Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater upgrading my pre/pro or receiver

CV

Why would you want balanced over RCA?

Unless you have long cable runs, what is the difference?

Paul

Lorenzo1000

That is a handy site (Red Flag Deals).

Thanks again for the tip.

It makes me wonder though, why CC is selling a unit like this. When I called the London store to confirm the model number they said it was in the basement because they don't sell too many of these things.

I bet the staff doesn't have much training, if any, on the features of this model.

Paul

Some amps behave better when fed a balanced signal. For example Outlaw's multi-channel amps have a lower gain (and thus less noise) when using their XLR connectors. When running monoblocks, it does make sense to locate the amp as close to the speaker as possible (better damping), so one will have longer signal cables. Plus, well designed equipment will have the signal ground separate from the chassis (safety) ground (Axiom's subs do this when you remove the ground screw), which goes a long way in preventing ground loops.

Plus, XLR is just a more robust connector. RCA was never designed for external, component to component connections.

What Chris said.

I like the connection more, and I've had less of an issue with noise.

OK, so I have got just about every thing organized and hooked up to the new Denon AVR-990. Had a chance to listen to a little DVD Audio, CD and Phono, just really testing if it works. So far sounds great and since I am going HDMI, I have enough left over cables to build my own R2D2.

So I told my buddy about the $649 deal at CC and price matching at Futureshop. He asks me if I would pick one up for him, (we are in the process of building an HT room in this basement).

So I go to FS, a different one as I was on a business trip today.

I show up and ask if they have any of the 990's in stock

Sales Ass (ociate), says yes, two in a box.

I say great, I'll take one and take the printed add from CC out of my pocket to show him, before I can get it unfolded he asks, if that was from Canada Computers. I say yes, he says they sold two already this morning because of it.

I then remember the FS has a policy to give 10% of the difference on any advertized price that is lower than theirs. So I ask if I can get the additional 10% of the difference on this purchase (about $45.00 plus tax).

And with a straight face, no kidding here, he says "no, because this is already below our cost". I try to keep a straight face, and say, your policy doesn't say that. He then says right, but CC is not a company we do direct price matching with. I am now stunned at the two very lame anserwers I have just gotten. I asked if there is a list of companies that they do price matching with, he says no. Then he tells me that this could be a doorcrasher at CC and they only have limited qty. I look at the add and tell him that it doesn't say that, I also tell him the FS also has limited quantity, and that they are supposed to have people to watch the market to ensure they offer the lowest price. He is starting to get frustrated and a little annoyed at me at this point, I then ask him what is the point of having a 10% policy if it can never be used. Anyway this goes on for about 10 minutes back and forth all the time I can see he is getting angry. I finally looked at him and said, I could just as easily walk out right now and buy it from CC, so give me a reason to buy from you. He looked at his computer screen for about 30 seconds, gritted his teath and said "FINE, DONE!" I said thank you. I then told him I wasn't trying to be a jerk, just wanted his store to honor the policy. he didn't reply.

I think he was so mad that he didn't even ask me if I wanted the extended waranty, which was fine by me.

Usually they take the box up to the front for you and even to your car, I got no offer for this service today. Again fine by me.

Just thought I'd share my exciting time at FS today.

Enjoy

paul

In my experience, Futureshop and Best Buy in Canada have been doing anything to not match prices lately. Sounds like they have become victims of their own policies...wouldn't be surprised if they made some changes to their price matching rules soon.

I had problems with BB years ago with their "selective" price matching. The local BB in Brampton refused to price match an advertisement for a DVD in the Toronto Sun at a well known music store. They told me they wouldn't match it because the seller wasn't on their "list" and they said I wouldn't likely drive downtown to buy the CD. I told them to shove the DVD and their phoney price match policy(after a lengthy argument) and went to a nearby FS which DID price match the DVD after calling the store downtown to verify the price and that they had it in stock. Go figure, FS is owned by BB...they need to get their stories straight.

I am seriously considering the Yamaha RX-V667 and completely ignoring its amplifier section. It has pre-outs for external power amps (not XLR though) and the price is US$550-ish. (Google Shopping found it going for $375 but datavis.com does not have a good score on resellerratings.)

See also a review and an AVS thread.

I think michael_d had decent luck with a similar setup for a while. Only things I'd check are the room correction and the bass management. If the room correction stuff is important to you, make sure you are comfortable with the comparisons between the proprietary ones (YPAO, MCACC) and Audyssey (available on the Onkyo and Denon). Also, when I was looking at receivers a while back, the Yamaha did not allow me to set independent crossovers for the L/R, Center, surround, etc. I have found the independent crossover frequencies important with my M60's and QS8's.