Enter to Win: Real Wood Upgrade with Purchase from Axiom Audio!

[Tom Andry]

Axiom Audio wants your opinion!

Axiom Audio is offering a FREE upgrade to their VaSSallo Real Wood finishes with any speakers you order, from a pair of bookshelves to a whole home theater system to one (1) lucky eligible forum member.

To be eligible to win, you must: 1) Be a registered Audioholics forum member, 2) Have USA or Canadian Residence 3) Respond to the poll above and explain your response below in this contest thread.

Note this contest ends on October 31st, 2006. Winners will be drawn shortly thereafter

Have fun and good luck!

 

[Svenhook]

Quality is the number one most important thing for me

 

[Adam]

Receiver Features

I chose "other." The feature in which I'm most interested can probably be best summarized as "longevity." This might be accomplished with high quality amplifier materials along with replaceable/upgradeable processors and audio/video interfaces. The flexibility of separates within one chassis, if you will. I've seen some receivers like this, but if memory serves me, they are in the $5000+ range. The second feature that I look for is "affordable," and $5000 is out of my budget.

I'm very leary to spend $1000+ on a receiver again with the rapid tech advances occurring right now. With new surround modes right around the corner, and with HDMI still in flux, I won't buy another receiver this year. Instead, I bought a $450 receiver that does everything that I need (but not want) to get me through.

 

[ChrisJam]

Hi,

I was almost torn between two answers. Yes, amp quality and power are important. In fact, for my next amp, I want more power, because we'll probably move to a bigger house in 2-3 years. Now I have a Yammy 5.1 a/v receiver with 100 wpc x5 (or so it says ). That's plenty of power for our appx. 15 x 20' living room (which opens up on a dining room, though we don't listen to music from there, usually). From the research I've done, I'd want at least 125 wpc x7 on an a/v receiver for a little bit bigger room. Given that power need, quality would be important.

But I chose "other" for a couple reasons. First, I'd want almost every type of connection--analog and digital. Redundancy is good, because who knows what I might hook up to the amp. Old turntable? Got one. Old VCR? Got one. I have my CD player and DVD player hooked to my Yammy with digi optical.

HDMI? I have no use for it now, but who knows in a few years.

Another biggie is a well-designed menu system. My Yammy's is a bit tedious to use.

Built-in speaker balancing would be a nice touch. I've never tried an amp that has it, so I don't know how well it works. If it works well, that'd be a real bonus.

I'm doing research on a/v receivers because mine is 5-6 years old, and, while it's going strong and while I hope it lasts me a few more years, something could break tomorrow.

If my amp died tomorrow, I might replace it with the Yammy 659 that's gotten so much talk here recently. If mine lives for years until I decide to buy a 125+ wpc x7 a/v receiver, I might lean toward a higher-end Marantz or Denon, but I haven't excluded any good company yet. But this gets back to the quality issue: I'd want a 125+ wpc x7 to be HEAVY!

I don't care a hoot about XM.

I have an iPod Mini. Though I have it filled with songs compressed with Apple's better-than-MP3 compression, I'd still rather play the original CD, so if an amp had an iPod-in, that'd be OK, but if it didn't, I wouldn't miss it.

Chris

 

[tonay]

Hello

For me at this point amp quality is tops. The other options are important to me, I definately want Ipod connection. Video switching is not important as I don't run video through the receiver and HDMI connections make the receiver out of my price range.

Thank you

 

[abboudc]

Amp quality and power, since it's one of its two main functions. Preamp processing is second.

HDMI switching, ipod integration, etc don't matter at all to me. Just give me clean, plentiful power

 

[GaminGeer]

Power is (as I see it) the most important part of a receiver. You can have all the processing and features in the world, but with bad power (or not enough of it) then all that extra stuff doesn't really matter. My next choice would be processing.

 

[jhanley]

My next reciever purchase will be to incorporate HDMI switching. That will be my primary reason, but power and quality will always be factors also.

 

[RMK!]

Amp quality and power output are #1. Auto setup and EQ are next. You did say receiver so although I prefer separates, all of the other connectivity items are necessary based upon the market.

 

[minnichs]

Quality and ability to set-up the system to get the most out of it.

 

[jcPanny]

Receiver poll

Amplifier power and quality and preamp quality are my most imortant criteria for purchasing a new receiver. Auto setup and other features are nice, but not essential.

 

[newtoitall]

all the fancy dodads in the world arn't going to do you a bit of good if you haven't got a good Quality unit with a decent amount of power.

Frank

 

[agarwalro]

Ability to deliver a lot of clean power.

1) Ultra flat FR
2) Ultra low THD

and other stuff I dont know

 

[aarond]

i am waiting until i can get a recvr that is at least as good as my old denon that has an hd radio tuner built in.

 

[bersik]

A great amp creates great sound. For this reason, quality is key. Also, high power helps drives a wide range of speakers. For this reason, it too is very important!

 

[blownrx7]

Givens will be SQ and hdmi but I alreasdy have that.
The deal maker (or breaker) will be the auto EQ/setup features

 

[korgoth]

power and quality is most important, i wouldnt need it for video. i dont even use most of the features so those dont matter.

 

[sy527x]

I think it's pretty easy to find nearly everything on that list except hdmi input/outputs. These are only starting to be integrated into a/v equipment in my price range and it's nice to have. Not to say amps/power output are not important, but I normally look for a certain power output and there are a number of options to choose from, yet very few receivers have hdmi.

 

[kryolla]

I chose amp quality / power output for sound clarity and enough power to fill the room with the distint sounds of a movie premier, also bass management functions. Menu is not important as once your receiver is set you hardly have to touch the settings, auto eq is not important as well because everyone always uses the RS meter and DVD calibration disk anyways. Ipod is not important nor is hdmi switching as most current digital display has 2 hdmi inputs which I feel is sufficient for my needs. Upconverting should be done at the source of video such as a DVD player and not at the receiver which should be mainly audio in my opinion. My second choice would be processing which is why we are into HT system so we can feel the 5.1 or 7.1. My opinion from a noob

Drew

 

[O'Mo]

Processor quality

Many factors contribute to good sound. The processor is the brains of the receiver (also in the signal source). If the receiver doesn't have the brains to get the job done, fancy connections and massive power arent going to improve the quality of output.