Any receiver out there make a reasonable fist of music?

[don maico]

I am thinking of buying a Playstation 3 in order to use its BR capability in the main.Currently I own an HK AVR5500 which I find ok for music ( stereo / dvd A) but as it lacks HDMI and any of the new audio formats, ie True HD / DTS HD etc ,it'll obviously become obsolete.The thing is what to replace it with? Where I live in the UK the new Onkyo 606 seems to be the receiver of choice but I wonder how it would cope with BR live concerts? I am not so concerned about stereo but decent 5.1 or 7.1 would be good. Most AV receivers arent considered for their musical merits over here , the exception being Arcam or maybe one of the high end Denons. Sadly HKs have fallen out of favour here, which is a great pity .

I'd really appreciate some feedback please . Thanks
Mike

 

[smurphy522]

While I cannot state the model details; H/K will be replacing the 247 and 347 with receiver(s) capable of the new HD audio processing. I got confirmation from sales reps. (unfortunately not in email or written form) that H/K is waiting for more media and players to come out which can provide this information to the receiver. They also like to get as much life out of their products as the market will allow (unlike Yamaha and Pioneer for example) before replacing them. With regards to new units they are historically more "technologically reserved".

 

[don maico]

While I cannot state the model details; H/K will be replacing the 247 and 347 with receiver(s) capable of the new HD audio processing. I got confirmation from sales reps. (unfortunately not in email or written form) that H/K is waiting for more media and players to come out which can provide this information to the receiver. They also like to get as much life out of their products as the market will allow (unlike Yamaha and Pioneer for example) before replacing them. With regards to new units they are historically more "technologically reserved".

Yes I gathered that .Unfortunately it seems to have had the effect of them lagging behind the competition here ie price and features.
Nevertheless i shall wait and see what they come out with. As I said musically i find them ok, but Onkyo I know nothing about except the 606 been well received here regarding its movie capabilities

 

[jliedeka]

Unfortunately it seems that quality and currency (being current, not money ) don't go together. When I looked at receivers and pre-pros from Rotel, NAD and others, they lagged horribly on modern feature sets.

If you want suggestions, I find my Marantz receiver to be very musical but I would suggest you listen to one and make up your own mind. I've also heard good things about Integra and Denon receivers. I would also consider Emotiva which looks like a great bargain.

Jim

 

[jamie2112]

Denon receivers are quite nice for the money....

 

[tn001d]

Whats ur price limit/budget? I agree Denon is nice.

 

[don maico]

Unfortunately it seems that quality and currency (being current, not money ) don't go together. When I looked at receivers and pre-pros from Rotel, NAD and others, they lagged horribly on modern feature sets.

If you want suggestions, I find my Marantz receiver to be very musical but I would suggest you listen to one and make up your own mind. I've also heard good things about Integra and Denon receivers. I would also consider Emotiva which looks like a great bargain.

Jim

I'd never heard of Integra before today but after doing a search it would appear to be part of Onkyo( maybe the audiophile section), a company who has,until now, been massively underrated in the UK.Unfortunately it is only available in North america
Marantz are well received and I shall look into them although I dont think their current products are up to spec( HD audio)
Denon yes always massively popular - Maybe the 3808 an expensive besast that retails for £1200 ($2400 approx).Probably out of my budget as I dont really wish to go above 6 or £700( $1400)
thanks

 

[don maico]

Arcam emailed me as i was curious as to why they didnt include HDMI audio in their amps. Their reply was there are jitter problems with it which render the feature inferior to the conventional Dolby /DTS connectivity they use.
Arcam are known for maintaining very good sonic standards on all their products so it would probably be prudent to wait until those jitter issues are sorted before diving in.

 

[allargon]

Arcam emailed me as i was curious as to why they didnt include HDMI audio in their amps. Their reply was there are jitter problems with it which render the feature inferior to the conventional Dolby /DTS connectivity they use.
Arcam are known for maintaining very good sonic standards on all their products so it would probably be prudent to wait until those jitter issues are sorted before diving in.

Translation: We are lazy and take our time just like Meridian, Cambridge and every other British manufacturer out there.

 

[don maico]

Translation: We are lazy and take our time just like Meridian, Cambridge and every other British manufacturer out there.

cautious is the word. They'll wait and see how the market pans out and then produce their own "higher end" version. As they are a small company they cannot afford top take the hits the likes of Sony and Toshiba everytime new technologies come out that end up failing.If you asked most non audiophile Brits, they would probably tell you they never heard of Arcam or Meridian

 

[jliedeka]

I would tend to agree that it's probably caution, not laziness. The HDMI spec is a mess. It's changed three times in the last two years. Plus, it has problems over distance and let's not even talk about HDCP.

As far as jitter problems go, I wonder how much of that is real and how much is a hallucination of people who buy $5000 CD players.

Jim

 

[don maico]

As far as jitter problems go, I wonder how much of that is real and how much is a hallucination of people who buy $5000 CD players.

Jim

well there is always that of course This is what the fella at Arcam told me:

Hi Michael,

At this moment no Arcam receiver or processor accepts audio from HDMI,
this is purely down to the current jitter issues with HDMI audio and the
poor quality that HDMI audio produces. If you wish to connect your PS3
you will need to use optical. In fairness at this moment in time the end
result using optical will currently outperform HDMI audio and until the
issues with the quality are resolved Arcam will not allow this inferior
sound format to run on the receivers or the processors.
I hope this helps you further.
I see no reason to doubt him really