Hi,

I recently purchased above speakers and am now in the market for a good receiver. My budget is ~ US$ 600-800 and have shortlisted Yamaha RXV1400 and Denon 2803. Looking for expert comments on which one would be better and why?

Also, if I were to get a good deal on HK AVR 330 or 430 receivers, which one would be better (if at all).

Thanks
- TB

TB, the sound of your speakers would be identical with any of those receivers in their flat settings. Consider the features of each, in particular the YPAO automatic room and speaker equalization on the 1400, which can make a significant difference in overall sound, although it can't cure all problems.

Receivers in the 600 - 800 price range are readily available and offer many good featues. I own the Denon 2803 and am extremely pelased with it's performance driving M60's, VP150, QS8's and an Hsu VTF-2 Sub.

The Denon was my choice but I'd suggest that you try to find an audio dealer in your area that you can A/B compare each of the receivers you'd like with the same speakers and the same CD. By doing this, you'll be able to identify YOUR choice and then, either negociate the price with that dealer(remember he helped you decide) or find the same unit on-line. Etronics.com was berry,berry good to me, tank you berry much.

I've got a RX-V1400. It's a good receiver and I like the black chassis color. YPAO is handy for certain things like speaker polarity and level checks. However the EQ and crossover detection isn't perfect (at least in mine). It sometimes picks a 200Hz crossover, and once set contradictory + and - EQ change at the same frequency on the same speaker. Overall it's a nice feature but it's not perfect.

A big advantage of the H/K AVR430 (don't know about the 330) is superior bass management. It can do bass management for 6-ch analog inputs (generally required for SACD or DVD-A). It can also use different bass crossover frequencies for each speaker.

Hi tbh,

I'd recommend either the H/K or the Denon. To amplify further on Joema's comment re the Yamaha (and to play devil's advocate to JohnK's enthusiasm for the Yamaha), if you get the Yamaha, please disable the automatic parametric EQ. It has the potential to make transparent, neutral speakers like Axioms sound bad. I just spoke to an owner of the Epic Grand Master system who reported that his Yamaha YPAO auto-EQ calibration "ruined" the sound of the system so he disabled it.

The YPAO also mistakenly indicates that some speakers may be out of phase when in fact they are correctly connected. We have dealt with several customers who accused Axiom of sending them speakers wired out of phase because the owners Yamaha auto-calibration feature had indicated one of the speakers was out of phase when in fact it was not!

Yamaha's YPAO auto-calibration may be great for their marketiing and sales department, but do not rely on it for proper setup for your system.

Regards,

Alan
Would you make the same conclusion regarding the Pioneer Elite 45TX MCACC method?

Hi,

The complaints we've received have all been about the Yamaha YPAO.

The auto-calibration should be okay for setting speaker distance and levels, but from everything I know about room acoustics and digital parametric EQ, it is impossible to do precise calibration using only six or seven bands.

Sometimes a single, narrow-band tweak of parametric EQ can nicely correct for a big bass hump at a single frequency (it will only apply at your listening position) but sophisticated room correction involves elaborate measurement techniques that are beyond the capacity of consumer-grade gear.

Regards,

Alan,

Thanks for your response, but it came in a little late. I went ahead and purchased Yamaha RX-V1400 from a local store. Please don't tell me that I made the wrong decision!!

Just to give you some background, this is my very first HT system and am not very familiar with calibration and stuff. So, I was kind of hoping that YPAO would be helpful. Now that you know I am a newbie how do you suggest I set it up.

Just to refresh, I have the following -

M50ti
VP100
QS4s
Hsu VTF-2
Yamaha RX-V1400

Thanks & Regards,
- TBH

tbh, if worst comes to worst, do you know if the store has a 30 return policy? (BTW, I think the Denon 1804 would have been a dynamite choice for you!).

tbh don't worry about the RX-V1400; it's a good unit. I have one.

YPAO is a good first step toward a robust, useful calibration and EQ system. However it's only a step, and has some limitations.

I like the speaker wiring, configuration, distance, level, and room sizing tests. Those seem very accurate and I've never seen a mistake. However I've seen a few apparent mistakes in the EQ and bass crossover decisions.

The great thing is while playing material, you can instantly switch between parametric EQ and graphical - flat (essentially no EQ), and see if you hear a difference.

As Alan said there's a theoretical concern of trying to EQ a room with only 7 bands. However the 1400 lets you optionally restrict all 7 bands to the lower frequences, or to the higher frequences. That might work better in some cases.

The Yamaha is a nice unit and you get a lot of watts and features for your money.

However if you have or plan on SACD or DVD-A, the H/K 430 has some clear advantages in bass management for multichannel analog inputs. The downside is it likely involves an A/D and D/A pass to achieve that, which might theoretically degrade sound quality.

Also with SACD/DVD-A you generally must manually calibrate, because the digital YPAO functions won't work on analog inputs.

Since you got the 1400 at a local store if you really don't like it you could probably return it. Personally I like my RX-V1400. However if I'd known I was going to get involved with SACD and DVD-A, I might have gotten the H/K 430.

In general don't worry about it. You have a good system and it will sound great.

You should see if you can return it and get the HK. I have a AVR-7200 and it's great. Great for DVD-A, hi current and great bass management options.

tbh,

I like my RX-V1400 as well.

Ditto on the Yamaha! It's a simple interface, you'll love it. JohnK gave me some good tips on the setting for it, but I can't find the thread...Put in one of your old forgotten favorite CDs, you'll be amazed.

I found an old favorite CD of mine, Chicago II. I could not believe how it exploits the Axioms. Especially tracks 16, 17, 18 --AM Morning, PM Morning and Memories of Love. I can't believe the range of the surrounds, the QS line is really something special!!!