Rotel RSX 1550 vs Yamaha RX-A2000

[AcuDefTechGuy]

As long as all EQs & DSPs are in bypass, I can't tell the difference between STEREO 2.0 & PURE DIRECT 2.0.

Of course, I can tell the difference between STEREO 2.1 vs PURE DIRECT.

 

[3db]

As long as all EQs & DSPs are in bypass, I can't tell the difference between STEREO 2.0 & PURE DIRECT 2.0.

Of course, I can tell the difference between STEREO 2.1 vs PURE DIRECT.

Thats just it..at least with Yamaha..Stereo2.0 use DSP

 

[LAB3]

Nice. I have run my speakers without the sub, but I would much rather use it if I can.

I live just north of saginaw/southwest of keller

I use to run a lath and mill behind that Grain Tower in Saginaw many years ago. I'm off Watauga road and Denton Hiway. Small world.
We custom built exhasut systems for motorcycles and odd Hot rod engine packages. Retired now, I buy/sell/trade old Vintage Honda motorcycles out of shop at home now.

 

[its phillip]

Yeah, the grain towers are about 4 minutes away. I live right off of harmon road, across the street from the bureau of engraving & printing.

What you used to do (and still do) sounds much more enjoyable than what I do...I'm a technical publications librarian and it's very boring

Anyway, sorry for the off topic posting - I agree with timoteo and would get the A2000 and an external amp if you need it

 

[PannTher]

You guys rock! The decision has been made and I got the Yamaha A2000. I don't see a point in getting the A3000 for the money.

Thanks for all the awesome advice. I look forward to getting the A2000!

 

[LAB3]

You guys rock! The decision has been made and I got the Yamaha A2000. I don't see a point in getting the A3000 for the money.

Thanks for all the awesome advice. I look forward to getting the A2000!

Cool, take a pic when you get them hooked up. Enjoy.

 

[timoteo]

Great pick!!!
I felt the EXACT same way about the RX-A3000. For $300 more you get a 4th zone (ill never use), 10 more watts per channel (not only inaudible but with an external amp completely irrelevant), some extra HQV video adjustments (dumb!) & the angle adjustment on the YPAO (honestly feel is just hype). So the 2000 is cream of the crop for sure in my eyes. One thing i dont like about the 1000 is that it only offers global crossover choices & not individual options. That alone drove me away from it.

So i just this week got my XPA-5 & will be doing a small review of it soon. But i can tell you that while the Yammy alone made me smile ear-to-ear...the addition of the amp made me squeal like a....well i wont get into that JK!

I was in a Magnolia today & played around with ALL their gear. Im talkin, crankin the volume, changing settings, switching speakers, recievers, subs & doing some critical listening. All i have to say is they really need to get someone who knows how to set their system up correctly because they sounded so bloated & at -9dB on any AVR their subs were literally bottoming out!!!!....BAD!!! But illl digress on that note.

Well, again, welcome & feel free to ask any of us any question you may have with the setup of your system. Its gonna be a killer once your dialed in!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Thats just it..at least with Yamaha..Stereo2.0 use DSP

I don't like that.

I had a Pioneer Elite pre-pro that applied DSP in Stereo mode. I think it's retarded.

I think Stereo mode should be like Direct, with NO DSPs, but with Subwoofer.

 

[PannTher]

Wow!

Thanks again so much for such a warm welcome!

I should get the receiver on Thursday or Friday. Bought some speaker wire from bluejeanscable.

I think I'll hear a HUGE difference from my Yamaha RX-V663 that I have now!

Thanks again!

 

[3db]

I don't like that.

I had a Pioneer Elite pre-pro that applied DSP in Stereo mode. I think it's retarded.

I think Stereo mode should be like Direct, with NO DSPs, but with Subwoofer.

As sson as you add a subwoofer channel, you engage DSP to derive the bass from the 2 channels so it'll never be pure direct unless like the old Outlaws, the bass management is analog.

I never use my sub for two channel listeneing with the sole exception of music containing pipe-organ. My PSBs do a great job with bass for all the music I throw at them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

As sson as you add a subwoofer channel, you engage DSP to derive the bass from the 2 channels so it'll never be pure direct...

Not true.

On the Denons, if you set it to PURE DIRECT and set your Subwoofer as LFE+MAIN, you get bass output to both your subwoofer and main speakers.

The only problem is, you also send a full signal 20Hz-20kHz to your main speakers.

Anyway, I could hear a huge difference on my old Pioneer Elite in Stereo mode; it sounds congested or compressed like EQ.

But I cannot hear a difference at all in Stereo mode on my Denons (AVP-A1HD, AVR-5308, & AVR-3310); Stereo sounds exactly like Pure Direct mode as long as I turn off EQ/DSP.

 

[timoteo]

You will hear a nice difference between the old Yammy & the new Aventage. But i would keep your expectations limited so as not to be let down. Source components only add a marginal change. Speakers make the biggest improvement. But as ive found, new avr=35% improvement & external amp=%35 improvement. Im guessing on the % of course!

Take some pics & let us know what you think once you get it dialed...ENJOY!!

 

[3db]

Not true.

On the Denons, if you set it to PURE DIRECT and set your Subwoofer as LFE+MAIN, you get bass output to both your subwoofer and main speakers.

The only problem is, you also send a full signal 20Hz-20kHz to your main speakers.

Anyway, I could hear a huge difference on my old Pioneer Elite in Stereo mode; it sounds congested or compressed like EQ.

But I cannot hear a difference at all in Stereo mode on my Denons (AVP-A1HD, AVR-5308, & AVR-3310); Stereo sounds exactly like Pure Direct mode as long as I turn off EQ/DSP.

How do you think the bass information gets to the subwoofer? Is it extracted through an analog filter to the sub woofer or is the signal first digitized, the bass portion extracted and then reconverted back to analog to get to the sub? Like I said before, unless there is analog filtering involved, it goes through some DSP. Thanks for supporting my arguement.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

As soon as you add a subwoofer channel...it'll never be pure direct unless like the old Outlaws, the bass management is analog.

How do you think the bass information gets to the subwoofer? Is it extracted through an analog filter to the sub woofer...

I thought you had said that it was impossible to get a subwoofer output in Pure Direct mode, but I overlooked the rest of your sentence.

All I'm saying is that on the Denons, you CAN get a Subwoofer output in Pure Direct Mode.

 

[PENG]

I thought you had said that it was impossible to get a subwoofer output in Pure Direct mode, but I overlooked the rest of your sentence.

All I'm saying is that on the Denons, you CAN get a Subwoofer output in Pure Direct Mode.

It seems ages ago so I will take your word for it but I really thought none of my Denons including the 4308 can do subwoofer when in pure direct. From memory, in pure direct it got really pure, no display no subwoofer no nothing, just L/R.

Again I'll take your words for it for now until I have a spare moment to check things out. Also, yours a 5308, that may be different, but I doubt it.

 

[3db]

It seems ages ago so I will take your word for it but I really thought none of my Denons including the 4308 can do subwoofer when in pure direct. From memory, in pure direct it got really pure, no display no subwoofer no nothing, just L/R.

Again I'll take your words for it for now until I have a spare moment to check things out. Also, yours a 5308, that may be different, but I doubt it.

If he does get a sub woofer out, then its NOT pure direct unless anlog filtering is involved. Any digital extraction is DSP and is therefore not considered pure direct. I also believe that in its purest definition, pure direct only involves analog signals at the input. Feed a digital signal and some form of DSP is required to bring teh signal into the analog domain.

As an example, on my RX-V1800, when I use the analog outs of my bluray player and set the Yammy to pure direct, there is no way I can get the subwoofer added in. However, if using the HDMI connection, I can press Pure direct and I will be able to use the sub in conjunction with my speakers.

Pure direct eliminates all DSP only if the signal is analog. Any digital content will need to be put into the analog domain so its only "semi pure direct"

 

[LAB3]

If he does get a sub woofer out, then its NOT pure direct unless anlog filtering is involved. Any digital extraction is DSP and is therefore not considered pure direct. I also believe that in its purest definition, pure direct only involves analog signals at the input. Feed a digital signal and some form of DSP is required to bring teh signal into the analog domain.

As an example, on my RX-V1800, when I use the analog outs of my bluray player and set the Yammy to pure direct, there is no way I can get the subwoofer added in. However, if using the HDMI connection, I can press Pure direct and I will be able to use the sub in conjunction with my speakers.

Pure direct eliminates all DSP only if the signal is analog. Any digital content will need to be put into the analog domain so its only "semi pure direct"

I have the Yamaha 1900 is it the same? I was told a 1900 is a warmed over 1800?? I have not had this one very long, still tweaking the Eq and learning a new remote and speaker setting system.
Thanks

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It seems ages ago so I will take your word for it but I really thought none of my Denons including the 4308 can do subwoofer when in pure direct. From memory, in pure direct it got really pure, no display no subwoofer no nothing, just L/R.

Again I'll take your words for it for now until I have a spare moment to check things out. Also, yours a 5308, that may be different, but I doubt it.

If he does get a sub woofer out, then its NOT pure direct unless anlog filtering is involved. Any digital extraction is DSP and is therefore not considered pure direct. I also believe that in its purest definition, pure direct only involves analog signals at the input. Feed a digital signal and some form of DSP is required to bring teh signal into the analog domain.

As an example, on my RX-V1800, when I use the analog outs of my bluray player and set the Yammy to pure direct, there is no way I can get the subwoofer added in. However, if using the HDMI connection, I can press Pure direct and I will be able to use the sub in conjunction with my speakers.

Pure direct eliminates all DSP only if the signal is analog. Any digital content will need to be put into the analog domain so its only "semi pure direct"

I know for a fact that on the Denon AVR-5308CI and AVP-A1HDCI you can get a subwoofer output in Pure Direct mode if you set the 2Ch/Direct setup to have a subwoofer and LFE+Main, instead of LFE+THX.

The only problem with that is the Main speakers get FULL RANGE.

Direct and Pure Direct modes will automatically set the main speakers to FULL RANGE, even if you set them to SMALL.

So the Subwoofer gets everything below the crossover point (20Hz-80Hz), but the main speakers gets 20Hz-20kHz. So there is some serious "double bass" between 20Hz-80Hz, unless your main speakers cannot play below "80Hz" or so.

I doubt that the Denon AVP-A1HDCI, which boasts as being the "only" pre-pro that is truly balanced from input-to-output for the "purist" sound, uses "Semi-Pure Direct".

If it says Pure Direct, then it is Pure Direct, not Half-Direct.

Denon homies don't play that.

I'm sure Gene can elaborate on the Pureness in the Pure Direct mode of the AVP-A1HDCI.

 

[gmichael]

Not true.

On the Denons, if you set it to PURE DIRECT and set your Subwoofer as LFE+MAIN, you get bass output to both your subwoofer and main speakers.

The only problem is, you also send a full signal 20Hz-20kHz to your main speakers.

Anyway, I could hear a huge difference on my old Pioneer Elite in Stereo mode; it sounds congested or compressed like EQ.

But I cannot hear a difference at all in Stereo mode on my Denons (AVP-A1HD, AVR-5308, & AVR-3310); Stereo sounds exactly like Pure Direct mode as long as I turn off EQ/DSP.

My RX-V2500 has a STRAIGHT mode that sends a signal to the LFE. It does use the EQ, but that can be bypassed easily. Pure direct bypasses everything with no LFE either.

 

[LAB3]

My RX-V2500 has a STRAIGHT mode that sends a signal to the LFE. It does use the EQ, but that can be bypassed easily. Pure direct bypasses everything with no LFE either.

I have the 1900 and the older 2400 Yamaha.... I need to read the owners manual and see if you can turn off/on the LFE on either the modes..Pure Direct and Straight. Pure Direct turns of the front display and a Blue light comes on.....just my front Cornwalls playing then on some music I like the "Flatt" natural sound like when Pop had old McIntosh seperates on them and the bass and treble controls were in the center of the dial. He always knew when I played his speakers I would always add bass for my Rock and Roll back then and forget to turn them back where he had them.