Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater What receiver to power my new Axioms

Alan's take on receivers

Alan being Axiom's resident expert.

Moore...what will this system primarily be used for? Some folks like to listen to music most of the time and watch movies *sometimes* while others may seldom listen to music and use their system primarily for HT. No need to spend the big buckolas on an HT reciever that is loaded with DSPs if you're gonna liten to music and on the otherhand you don't want to cut yourself short with the needed features if you'll be watching lot's of movies.

*If* I were you I'd do some research and reading about the various componets, go to several A/V stores and play around with some of gear, push buttons, lift 'em up, turn 'em around and check out the back for features to get a good general idea of how the little critter is going to work with you. You'll get a good idea which is the not-so good stuff and which is the stuff to consider, come back here with your questions (you'll get some very good answers), and then start looking on the internet for the best deal!

I was just to darm impatient for all of that, myself.

Thanks Rick I will do that. I can feel your pain on the being impatient part...I want my stuff last week!

Tid bits...most of the usage will be for home theater but I really want to be able to kick up some tunes during the weekends or parties.

My room mearures 18' x 25' with 9' ceilings.

If I had 2400.00 maybe Outlaw 990 and Outlaw 755 separates
If 1800.00 maybe Denon 2805 and Outlaw 755.
If 1350.00 mabye Denon 2805 and 3 Outlaw Monoblocks

That's just picking 2 suppliers. Your options are endless.
Audition as many as you can. Bring some home if you can.

Your budget puts you at the edge a really nice system. Go to forums (this one, AV123, S&V, Outlaw) and read up on as much as you can. It's worth the effort.

IMHO!

In reply to:

---

LOL...thanks for the spell check BrenR

---

Makes it easier to find through Google.

In reply to:

---

I have been kind of leaning to the Marantz SR8400 solely based on a good friend of mine that really loves Marantz.

---

Everything's a big balancing act... if you want to spend the $1200, nothing wrong with the AVR mentioned.

A rundown of it's features from Marantz' site (though I wish they'd give some concrete info rather than just a bulleted list of feature wanking):

110 watts (into 8 ohms) x 7 ch Amps - Marantz are pretty well know for falsifying power ratings (using watts RMS at 1KHz rather than full frequency) so take this with a grain of salt.

All discrete, Current Feedback amplifiers - Current Feedback vs Voltage Feedback amps? The battle will rage forever, at least they do tell you what architecture they've built from. Ignore this line for most intents.

Copper plated chassis with double bottom plate - Um... good? Might as well add in what screw head type is used (all Phillips #1 screwheads! Wow! Zing! Pow!) Ignore this.

Massive energy power supply with huge toroidal power transformer - It's huge? Wow, huge is good! AND the energy is massive!! Toroidal transformers do exhibit less EMI than conventional transformers they say. If I were spec'ing an EKG machine, I'd be concerned, an AVR... not so much, but it's not a drawback, so we'll say good.

Dolby Digital EX,Prologic IIx (Movie/Music), Pro-logic, DTS 96/24, ES (Discrete6.1/Matrix6.1), Neo-6 (Cinema/Music) - Matrixing DSP and decoders available on the receiver. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

SRS Circle surround II (6.1) (Cinema/Music/Mono) - A lesser known matrixing DSP as far as I know. Choice is good... this is another choice. Maybe you'll use it, maybe you won't.

Bren R.

uBid had a sale for the Marantz 8400 and I picked up one for $499

here is the link to my post on the Marantz 8400, they will be powering my m60, qs8, and vp150

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=ST&Number=92807&page=3&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

I have a marantz sr 6300 and a marantz mm9000 and love the set up, I paid about 1200$ total for the 2 units.. the 6300 is a 6 channel receiver with lots of features, just not a lot of video switching...but you can now get a newer receiver that will have more extensive video switching, and the amp is a 5 channel 170watt amp, and it pushes the 60's very well, i have the 60's vp150 and qs8's all powered off of the amp, and it is very clean sounding with 0 distortion ever no matter what volume level. I think that is about as good of a combination for the 60’s as one could ask for (personally).

Thanks again BrenR you are a great help. Can you critique other models as well?

Or better yet if you were in my situation with my budget what receiver would you purchase?

Looking for the most bang for my buck…
.

I would seriously keep an eye out on uBid. At times they have brand new high end audio priced for the poor man.

Thanks Nautec and Drakkon I appreciate the feedback I like the Marantz as well. My friend has the 7400 and some real expensive speakers he got from a real estate auction from a guy that died. I cant recall the name but he got them for next to nothing and he says that new they are worth around $8000.00. I did not know there were speakers that cost that much!

His system sounds fantastic and gives much credit to the Marantz.

Im one of those guys that will spend hours and hours reading everything I can get my hands on to learn and make a decision so thanks again for your input.