Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Pioneer Elite 45TX vs Denon 3803 vs Onkyo TX-SR800

I have demoed the Onkyo Integra 7.3, Rotel RSX 1055 and Rotel RSX 1065. All were outstanding. Yes they have only power for 5 speakers but all have pre-outs for adding extra power amps for a 6.1 or 7.1. You can go all pre-outs and setup all separates if you want. Rotel has an edge where-in when they say that their power rating is 75W or 100W they are truly 75W or 100W on 5 speakers. The Onkyo had more features but when Sound & Vision Mag did tests the 100W ran about 78W on all speakers driven. Music quality on Rotels are always clean clear and powerful. I would recommend them. I have the Rotel RSX 1065. It runs only warm after 5 hours of music and 2 movies back to back. THe only issue I have with Rotels are they are damn heavy. So move it to one spot and never move it again.
The Elite series as commented by some high end shops only good with the lines of DVD players and TV Plasmas.

Chessaroo wrote:
"As for the wattage, there are few receivers out there in the standard consumer price range that can actually do what their specifications are rated. Most especially the wattage per channel. H/K is by NO means an exception to this."

I think the only reason Harman/Kardon might be an exception about meeting its printed specs is that their printed specs are much more modest (honest?) than comparably-priced models from other manufacturers. I'm no expert, but when I was shopping for my receiver, the H/K AVR120 rated at 40wpc into 5 speakers seemed just as clear and loud as other big box brands (Pioneer, JVC) rated at twice that amount or more.

Jandrew,
Herein lies the problem. You describe the AVR120 as having 40W/channel over 5 as the spec.
But has this been tested?
After all 5 channels have been plugged in, what is the watts per channel measured at? Across all frequencies?
I'm going out on a limb and guessing it won't be holding steady at 40W per channel, which is the scenario that typically occurs from many vendors who state any specs about wattage on their receivers (i have seen some tests but i can't find the damn links).

In theory and on whitepapers the receivers are designed for meeting such spec levels, but in practice, they usually fall behind. That's why i mentioned having to read between the lines a bit when reviewing specs stated too simply as "100w (or 40W) over 5 channels" as opposed to "100W over 5 channels, all channels driven across 20hz-20khz....." .
One statement is good marketing and relatively honest but the second statement is honest and more accurate as well.

How about the Sony STR-DA4ES? Specs look great, 7.1 pre-outs, OSD, video conversion. H/K I notice always seems to be low, but when you look at their specs for 5.1-7.1 distortion rating is almost exactly the same as the 2 channel rating. I think that shows a good amplifier section.

I have a huge bias against Sony. My experience with their reliability has been terrifying enough to prevent me from every buying a product with a Sony logo unless I absolutely had to have a CRT based TV and found a Vega at a killer rate.

I know you hate Sony's Semi, but have they done anything positive to increase reliability on the ES models? I was impressed that their output with all 7 channels was rated with very low distortion, just like the H/K's are. I found an H/K 525 for like 650.00, but I am leary of their reliability also. When reading audioreview about JVC seems every other one has been in the shop If I could find the Marantz 8200 for about 600.00 I'd be go that route, but they are around $1000.00. Audiogon doesn't seem to have alot of mid-range equipment, and I can't afford the high end stuff. One feature about Sony I liked is that the sub can be powered very well by the receiver itself. I could get that SVS with no amp that way

Dan, I didn't see where the DA4ES has an assignable amp channel which can be used to power a passive sub. The Kenwood 6070 has such a 6th channel, but if it's used to power a sub, then the 6th channel isn't available for the back surround. If you'd like to go in that direction though, it's likely that you already have an amp to power, say, a SVS 25-31CS. Your present receiver or some old receiver that has 100 watts or so per channel would be fine to power it. The sub out from whatever new receiver you get would go to any line-level input(e.g. CD)on the old receiver and then a speaker wire from the corresponding speaker terminals on the old receiver would go to the terminals on the passive sub.

Has anyone checked out the new Harman Kardon AVR-525?

Can I ask you how much your Rotel pieces cost? I was looking at the RSX-972 but Ive read some lovely stories about quality control and it scared me away from that brand; even though it is the sweetest sound receiver Ive ever heard

I'd like to throw the Harman Kardon AVR-525 into the mix. Has HDCD and MP3 encoding built-in, but no DTS 96/24. Is DTS 96/24 a feature I should want for future compatibility? Otherwise I hear nothing but good on it's sound qualities. My DVD player has 192/24 capable bitstream, the manual says I need a receiver with 192/24 capable DAC to take advantage of it, so I crossed the Kenwood VR-6070 off my list. I haven't heard any Onkyo supporters here either, the 800 is rated as a best buy on CNet's site, but I take that with a grain of salt.