hi everyone, is the sony str-de598 receiver a good receiver and if i use my speakers (200w max power) will the speakers be able to handle the receiver. also does the max power mean per channel or total please let me know. thanks everyone.
are you looking to BUY a sony, or do you already own one?
in my listening experience, sony recievers are the most bland sounding ones out there unless they've changed their "house sound" which used to be excessively polite.
harmon kardon recievers used to sound the best when i A/Bed tone flat, volume matched recievers by sony, JVC, pioneer, NAD, yamaha & HK back when my town had a store with all those brands. that was a few years back. the brands were better in the order that i posted them.
now though, panasonic class-d recievers are the best bang for the buck out there. i bought mine so that i could get the 4 ohm magnepan MMGs that i lusted over, but it made such a huge improvement in my sound that i'm keeping my NHT superzeros now.
at just $220 (sa-xr55) delivered, you can get a 7.1 surround reciever with 100wpc and awesome sonics. if you plan on getting high res digital down the road, the SA-XR70 might be better for it's high res HDMI inputs, but i've found that my panny's D/A converters are a little polite and that my sony DVD/SACD player's analogue outs are actually a little crisper in the treble. (unexpected!)
the ways that my panasonic totally spanks my NAD and onkyo recievers (both better than sony IMHO):
super imaging that can extend beyond the speakers with a well defined and wide center
deeper and tighter bass (NAD is really good here)
more detailed and grain free treble. even right next to my tweeters, i can't hear any tizz.
more dynamic jump
and the thing that immediately made my jaw drop was the midrange purity. i've NEVER heard female vocals sound so lush and sexy in my system before.
read up on sony SA-XR model reviews. so far, everyone i've seen that owns one loves it. class-d kicks butt. read my SA-XR55 thread as well as another member's one in the reciever (not amp) forum, or check the thread out titled "are class h amps the next big thing?" here in amps. there's some panasonic talk there too.
the power ratings for speakers aren't a "requirement", they're only an indication of the most power that a speaker can use. if you plan on cranking speakers all the way, it's actually better to have too much power than not enough. if you push a lower powered amp too hard, it will go into clipping which will make your speakers go *pop* and then silent or buzz.
it isn't as important as how much power you have as how you use it. just don't listen to ANY speakers when they start to distort. if they do, turn them down. easy rule of thumb.
unless you want to destroy your hearing, 100 watts is adequate power for most speakers. many british folks listen to "eye-fi" as they call it on 30 watt integrated amps.
sound quality is more important than power ratings. typical speakers put out about 90dB which is starting to get loud with just one watt of power! that's why one magazine reviewer once said something like: "with amps... it's THE FIRST WATT that matters the most"
in other words, quality is better than quantity unless you're a club DJ or something.