I am looking for a Receiver that can be hooked up to my HD TV and HD DVD player also I am looking at getting a 5Disk CD Changer, I am not sure which brand is the best and which model goes with the HD?
I am loking at Yamaha, Marantz and Denon if you could gave me the Pro's and Con's on these three I would be thankful.
Multi-disc changers are notoriously unreliable. They really have a penchant for self-destruction. If you're looking for the ability to play many discs at once, you'd probably be better off by loading a hard disc, preferrably mirrored onto another drive and streaming the music to your AV receiver via something like Apple's Airport Express, a SqueezeBox or a Sonos system (most expensive but nicest to use). In this way you can load up all your discs at your leisure and benefit (eventually) by having all your music available with any playlist you care to mention. Provided you backup the stored music, you won't need to worry about your hard disc dying on you. Given you can have 1TB of storage for $300, which equates to about 1500 albums at full lossless quality, this has to be the ultimate multi-changing solution...
This is where the poster told us about what he wanted to do so this makes the most sense in terms of responding if you think he may be better off with an alternative solution.
That said, I didn't respond to the original question, so I will do so now:
John,
There are a very few brands of AV receiver which can cope with the full audio and video capabilities of HD-DVD and Blu-ray. I should warn you that as of February 17th when Toshiba announced that they will cease making HD-DVD players, the HD-DVD format is effectively dead. There will be players and discs around for some time, but - as in the case of Betamax - they will dwindle over time.
Anyway, the high res audio capabilities of both Blu-ray and HD-DVD are in the form of Uncompressed PCM, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. AV receivers that can decode these streams are available from Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha and Pioneer. There are possibly some others!
What you need to look for when trying to decide on a product is the Dolby TrueHD logo and the DTS-HD Master Audio logo. For your information, late last year, Onkyo stole the march on the world by introducing their new range in late September and offering Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio on every product in their range from the $400 TX-SR605. No other manufacturer has been able to offer these codecs at that price level so far as far as I know.
Needless to say Onkyo were caught napping at their own success. They knew they'd be successful, but never imagined the huge demand for their products which blasted them to the number one spot overnight - and added to significant lead times. Onkyo have ramped up and things have settled a bit now so delivery times are back to normal.
I hope this is a fuller, more acceptable answer to the earlier one I gave in this thread.
Frank is right, the Onkyo stuff right now is selling like hot cakes. I talk to a dealer of Onkyo near my home town from time to time and he was saying that he can't keep them in stock long enough.
The Onkyo stuff is pretty decent at Stereo indeed. I wouldn't quit put it up with Arcam,B&k,NAD,Rotel AVR's for two channel material as those 4 companies build their AVR's for two channel first, surround sound second. The Onkyo is built with a "surround sound first" philosophy but overall is a great sounding AVR. A rounded contender and a much better sounding AVR in two channel than the likes of Denon,Yamaha,Marantz,Pioneer and H/K. And comes with all the feature sets. Definitely the hottest AVR on the market at this time.
Actually, the Onkyo is pretty darn good. I haven't done the direct comparison between an 875 and an AVR280 but it wouldn't be that far off. When you consider the extra goodies you get with the Onkyo, that's a powerful pitch.
Sure, it's probably not as good as the Arcam, but not a million miles off. Yes, I'm impressed.
Question is, when is Arcam going to come out with something? I've heard nothing on the grapevine but expect they'll do something by late this year, maybe early next year. It's a long time to wait.
Not sure David. I guess Onkyo decided to make a real play for the receiver market. The results are deadly. Denon, Yamaha and Pioneer are all struggling to get any market share since Onkyo popped up with the current crop.
In fact I happen to know that one of the big three had an engineer look inside a TX-SR605 in particular due to its low price and after analysing the parts cost they cannot understand how Onkyo can possibly be making money from it.
Just Hi Fi here in my home town just brought in Onkyo Integra line. They say they are selling like hot cakes. They now carry, Onkyo Integra,NAD,Rotel and Arcam AVR's, and have recently dropped the H/K lineup.
Yeah for sure. Thats what I sort of meant, when people first look at the Onkyo, with those feature's and that good of sound, there isn't even a need to look any further. An instant seller, and instant hit. But even if the customer were to look elsewhere, it would still be hard not to come back to the Onkyo. Unless all they cared about was pure sound quality and were willing to spend 3 times as much as the onkyo.lol. But not too many people shopping for AVR's are doing that anymore.
So are you saying that Onkyo (505 Brand) is better than a Yamaha (550W) receiver if you have a 5 speaker set (Atlantic Technology Speakers) with a KLH Sub hooked up to an HD Flat Screen TV???
I have been in love with my Marantz. I've had it for a while now and it has been a dream, I would say get what you like the sound of best, they are all solid brands.
John specifically asked for HD-DVD support. Does the Marantz have support for the high resolution audio formats of HD-DVD and blu-ray? I was not aware that it does.
Since the thread was started Yamaha have released the RX-V663. This now competes with the Onkyo TX-SR606, although the Yamaha remains more expensive. I have not heard it.
I recently purchased the Marantz SR-7002 to replace my 7300 mainly because it has the HD -DVD support (Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio decoders). I stuck with Marantz because the 7300 had been so reliable and sounded pretty darn good as well (for a receiver). The 7002 is not disappointing good power (huge transformer). Sold my NAD M55 and got a DV-9500 for the same reason (reliability) - and glad I did!
I guess it also depends on the model and your budget.
It's funny Frank, nowhere in the brochure or on-line info did it mention DTS Master Audio for this model only DTS HD. I emailed the distributors here about that fact and a guy sent me Jpegs of the display window to prove it did indeed decode Master Audio as well.
And the other thing - Marantz, where I am, is only sold in a big box store -selling everything from from furniture, barbeques, appliances, floor coverings, computers, digital everything and video and ht audio - that kind of store. Well, I had no trouble getting 25% off retail - I guess I should have haggled more.
The point is this, do audio companies really inflate the recommended retail so after we, the smartar##se customer, reduce the salesperson to a poor crying (Hey, I've gotta feed the kids) soul, there's still that much left for profits?
I'm not against profits - nor would I try to whittle down a boutique store owner to this degree - but I feel the poor consumer is really getting the short end of the stick if he/she doesn't barter a little.
I don't think it's difficult to see why there is so much depreciation in audio/video gear. Sorry about digressing, but . . .
I know exactly what you mean MR. Take for example Future Shop here in Canada (a big box store owned by Best Buy). They have Energy RC-30s on sale this week for $499. This is over $600 off their list price.
Just goes to show how high the profit margins are. Either that or they're taking a loss on the speakers and making up on the Monster cables and extended warranty.
lol David/M.R.- My Wife worked at Future Shop for 2 years while she was going to College. I use to get 350 dollar Monster Cables for cost at 25 dollars. Not joking. Those 3000 dollar Energy Reference speakers at Future Shop? 690 bucks cost. Hows that for profit margins. You got to almost wonder if its Energy, or Future Shop.
Blimey! Nick, I wish our margins were something like that! I could afford a Naim 252/300 instead of my (nice shiny new) 282/250-2!!
The specialist manufacturers have a markup of a lot less than that here in the UK (anything between 25% and 45% depending on manufacturer) and cabling is only a bit better. When one sees end-of-line stuff for sale at 50% or less this is because the manufacturer has unloaded their kit for a bargain price and a chain (usually) has picked them up to sell cheaply. So at the moment you can find Arcams at half price. That doesn't mean I was making 50% or more on customers. It means Arcam sold those units to the retailer for half the original cost price (at least).
Hey Frank. Yeah, it seems that those large Margins in Canada are only on the Mass Marketed brands. Higher end stuff like NAIM or Bryston and such also usually have a 25 percent mark up. One of the local Arcam dealers here are selling the AVR350(none HDMI) for 60 percent off due to the new 350 with HDMI. Good deals to be had for sure or Arcam.
Another thing to consider is that a place like Future Shop is buying the stuff by the 10's of thousands, whereas a mom and pop shop is buying them by the 10's AT BEST. When you order 10,000 units, a manufacturer will give a pretty good break on price. Not to mention that they may get them direct from the manufacturer and not a distributer, thus cutting the cost further. Its a win-win for both parties - the manufacturer made a killing, and so did the store.
This isn't just audio. A friend owned a gas station/convenience store. He paid twice what a supermarket paid for everything.
The little guy is the one who gets hurt in all of this.
I've had the Superline for a month or two now. It's bl00dy awesome. As many of you know, I've been a stalwart owner of various versions of the Tom Evans Groove phono stage for many years, always updating to the latest variant etc. The Superline is appreciably (and surprisingly) better. Why surprising? Well, Tom Evans is a bit of a phono stage guru, having made much of his name on preamp design (the Finestra) and phono stages (Michell ISO). And to be honest, the Naim Stageline was a redesign and not particularly good value so there were questions as to whether Naim could a) be bothered and b) be capable enough to build what would have to be an exceptional phono stage.
Well, they have, and the thing is really rather wonderful and oddly not overpriced (in the scheme of things). Naim have a reputation for offering performance but at a price which make many people go pale. I think they may be wondering if the Superline is underpriced. £1650 is about $3300 which is a shocking amount of money, especially if you add the extra $2000 for a power supply to drive it into a non-Naim system, but in the context of a typically $5000 turntable and associated amplifier (ok, so mine's a lot more than that) it kind of vaguely makes sense...ish...
Well, the wife said I could have one so I grabbed the opportunity! Actually, she said something more on the lines of "You've got to have one of these." which was rather more emphatic and great news of course.
So thanks again gentlemen.
Oh, the main amplifier is stonkingly good and actually far better than I expected in situ. I was concerned that it wouldn't have the guts to drive the Mani-2s properly, and I think that if I really turn it up it may not do so, but at loud room filling volumes, I have no problems. It's like a breath of fresh air.
Anyone want to buy an Arcam AV9/P7, mint condition? I need to refill the coffers a little! (Yes, I really am selling it.)
