matching reciever to speakers

[mikecw_1968]

I'm in the loooong process of buying my first home theater/music system. I've narrowed my choices of receiver down to the Yamaha 1500 and Onkyo 702. I've also just about narrowed my speakers choices to Klipsch RF series and B&W 600 series. I've read some posts that indicate that matching the Yamaha receiver with Klipsch speakers is a bad idea.

Being the novice at home theater I am, I have to ask....why? Why do people say that you shouldn't match certain receivers with certain speakers? I know it all depends on what I like and what sounds good to me but it still bothers me that I don't know what people are talking about on this issue. Plus, it's very hard for me to listen to the exact setup I would buy because the places I've been don't carry the same combination of receivers/speakers. I don't want to get home with all this stuff to find out that those people were right.

 

[nibhaz]

grey area...

The reason that people like to combine one type of receiver with a certain kind of speaker is based on the idea that each “colors,” the music in a certain way. For example some might claim that a certain brand of receiver is “bright” and thus would pair them with a set of speakers that they feel are “warm,” in an effort to cancel each other out so that the resulting sound is “neutral.” The problem with this is that all of these descriptions are purely subjective and based on personal preference. One person may claim that a particular speaker is bright while someone else may claim that they are warm…so you really need to take these recommendations with a grain of salt. It is true however; that speakers do color music…no speaker is perfect…if there was one perfect speaker we wouldn’t have the vast sea of speaker manufactures to choose from. However the jury is still out on receivers having an effect on the sound. What I mean is there are those who believe that if Brand A and Brand B are well designed receivers and you do not exceed the power specifications of the amplifier the signal reaching the speaker should be identical, in other words not colored. I’m personally in this camp, and there are others in these forums that can provide you with a much more technical explanation.

Now that we have that out of the way, I’ll let you know that I’m quite pleased with the combination of my Onkyo receiver and 600 series B&Ws. I won’t describe the sound with fluff, but I will tell you that the sound coming out of my system has given me goose bumps…but to each his own. Also, when I auditioned the B&W’s they were on rotel amps and they sound the same on my onkyo…IMO, but perhaps that will help in your auditions.

***this post is merely my thoughts and opinions, not responsible for the use of information or accuracy contained within***

 

[Azz123]

Hi Mike...
I recently walked the road your in the midst of..
Being a bit of a puter geek I was drawn to the network socket on the back of the Onkyo being able to take care of my mp3 collection and whatever else happens in the next few years, though then I actually got into a shop and listened to them head to head.
I made up a test DVD with 12 different 4 minutes scenes of some of my favorite movies and took it with me while shopping.
I did eventually find a retailer that does Onkyo AND Yamaha, so I could compare the two receivers in the same environment and with the same speakers..
I found that the audio in the movies was just so much warmer on the Yammi and I was playing at a much lower volume level.
Not sure how hard youve compared specs, though don't forget inputs and outputs. If your making a 5+ year investment here, give yourself some room for expansion.
I actually believe that the Onkyo 801 is a closer comparison to the 1500 - certainly in power??

At the end of the day once I got past the specs, my ears made the decision.

Cheers, and good luck.