Best Receiver for Paradigm Reference

[savagescott]

I'm in the processs of setting up my HT system and need some advice on receiver choice. My speaker set-up will be: Studio 40's, CC-570, ADP-470s and Servo 15 v.2. I've narrowed my receiver choices (I think) to NAD 773, Rotel 1067 and Arcam AVR 300. I've seen the discussions about the importance of correctly matching your receiver w/ your speakers, i.e., balance "bright" speakers w/ a "warm" receiver.

My listening habits will probably be 50/50 music/movies.

My questions are:
How valid/important is "matching"?
How, in general, would my speaker set-up be characterized - warm, bright, etc.?
What aspects of the three receivers I mentioned make them a desirable or not-so-desirable choice for my speakers?

Any other thoughts/experiences with any of these receivers would also be helpful and much appreciated.

Thanks

[Please do not double post. Thank you. - Admin]

 

[marky]

yamaha rxv2500 or 4600
denon 3805 or 4806

 

[marky]

oops didnt read your choices of receivers. well from what ive heard and read, NAD, Rotel and arcam are consider "warm" receivers. Paradigm are also consider "warm" so according to them is not be a good match. my opinion is, if its a good amp it'll make the speakers sing regardless if its warm or bright or neutral. the thing to worry about is room acoustics. if your room is bright, more than likely your speakers are going to be bright. hope that helps!

 

[savagescott]

The obvious question... How do I determine if my room is bright, neutral or warm?

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Nice choices

Scott, welcome to the forum. Glad to have you.

My speaker set-up will be: Studio 40's, CC-570, ADP-470s and Servo 15 v.2. I've narrowed my receiver choices (I think) to NAD 773, Rotel 1067 and Arcam AVR 300. I've seen the discussions about the importance of correctly matching your receiver w/ your speakers, i.e., balance "bright" speakers w/ a "warm" receiver.

My questions are:
How valid/important is "matching"?

With the amount of money you are investing in a receiver, it's paramount. IMHO, all three units have their own signature sound. If I were you, I'd get to know your salesmen well, and get each unit in house to compare. For the commission they will be making, none of them should even flinch on allowing you to demo these in home.

How, in general, would my speaker set-up be characterized - warm, bright, etc.?

Those are wonderful speakers. I'd say there are as close to flat (that's a good thing) as you can get. With the proper processor, you should be able to tailor the sounds exactly the way you see fit. I prefer a receiver with a built in eq. Even better, a parametric eq.

What aspects of the three receivers I mentioned make them a desirable or not-so-desirable choice for my speakers?

All three have received rave reviews. Rotels have been noted as being a tad "bright," which I don't mind at all. You can tame anything with an eq and proper room setup/acoustics. The Rotel has the "coolest" look IMO. The NAD is the beast of the bunch, weighing in at almost 70lbs! The Rotel is next in line as far as beefiness goes, while the Arcam is the lightweight of the bunch. That may be of some concern, based on your speaker selection, and the demands they put on amplifiers. A heavier unit undoubtedly has a larger power supply, transformer, and heat sink.

Nothing substitutes an in house demo, so get started on buttering up these pushy salesmen.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

The obvious question... How do I determine if my room is bright, neutral or warm?

A bright room has tile floors, bare walls, and lots of windows. Bright rooms allow sound to continually bounce off walls, with nothing to stop it.

A warm room is carpeted, with lots of window treatments, pictures, wood tables, overstuffed furniture, etc... It absorbs the sounds from your speakers and avoids reverberations.

Sound should bounce off one wall, then stop. The trick is to get all your speakers aligned so this occurs. Easier said than done. It's probably the hardest aspect of setting up a surround system.

 

[Dinkar Rai]

considering the fact that you have warm speakers, yamaha 2500 or higher sounds like a good idea. the amp is very clean as well as very musical. by the way, the speakers are how much ohms?

 

[savagescott]

Thanks for your insight. You said each receiver will have it's own sound - Rotel being on the bright side. While I understand "the sound" will be subjective, how would you characterize the sound of the other two?

Also, based on your description, my room (which is about 14W X 30L X 8.5 high) would be considered warm.

The speakers are 8 ohm.

 

[j_garcia]

Arcam. Of the stuff you listed, it's the best one IMO.

Weight is one factor, but it is NOT how one should make a decision based on power. Listening is the only way to truly find out what a given receiver/amp can do. The NAD will likely have the most stable amp section out of those listed, however, the recent models have been plagued with quality issues, and the Arcam sounds better anyway. Rotel would be my second choice of that group.

Studios are listed as 8 Ohm compatible; they actually drop quite low in impedance, so you need something that is fairly stout, and I think any of those receiver should do the trick. You might also consider the B&K AVR 507.

The Studios are far from flat. They are rather bright to my ears, and my room is definitely not bright, nor is my gear. I spent weeks with the Studios (after having been a Monitor series owner for years) and decided not to buy them, but that's just my personal taste in speakers.

 

[Privateer]

savagescott what is your budget?

 

[savagescott]

I would go as high as $2500 for a receiver (seperates?) but that's stretching - not necessarily because of pure dollars but simply because it seems I can fulfill my needs for that amount.

Have you got an alternative thought?

 

[jaxvon]

With that kind of a budget, you might think about Outlaw Audio as an option. Their new 990 processor is $1099 and their 7 channel 200WPC amp is $1599. I belive you get a discount by ordering both together. Or, you could also opt for the Yamaha RX-V2500 and the Outlaw Amp.

Outlaw Audio

 

[pjripple]

Savagescott,

Have you pulled the trigger on your receiver purchase yet? Yesterday I had an opportunity to listen to the Studios and really liked them. I'm undecided between the 60's and 100's for the fronts, but plan on using the 570 center and ADP surrounds. I'm not sure how much receiver I need to power them adequately. I have been researching for a couple of months and like all of the brands you listed: Arcam, Rotel, NAD, as well as others. I would like to stay around $1,000 but could stretch the budget to $2,000 if necessary. Please let me know what you did and how it performs.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[AVRat]

pjripple,
Initially, I would suggest you get the receiver with the most good clean power that you can afford. Then when you can afford it, add a good 2-channel amp of similar power to bi-amp the 60s or 100s. The Studio line are pretty power hungry and I believe the 60s and 100s are better candidates for bi-amping than many others. Many new, featured laden products are coming out making the decision harder to make. I'm glad I don't suffer from upgraditis.

 

[pjripple]

pjripple,
Initially, I would suggest you get the receiver with the most good clean power that you can afford. Then when you can afford it, add a good 2-channel amp of similar power to bi-amp the 60s or 100s. The Studio line are pretty power hungry and I believe the 60s and 100s are better candidates for bi-amping than many others. Many new, featured laden products are coming out making the decision harder to make. I'm glad I don't suffer from upgraditis.

AVRat,

Please clarify "good clean power". Being new to this, I get confused when comparing for example Rotel 1067 (7 x 100w RMS) which costs $2200 to the Yamaha RVX 2500 (7 x 130w RMS) at a cost of $1100. Is the Rotel power "cleaner"? Is it worth twice the price? The Yamaha seems to have more bells and whistles, but is that sacrificing sound quality? Thanks for your input.

Oh yeah - the Paradigm sales person told me that a receiver with 100w per channel (all channels driven) would be plenty of power for the 100's...is this correct?

Paul

 

[j_garcia]

AVRat,

Please clarify "good clean power". Being new to this, I get confused when comparing for example Rotel 1067 (7 x 100w RMS) which costs $2200 to the Yamaha RVX 2500 (7 x 130w RMS) at a cost of $1100. Is the Rotel power "cleaner"? Is it worth twice the price? The Yamaha seems to have more bells and whistles, but is that sacrificing sound quality? Thanks for your input.

Oh yeah - the Paradigm sales person told me that a receiver with 100w per channel (all channels driven) would be plenty of power for the 100's...is this correct?

A receiver with the power capability of the Rotel's 100w would be OK, because it actually puts out 100w. The majority of lowerer mass market receivers won't cut it. I wouldn't exactly say the Rotel is worth 2x the price, but it is definitely a better choice.

I would recommend something along the lines of what Jaxvon said. Pick up any decent receiver that has the features you want and add a 2 or 3 channel amp to it to run the front speakers. You won't have any need to worry about power then.

 

[sts9fan]

I am using a yamaha reciver with my studio 60 v3s and love the sound

 

[Spiffyfast]

The Studio 60's would probably be ok being powered off of a receiver, they'd be better off an amp. The studio 100's really need the power that an external amp can offer to open up, they have a lot of speakers to drive.

 

[pjripple]

Do you think I'd be okay running the 100's bi amped (please remember I'm a newb here...) using something like the Yamaha RVX 2500 or Denon 3805? I'm just trying to not blow the budget too badly right now. My intention would be to add an external amp in the future. Doesn't bi-amping basically use the 6th and 7th channels to double the power to the fronts? Please let me know if I'm way off here.

Paul

 

[newfmp3]

You are in a similar situation as I am. Although I'm a few steps ahead of you. With all the talk about the Nad t773 I was willing to give up a few features for a really good amp that was supposd to have this wonderful music sound

Well, I had one shipped to the house, hooked it up to my Axiom M80ti's, and all of a sudden my M80's sounded like a Bose system. NOT GOOD. All mids, little highs, and bass was almost non-existent. Of course, I was comparing directly to a tfm-15 Carver amp and Carver preamp that had been powering them up to this point. I was immediatly looking for a EQ to fix the thing.

Don't get me wrong. the NAD is nice, the remote is awesome, you can trim levels for each channel on the fly via buttons on the remote. It's very easy to use and setup. The woman doesn't have an issue with using it...that's good. Has a nice touch of quality to the "feel" of it. And it has external loops for each channel which u rarely see anymore. I can run my Axiom setup for hours, and it's not warm at all. but the sound of the thing is definitely warm.

don't fall for this nonsense of if you have "bright" speakers, get a "warm" amp. I'm learning the hard way that a majority of peoples opinions on what is warm or bright are going to confuse you so much that you'll never make sense of it. You really need to find a good store that sells good amps and start auditioning in your own home. The one I am dealing with sells NAD, Rotel, Marantz, Yamaha and a few others so I have a few other options. I'm now waiting for a yammie 4600 to arrive as you might have read in other threads. The yamaha is supposed to be "Bright" and if you believe the nonsense on avsforums and even here sometimes, my M80's are supposed to be bright as well....well, they are not. They are detailed, and clear, but not annoyingly bright at all. So, we'll see now if these two are too "bright". but, the way I look at it, that's what eq's and tone controls are for. And I would rather have the ability to have too much brightness/bass and just turn it down, then not enough and no way to do anything about it.



Any other questions about the NAD ask away. By the way, it's only 50lbs not 70. Technically it's like 52 or 53 lbs, and 60 shipped.

I must admit though, part of my mind says I'm nuts to try to replace a NAD with a Yamaha. But until I actually have the two to compare, I'll never know.