new receiver suggestions

[PENG]

I say most people cannot HEAR the difference, but they might FEEL the difference.

If I am sitting in my HT room looking at some B&W 800 Diamonds and big bad Bryston amps that give me that warm fuzzy feeling, I am going to FEEL the difference.

Count me in!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Count me in!

WARM FUZZY FEELING

 

[Tankini]

WARM FUZZY FEELING

Yep! Sure looks like Droid speakers! Bebop boop! Lol

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yep! Sure looks like Droid speakers! Bebop boop! Lol
View attachment 75510

Hehe. Never know. R2D2 might have been the muse for the B&W 800’s design.

I also love the significant curvature of the cabinet, instead of the so-often squarish boxy speakers. I assume the building process of the B&W 800’s tremendous curvature takes significantly more time and effort than all the other boxy cabinets - all the wood bending that occurs.

It reminds me of my Study Room, which has a rounded section, instead of a rectangular room.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Hehe. Never know. R2D2 might have been the muse for the B&W 800’s design.

I also love the significant curvature of the cabinet, instead of the so-often squarish boxy speakers. I assume the building process of the B&W 800’s tremendous curvature takes significantly more time and effort than all the other boxy cabinets - all the wood bending that occurs.

It reminds me of my Study Room, which has a rounded section, instead of a rectangular room.

Fantastic home.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yet with this AV 10 the string sections are totally realistic.

Speaking of the AV10, it’s selling like hotcakes even with the huge price increase.

As soon as you got your AV10, it sold out quickly and went on backorder again. I placed an order for a client 2 weeks ago.

I just spoke to the SU Director of Sales to inquire about my order. He assured me my order is being shipped to me. Basically every single AV10 that just came in on shipment was already allocated to an order. So the moment the shipment arrived, the Inventory went from Zero back to Zero.

Can’t even keep up the DEMANDS. Selling like hotcakes.

I am definitely not a good business person, so if I owned SU, I would make a ton of AV10 units and offer a 20-YEAR warranty like Bryston does for their amps. That might make me a bad business person, but that’s what I would do.

 

[TLS Guy]

Speaking of the AV10, it’s selling like hotcakes even with the huge price increase.

As soon as you got your AV10, it sold out quickly and went on backorder again. I placed an order for a client 2 weeks ago.

I just spoke to the SU Director of Sales to inquire about my order. He assured me my order is being shipped to me. Basically every single AV10 that just came in on shipment was already allocated to an order. So the moment the shipment arrived, the Inventory went from Zero back to Zero.

Can’t even keep up the DEMANDS. Selling like hotcakes.

I am definitely not a good business person, so if I owned SU, I would make a ton of AV10 units and offer a 20-YEAR warranty like Bryston does for their amps. That might make me a bad business person, but that’s what I would do.

I know, I was very lucky. I think I snapped up the last one in the US, when I bought mine. In times of uncertainty, people go for quality. Also after just over 20 years AV technology is becoming mature. I think the number of channels has reached its practical limit for most.

Sound United's problems are just aggravating the situation. This sale is held up in government red tape right now. How long this will go on is anyone's guess. However after Elon's chainsaw, I bet a lot longer than anticipated. The whole deal may yet fall through. Sound United are on their beam ends. I think anything from Marantz or Denon not made in Japan right now has to be suspect and likely junk with no service possible and the warranty worthless.

I had, and continue to have good service from my two ols 7701s. The 7705 and 7706 are junk and I bet the receivers on which they are based are also junk. The 7705 had no boards available, which is a disgrace. Neither I, nor my dealer can get a response from Marantz in my 7706. I bet it will be junk whether they repair it or not.

So purchases at the moment are risky. I have no idea how Onkyo now hold up. I suppose if you want a receiver Yamaha is the safest bet, but they are reducing their offerings available.

If you want and need a pre pro then your options are the AV 10 or may be the AV 20, but we don't know the track record of that yet. So that leaves the AV 10 as the safest option. The other option is Anthem, but I think they have increased risk over the AV 10. Other options are units costing insane amounts of money like Lyngdorf. So safe options are very limited.

I am actually not sure these units are fixable, though the construction of the AV 10 gives hope for the prospect of repair. These units are now so complicated that they need a diagnostic port like cars have the OBD2 port by law. I think the way the boards are constructed getting test probes to the right places with the unit on and under test is probably impossible now. In any event the boards are not repairable now. So digital interrogation via port seems essential if there is going to be any prospect of repair going forward. Design practices need to make board replacement straightforward and NOT an awful hassle, where you likely do more damage replacing boards.

Now this AV arena has reached the current level of maturity, we need units that last 20 to 40 years and not 5, 10 or 15. And it needs to be serviceable, and by local dealerships and a return to local repair shops most likely as part of local dealerships. Right now a local repair shop does not stand a chance, and that is largely due to criminally atrocious design.

So, yes unless you buy something of the quality of the AV 10 your purchases are risky, and it seems others are seeing it that way. I found that out the hard way, and I thank my lucky stars I was able to snag that AV 10, otherwise I would be sitting in a silent AV room right now.

If the pleasure of home AV is to survive other than sound bars then, things need to change fast.

 

[dlaloum]

I know, I was very lucky. I think I snapped up the last one in the US, when I bought mine. In times of uncertainty, people go for quality. Also after just over 20 years AV technology is becoming mature. I think the number of channels has reached its practical limit for most.

Sound United's problems are just aggravating the situation. This sale is held up in government red tape right now. How long this will go on is anyone's guess. However after Elon's chainsaw, I bet a lot longer than anticipated. The whole deal may yet fall through. Sound United are on their beam ends. I think anything from Marantz or Denon not made in Japan right now has to be suspect and likely junk with no service possible and the warranty worthless.

I had, and continue to have good service from my two ols 7701s. The 7705 and 7706 are junk and I bet the receivers on which they are based are also junk. The 7705 had no boards available, which is a disgrace. Neither I, nor my dealer can get a response from Marantz in my 7706. I bet it will be junk whether they repair it or not.

So purchases at the moment are risky. I have no idea how Onkyo now hold up. I suppose if you want a receiver Yamaha is the safest bet, but they are reducing their offerings available.

If you want and need a pre pro then your options are the AV 10 or may be the AV 20, but we don't know the track record of that yet. So that leaves the AV 10 as the safest option. The other option is Anthem, but I think they have increased risk over the AV 10. Other options are units costing insane amounts of money like Lyngdorf. So safe options are very limited.

I am actually not sure these units are fixable, though the construction of the AV 10 gives hope for the prospect of repair. These units are now so complicated that they need a diagnostic port like cars have the OBD2 port by law. I think the way the boards are constructed getting test probes to the right places with the unit on and under test is probably impossible now. In any event the boards are not repairable now. So digital interrogation via port seems essential if there is going to be any prospect of repair going forward. Design practices need to make board replacement straightforward and NOT an awful hassle, where you likely do more damage replacing boards.

Now this AV arena has reached the current level of maturity, we need units that last 20 to 40 years and not 5, 10 or 15. And it needs to be serviceable, and by local dealerships and a return to local repair shops most likely as part of local dealerships. Right now a local repair shop does not stand a chance, and that is largely due to criminally atrocious design.

So, yes unless you buy something of the quality of the AV 10 your purchases are risky, and it seems others are seeing it that way. I found that out the hard way, and I thank my lucky stars I was able to snag that AV 10, otherwise I would be sitting in a silent AV room right now.

If the pleasure of home AV is to survive other than sound bars then, things need to change fast.

Well the orange one will be expecting to have his palm oiled to facilitate things...

Standard "banana republic" procedure.

Not sure about the tech maturing: we are seeing noticeable changes in the software side - and that means we can expect processors to increase in power/bandwidth/speed, additional onboard RAM, and the software ecosystem to develop further to facilitate updates.

It would be nice to see more standardisation of the AVR/AVP platform / operating systems, and their SDK's/API's... a sort of Windows or Linux for AVR/AVP - with publicly available details/access. (probably a pipe dream for another couple of generations of gear!)

At some point the benefits to all manufacturers of not needing a specialised team, and having a common software ecosystem across the industry, may drive a change of this sort... Then Harman wouldn't be scrambling every 10 years to retrain a new software engineering team after having sacked the previous one...
And products like ARCAM and the JBL equivalents wouldn't end up Orphaned.

 

[Tankini]

Hehe. Never know. R2D2 might have been the muse for the B&W 800’s design.

I also love the significant curvature of the cabinet, instead of the so-often squarish boxy speakers. I assume the building process of the B&W 800’s tremendous curvature takes significantly more time and effort than all the other boxy cabinets - all the wood bending that occurs.

It reminds me of my Study Room, which has a rounded section, instead of a rectangular room.

Lol, you do realize I'm poking fun right? I watched a video of those B&W's being built from bottom up. Yeah, they are upper end speakers for sure. I listened to a pair at a BB store in person they are a beautiful. Sound was amazing.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Lol, you do realize I'm poking fun right? I watched a video of those B&W's being built from bottom up. Yeah, they are upper end speakers for sure. I listened to a pair at a BB store in person they are a beautiful. Sound was amazing.

Yeah I realized, but it’s also true that not everyone likes the way those B&W 800’s look. And they do resemble R2D2 a little.

 

[Joe B]

Not so sure that is true. The improvement I am getting from my AV 10 is stunning. I like everyone else thought speakers were the weakest link and that improvement in electronics would not be noticeable. Well my speakers were not the weakest link by a long shot. Those AV 7705 and 7706 AVPS were and by miles.

Those previous AVPs did not get the best from my speaker system. Not close. Yes the sound was very good, but now it is absolutely phenomenal. I am going to start another thread after listening to the 76 plus concerts from the 2025 BBC Proms, and last night was yesterday. An absolutely amazing experience.

My Anthem MRX 520 AVR's HDMI PCB bit the dust a few weeks ago. I was more than disappointed to find that boards are not available for a model which came out in 2016 (the year I bought it). I paid $1400 in 2016 for the AVR. The new MRX 540 goes for $1900. Being retired and on a fixed income, there's no way I would invest that much for a product which turned out to have a very short life span. Granted the analogue inputs and amps still work in the 520, but I have no need of an additional amp in my 5.1 set up.

I replaced the MRX 520 with a Sony STR AN1000, which I purchased direct from Sony during a sale and saved $225. It is set up, calibrated (using their supplied microphone and procedure), and I've come up to speed in its use (primarily the use of DSP options and "Set Up" choices which effect the sound signature). This was a simple swap out of AVR's, nothing else.

I listened to my Anthem set for the last 8 years. This is what I can say at this point in time:
The Sony AVR kicks butt when watching a movie. The AVR has two choices for calibration type: 'flat' and 'engineer' (Sony sound studio EQ'd). If the movie is watched with the calibration set to 'engineer', Sound Field set to 'Audio Enhancer', and the Sony 360 Spatial Sound technology turned "On", the experience watching a movie is fabulous. Hands down, watching movies with these settings is better with the Sony than the movie was with my Anthem. I'm sure Sony put a lot into their DSP engine which results in this improvement in audio when watching movies.

Listening to music is also excellent. Setting the calibration type to "flat", the Sound Field to "2-channel", and Music Direct turned "On" produces the best musical presentation, almost exactly like my Anthem. But just like @TLS Guy pointed out, I am also experiencing changes to the music in my listening room. My speakers are Paradigm Prestige. The Sony has 'cooled' the treble slightly, which is a good thing. The mid-range sounds identical to the Anthem. Mid-bass has much more weight, as does the Low-bass. After listening to songs like Ute Lemper's "You look just like a girl again", Telarc's first "Spies" CD, and Lee Ritenour's "Fourplay" CD (all with deep, strong bass lines), I decreased the gain on my sub-woofer by a few decibels. The bass sounds great. I also hear differences in the sound stage of the Sony vs the Anthem.

To assume that a change in electronics should not produce any listenable sound difference in playback is, well, just an assumption. Before I bought my second stereo system in 1987 (NAD integrated amp, Audio Alchemy transport, Audio Alchemy DAC, Phase Technology PC 50/60 satellites and sub), I visited an audio store where I learned a lot. CD's were new. The owner connected source, amp, and speakers. I listened for 15 minutes. He then changed the source. I could hear a difference. I listened for another 15 minutes. He then changed the amp. Again, a difference, but this was even more pronounced. This experience left me "open" to the idea that anything can effect everything, even when you make just a single change.

As a side note, getting the Sony AVR for almost one third of the price of a new MRX 540 was great. I'm sure the new Anthem product is awesome, but it is not worth the price difference. I will be very happy with the Sony.

PS: My analogue Sony 5.1 system in my basement (used to entertain me when I work out), still works great. It has been operational for nearly 25 years. The Trinitron in the system must be 30 years old by now, and still looks OK.