hard part for me. In preamps, I've looked at the Outlaw 950, NAD T163, Rotel 1068, but all seem to be missing one item or another. Maybe I'm too picky, but isn't it possible to get everything in that Denon just in a seperate for $1,000-$2,000??
Features I like:
- 7.1 DDS/DPL IIx system
- Burr-Brown DACS
- AL24 processing
- Video upconversion
- 3 or more component video ins.
- THD <.1%
- Multi-zone (at least 2)
And a few others, but if I'm missing something here, let me know. I just don't know what hardware to settle on.
