Which receiver?

[Stretch90]

Hey everyone. I'm in the process of finishing my home audio set up. I have Kef speakers (2 Q100s, a Q200 and Q400) and a Yamaha RX-v577 and in the future I'm planning on getting 2 Q900s.

When I get the Q900s I'm planning on upgrading my receiver to a high end Yamaha. What I'm wondering is will getting a new receiver right now improve my sound quality significantly or will it not make much of a difference until I get new speakers? Also, if you have any suggestions of which receiver would go well with my speakers please let me know. I'm looking to get the highest quality sound possible but I'm not obsessed with power because I'm only using this in my living room. Thanks for the help!

 

[Adam Kelly]

You can find a used Yamaha Z11 on eBay for around $1,300 bucks. It has a terrific amp section (outperformed the Denon 5308), a good power supply, very very good dacs, and it's one of the last truly great performing receivers made.

 

[KenM10759]

I am NOT as knowledgeable about this as most here, but will offer that I don't believe you would notice much difference in the sound quality by going to a more powerful and expensive receiver of the same make. Your current one isn't bad at all, and seems plenty powerful enough for the speakers you have now and the future.

My journey to better sound quality is similar to yours. The speakers I'd bought (KEF R500, R200C) had revealed I could go to higher levels but I really wanted better SQ at even moderate to (relatively) low volume levels.

Please consider or at least research going to the Q700 or even Q500 instead of Q900. Because you have a subwoofer, the larger 8" low frequency driver of the Q900 isn't needed, and the 6-1/2" of the Q700 or 5-1/4" LF driver of the Q500 is more than sufficient. Those are a better match to your Q200C center speaker anyhow. My system parallels yours in many ways.

I would encourage you to look carefully at what your needs are regarding Video part of your AV receiver and decide what you really need. I did this and came away from the exercise with a less "video oriented" AVR but with what I perceive to be much better sound quality than the 3 year old Denon it replaced. I'm far more interested in good 2.1 stereo than having 9.2 surround sound. The 5.1 system I have for now will do, my long tem upgrade path will encompass more capability as I see a need for it.

Audition some other AVR's. Include a Yamaha Adventege series, but also try an Anthem MXR310 or MXR510, NAD T748 or T758, Cambridge Audio CXR120 or others and see if you can detect the same kind of difference I did. All I'll say is that I was pleasantly surprised and spent less than a higher end Japanese brand with all the latest bells & whistles that I don't need.

Best of luck to you!

 

[fmw]

Stretch, the sound quality of your system is in the speakers and room acoustics, not the receiver. Use what you have and work on what matters.

 

[KenM10759]

Stretch, the sound quality of your system is MOSTLY in the speakers and room acoustics, not the receiver. Use what you have and work on what matters.

Fixed that for ya.

There are subtle differences in the sound from receivers, though I doubt he's down to that yet. I do agree there's very likely much more to be done with room acoustics, speaker placement and levels setting before receiver choice will make a discernible difference.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

What I'm wondering is will getting a new receiver right now improve my sound quality significantly or will it not make much of a difference until I get new speakers?

My response is that getting a new Yamaha to replace your current Yamaha will improve the sound quality exactly 0.00% right now or with any new speaker you buy.

 

[KenM10759]

Agreed, but if everyone shared your feelings on that you might not sell much of the brands you list for being an authorized dealer. Good thing there's a lot of placebo effect out there. It certainly helped the bottom line for two of my local dealers for November.

 

[fmw]

Hey everyone. I'm in the process of finishing my home audio set up. I have Kef speakers (2 Q100s, a Q200 and Q400) and a Yamaha RX-v577 and in the future I'm planning on getting 2 Q900s.

When I get the Q900s I'm planning on upgrading my receiver to a high end Yamaha. What I'm wondering is will getting a new receiver right now improve my sound quality significantly or will it not make much of a difference until I get new speakers? Also, if you have any suggestions of which receiver would go well with my speakers please let me know. I'm looking to get the highest quality sound possible but I'm not obsessed with power because I'm only using this in my living room. Thanks for the help!

The difference in price between various models of Yamaha receivers has nothing to do with sound quality. It involves features. If a more expensive model has features you want and will use, then upgrading may make sense.

The only issues involved in choosing amplifiers to go with speakers are nominal speaker impedance, speaker efficiency, distance between speakers and listening position and the expected volume level. Even these factors don't matter most of the time and probably don't matter in your case.

 

[PENG]

Agreed, but if everyone shared your feelings on that you might not sell much of the brands you list for being an authorized dealer. Good thing there's a lot of placebo effect out there. It certainly helped the bottom line for two of my local dealers for November.

Ken, I do see your point and I think we both know we did agree on such related topics to a point in the past. Quoted below is from Part I of an multi part article I linked before, not sure if it was meant for you or others. Wouldn't hurt to link it here again just to make the OP feel a little better about his RX-V577. It was written by David A. Rich, a Ph.D in EE

http://hometheaterhifi.com/technical/technical-reviews/options-by-supplier-and-price/

"A key takeaway: circuit quality in the direct mode (stereo or 7.1) is almost always invariant to AVR prices in the range of $400 to $2,000. As examples, the $250 Yamaha RX-V367 and Marantz AV8801 ($3000) use the same Renesas LSI chip (R2A15220FP). With the LSI analog chip in these products, the sound of the direct mode is relatively constant, although a more robust power supplies, addition a quality output buffer and enhanced DC blocking capacitor quality can make small differences.

Unfortunately it is not possible to actually do this listening test just proposed in practice because the Yamaha RX-V367, like almost all low cost AVRS produced today, does not have preamp outputs. The experiment would be possible using the older RX-V665 ($550)"

Of course he wasn't saying that the AV8801 would sound the same as the entry level Yamaha RX-V367 but you can understand why some of us are saying what we are saying. Incidentally, that "some of us" include me, who actually spent more than 3K on the AV-8801, that get several rave reviews at the time.

 

[3db]

Hey everyone. I'm in the process of finishing my home audio set up. I have Kef speakers (2 Q100s, a Q200 and Q400) and a Yamaha RX-v577 and in the future I'm planning on getting 2 Q900s.

When I get the Q900s I'm planning on upgrading my receiver to a high end Yamaha. What I'm wondering is will getting a new receiver right now improve my sound quality significantly or will it not make much of a difference until I get new speakers? Also, if you have any suggestions of which receiver would go well with my speakers please let me know. I'm looking to get the highest quality sound possible but I'm not obsessed with power because I'm only using this in my living room. Thanks for the help!

Like FMW has mentioned, if you are looking for features not found in your current AVR, then yes the upgrade is worth it. One thing of improvement for sure is the YPAO feature which is more extensive in its room correction facility than what is found on the RX-V577. The bigger power supply in the higher end unit will also allow you to play your material at louder levels without straining the unit.