Receiver upgrade for my Paradigm prestige

[Jonindonia]

Just purchased 5 paradigm prestige speakers 2 95F, 1 45F, 2 25S I currently have a dennon x2200w. I want to upgrade my receiver I’d like to stick with dennon or marantz I like there features, but willing to listen to all advice. I have a 5.1 set up in a family room and sit about 12-13 feet away. I watch movies and TV. I also enjoy listening to music on the same set up. I do listen at moderate and higher volume levels. Wondering if I should go with a high end AVR like marantz 7013 or start looking into the possibility of separates. Appreciate the advice.

 

[lovinthehd]

Depends how much you want to spend and what power levels you want; sometimes a nice compromise is an avr with pre-outs so you can add an external amp later (you need to go to at least the 3xxx series with Denon for such).

You might play around with this spl calculator to get an idea of your power needs http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

 

[ryanosaur]

The 3500 and 4500 are still available at some good discounts. Not bad options by all accounts... and possibly better than those that may come around next summer.

 

[Kai]

7013 and if you feel you need add an amp for the fronts when listening to music...Paradigm are easy to run and are a great match for Marantz.

Good luck, keep us informed and give us a review on your kit.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Like everyone says. If your budget is $2K, then AVR is the way to go. If over $3K then separates.

 

[markl9]

Have you considered keeping everything “in the family” and going with an Anthem receiver? I have the same speaker setup as yours (except my mains are the 85Fs) and I have them paired with the Anthem MRX 1120 receiver. Sounds awesome. There are some features that the Anthem doesn’t provide (like streaming), but it makes up for it with really solid sound quality and really good room correction (ARC). The MRX 720 is similar with only 7 channels of amplification instead of 11 and it is less expensive.

 

[Jonindonia]

I have thought about that, but the Anthem are definitely a step up in price compared to what I was looking to spend. How does the Anthem sound with 2ch music?

 

[PENG]

I have thought about that, but the Anthem are definitely a step up in price compared to what I was looking to spend. How does the Anthem sound with 2ch music?

Step up in price but not in sound quality related areas. The mid range Denon, Marantz and Yamaha models are better values. They can do the same for less because they sell a lot more units.

 

[markl9]

I have thought about that, but the Anthem are definitely a step up in price compared to what I was looking to spend. How does the Anthem sound with 2ch music?

It sounds great to me. Admittedly, I'm more of a home theater guy, but I have been enjoying more music since I upgraded my speakers and receiver. I'm really enjoying Qobuz and Amazon HD content playing on a BluOS Node 2i (which is connected into my Anthem). I upgraded from a Yamaha receiver (2070) and the Anthem with ARC sounds better to me than the Yamaha did with its YPAO. One of the nice features on the Anthem is the ability to create virtual inputs using multiple speaker sets and room correction profiles. I have one for theater, one for stereo (using fronts and subs), one just for fronts with no subs, and one for my main 7+2 for multi-channel music. The Yamaha had something similar with their Scenes functionality, but the Anthem is a bit easier to implement (at least for me).

I bet your 95Fs would sound awesome in straight stereo mode without needing any help from your subs. My 85Fs sound really good, but I prefer blending in the subs to round out the bass for music. I have two SVS SB300s to go with the Paradigm set. You can set different crossovers for for each of your virtual inputs and for each set of speakers for that matter. ARC will tell you its recommendations but then you can tweak them to your own taste.

I have not had a Denon or Marantz receiver in many years, so I cannot compare the Anthem to those brands. I thought I might miss all the digital bells and whistles on the Yamaha, but I have not. Yamaha is one of the best for providing many, many DSP modes and streaming apps. On the Anthem, you get just a few modes (Dolby Surround, DTS X, etc.) and no built in streaming apps. They do provide one of their own modes called AnthemLogic Music which sounds quite good. Or you can turn it all off and listen in straight stereo...

Good luck with you decision. Should be fun

 

[Pogre]

7013 and if you feel you need add an amp for the fronts when listening to music...Paradigm are easy to run and are a great match for Marantz.

Good luck, keep us informed and give us a review on your kit.

They're also a great match for Denon, Yamaha, Sony, Onkyo...

Features are the first thing I look at, then maybe output power. I like Denon/Marantz with Audyssey XT32/SubEQ for room correction. By the time you get to that tier for Audyssey the power ratings are usually pretty decent and they'll come with preouts if you decide to add an amp down the road.

I like HD's suggestions for the Denon 3500/4500 models. Both are great units deeply discounted right now.

 

[PENG]

I like HD's suggestions for the Denon 3500/4500 models. Both are great units deeply discounted right now.

Actually, the more I read about the AVR-X3600H the more I think it really deserve the often subjective and highly commercialized "Whathifi.com" award.

It's innard images online consistently look better than most AVR-X4400/4500H and SR6012/13/814 and SR7012/13 because they consistently show the better looking power transformer.

I suspect it will measure as good as the AVR-X4500H and SR7013 except may output a few watts less per channel.

And it is cheap in Canada right now, at a little over US$600 equivalent. I really want to grab one as spare, more so than when the SR7013 was at US$900 equivalent a few weeks ago. WAF is what stopped me every time.

Below is the X3600H, note the transformer has the "Denon..." plate on top that is missing in many of the available SR7012/13 transformers and sometimes in the X4500H as well.

You can't easily see it from the outside but still.......

Denon AVR-X3600H:

Marantz SR7013:

Denon AVR-X4500H

 

[Pogre]

Actually, the more I read about the AVR-X3600H the more I think it really deserve the often subjective and highly commercialized "Whathifi.com" award.

It's innard images online consistently look better than most AVR-X4400/4500H and SR6012/13/814 and SR7012/13 because they consistently show the better looking power transformer.

I suspect it will measure as good as the AVR-X4500H and SR7013 except may output a few watts less per channel.

And it is cheap in Canada right now, at a little over US$600 equivalent. I really want to grab one as spare, more so than when the SR7013 was at US$900 equivalent a few weeks ago. WAF is what stopped me every time.

Below is the X3600H, note the transformer has the "Denon..." plate on top that is missing in many of the available SR7012/13 transformers and sometimes in the X4500H as well.

You can't easily see it from the outside but still.......

Denon AVR-X3600H:

View attachment 33085
Marantz SR7013:
View attachment 33086


Denon AVR-X4500H

View attachment 33087

Yeah, as you know from another thread I've seen the comparisons and I agree, if you can get the Canada price for a 3600 I'd go with that too. Otherwise the 3500 still a good option too.