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Mike in Canada | Sure I can afford a 5.1 denon, onkyo, or yamaha but now that Ive seen the 6.1 light I cant get it out of my head! So Im pretty set that Im gonna pick up a 6 channel amp but Im on a strict budget of about $600 CAD (about $400US). Unfortunately, the Denon AVR1803 and the Onkyo SR600 are out of my league. Any recommendations? Pioneer and Sony suck as far as I'm concerned.The only 2 amps I seem to really like so far are the Kenwood 6060 and the Marantz SR4300. Does anyone have any opinions of these two amps (especially the Marantz cause I havent seen hardly anything about it on the net as far as reviews go.)Any other suggestion in this price range? By the way, this amp will be driving the ever so popular take 5 energy sub/sat system and my dvd player is a Toshiba SD-4800 progressive scan with DVD audio so the amp has to have analog inputs. Thanks! |
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leonard | I have the 6060. I bought mine last June at Visions in Wpg. This receiver has all the bells and you will need. The 6060 uses the same amps as the THX Select 6070 receiver. Sound & Vision Magazine had it rated at 92 watts with all channels driven. This is very good for a budget receiver. I am running the 6060 with speakers from the Athena Technologies Audition Series and I can play them as loudly as any sane person would want to without distortion. I can't comment on the Marantz since I haven't seen the model. Hope this helps. |
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Mike in Canada | Interesting, thanks for the reply. A couple questions though: 1)Have you had any problems with it overloading at high levels? I just returned a Panasonic SA-HE100 cause when running in 6 channel mode it kept quitting on me. Evidence that Panasonic is still crap no matter how cheap or how many features it has. My wiring was all good and it wasnt even loud. I'm running 8ohm energy speakers and a powered sub so I dont get it but I dont want the same problem with the next amp. 2) Can it decode DTS-ES discreetly or is it just a matrixed DTS-ES? I find there are a lot of amps out there that have the DTS-ES logo on them but can't decode the sixth channel discreetly. Its only a matrixed decoding. |
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leonard brisebois | Hi. Sorry for the late reply. I have had no problem with it overloading. I calibrated all my speakers with the volume set at -12db on the receiver. The loudest that I have played a movie is -20db. That is very loud! Most of the movies I watch are between -25db and -30db. The 6060 does all forms of DTS-ES; both discreete and matrix. It does have 6 channels of amplification so you don't need a separate amp to power a rear center speaker. I have heard that Kenwood will be coming out with a replacement for the 60xx series of receivers. I'm not sure if the new models will be significantly improved over the current ones. If they aren't, you might be able to get a really good deal on the 6060 or even 6070. |
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| I'm looking at the 6060 because of the sound, price tag and component video in/outs. I'm concerned about signal loss through these video ports. My current Kenwood's svideo's never worked very well for me. Anyone have any expirience with the component video ports? Thanks |
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Anonymous | Actually the Marantz SR4300 was just reviewed by What Hi-fi magazine which gave it 5 stars. Among its other 4 competitors (Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo & Sony), only Sony got an equal number of stars, however, they gave the Best Buy rating to the Sony STR-DB 1080 (Model STR-DA2ES in US). http://www.audioreview.com/A-V,Receivers/Sony,STR-DA2ES/PRD_140162_2718crx.aspx http://www.azone.ch/Sony-STR-DB1080.htm http://www.hifi.com/store/category.cgi?category=rec_hometheater&item=m1sr4300&type=store |
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| Actually the Marantz SR4300 was just reviewed by What Hi-fi magazine which gave it 5 stars. Among its other 4 competitors (Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo & Sony), only Sony got an equal number of stars, however, they gave the Best Buy rating to the Sony STR-DB 1080 (Model STR-DA2ES in US). http://www.audioreview.com/A-V,Receivers/Sony,STR-DA2ES/PRD_140162_2718crx.aspx http://www.techzone.ch the best Online-Shop http://www.hifi.com/store/category.cgi?category=rec_hometheater&item=m1sr4300&type=store |
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scott | accessories4less.com has a refurbished 4300 for $299.00 and free shipping. I have the SR4300, and this is a great price. |