I have M60's, a VP150 & a set of QS8's and was thinking of upgrading my receiver. I have a Pioneer VSX-1018. I was thinking Denon or Onkyo. I also have a 10" Athena sub that will do the job for now until a EP350. Any advice would be appreciated.

Jeff, you haven't said exactly what aspect you want to "upgrade", but one of the Onkyo or Denon models with Audyssey MultEQ that fit your budget should be an excellent choice in general. I'll suggest the Onkyo 709 factory refurb from Accessories4less for about $430 here as a great buy.

Hey Jeff, as John mentioned, try and get a receiver that has all the bells and whistles that you are looking for...Most decent name brand receivers today should be adequate for a great experience...

Hi JLJ,

I always recommend Denon over Onkyo. Onkyo seems to have gotten their act together in recent years, but going back a decade, even the least expensive Denon receivers would drive the 4-ohm load of Axiom M80s without overheating or shutting down, whereas Onkyo models at that time would not drive 4-ohm M80s.

It was my impression that Onkyos were under-engineered and that the company was totally marketing-driven, so they skimped on basic amplifier requirements in order to include the latest popular features, to gain a competitive edge over other brands.

End of Onkyo rant.

Regards,
Alan

sometimes, Alan, i like your rants... ;-)

Alans new plates on car ILVONKYO

Ha, ha, ha! J.B. and Sir Quack.

Cheers,
Alan

Was I laughing?
Very glad you are...

J.B.,

I'm delighted you like my occasional rants.

Alan

Or should I just get the new Axiom 1000 amp and use the Pre-outs on my Pioneer?

You could certainly do that and get gobs of clean output power, far more than your Pioneer will output. It's nice your Pioneer has pre-outs; these days manufacturers are eliminating pre-outs except on the up-market models.

If memory serves, that Pioneer you have may use the ICE Class D amplifier modules, based on a Bang&Olufson patent.

If you want other gizmos, you still may want to upgrade. I'm not much of an Audyssey fan, so unless you want that, your Pioneer's preamp section will certainly be fine to feed an Axiom power amp.

Regards,
Alan

Thanks Alan, I am pretty sure it is not a class D amp. VSX-1018AH-K
Think only the elites have class D. This one is 110 W a channel apparently, but now with good speakers the amp has to be turned up quite a bit more but depends on the source.

Hi Alan,

Do you have any experience with the Marantz SR6006?
I am interested in using it as a pre amp until the pre/pro I like becomes available.
I have an Outlaw 7700 amp and have ordered the Axiom Epic 80 system with the 180 center and QS8 surrounds with the EP800 sub.
(Just waiting for the shipping date.)
Any thoughts/impressions on the SR6006 is appreciated

thanks in advance
Jeff

Hi Strider53,

No, I don't have experience with recent Marantz, however I'm sure other Marantz owners will help you out.

Speaking generally, you should be fine using a Marantz AV receiver as a preamp with your Outlaw power amp. I mean, an engineer really has to be a bonehead to screw up a preamp section of an AV receiver. There are areas of potential inaccuracy in the analogue phono input--if the receiver has phono inputs--with sloppy design, but that would be most unusual. In the old days, cheap receivers often had fairly noisy phono preamp sections; more expensive models often had much quieter phono preamp sections (moving-magnet and moving-coil) but unless you play a lot of vinyl, that's irrelevant.

I think you'll be thrilled with the sound quality of your new Epic 80 and 180 center with the Outlaw amp.

Regards,
Alan

my receiver is the SR5005, last year's model, and i use it as a pre-pro
(except for the surround back channels, which are driven by the Marantz).
so, when i listen to something, it's mostly through the preamp, and when the sound source is of high quality, it's totally transparent; which means that not only the speakers are superb but also the preamp.
they just disappear...

no noise, no discernable distortion, flat Fr. Resp., great dynamics...

Reported for being too funny. Hopefully somebody at the DMV can make this a reality.