Why no love for the Panasonic XR25/XR45 HT receivers here?? (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Dagmar]

xr45 has osd....

 

[DorianBryant]

Yes. The XR50 does not have an OSD and I wish it did. i assume the 70 will.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

they actually downgraded the line-up this year over last years models. Nothing in this years models would cause me to upgrade from my xr25.

 

[Nick_S]

They downgraded? A few people are saying that the 50 sounds better than the 25...I haven't heard anyone say that it's the other way around yet. What's been downgraded on the new ones?

 

[DorianBryant]

They didn't "downgrade." In fact, the 50 is an upgrade over the 25. How much depends upon which Panasonic rep you hear from. Some have said the 50 is an upgrade from the 45 while the 70 will be a new model altogether.

The 25 would have been cheaper but it (50) does have a couple extra features and a larger display. All I care about though is the sound quality.

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

they didn't downgrade it from a sound quality standpoint, having heard both they are almost identical, and I wouldn't give an edge to the 50, which indded does appear to be the replacement for the 25, with the 70 replacing the 45. I assume then that the 30 replaces the 15.

What is downgraded from the 25 to the 50 is the feature set, and as a result the only model i would consider this year is the 70 as a replacement for my 25. Unfortunately it simply doesnt offer enough improvement to make an upgrade worthwhile (it has HDMI, but HDMI isn't very useful (YET!), imho.)

 

[David Judah]

There is reason to believe that the 70 will have a beefier power supply. There is a guy who mods them over at Audio Cirlce and he was saying that the 25 had an empty space in the power supply that was filled in the 45. There is the same empty space in the 50 that will presumably be filled in the 70.

That said, my 25 is as powerful as I need for my speakers, room size, and listening levels, and I'm even running my back surrounds paralleled for a 4 ohm load, which is taxing the amp even more, but if someone needed extra power for any of the above reasons, the 70 would most likely be better up to the task.

I know HDMI won't be a big deal for most, but I'm going to get Panasonic's flagship DVD player as well to match with the 70. As for other features worth upgrading for, we'll have to wait and see when Panasonic releases the final specs and features(hurry Matsushita!--I want them now). I expect there will be a few things that will make it worthwhile, and it's not going to be expensive anyways(that's the beauty of these little XR's).

DJ

 

[FeisalK]

it feels like Panny has been reading this thread. almost all the concerns in this thread have been addressed in the XR55.

more inputs, 7 binding posts, 7.1, PLIIx

then because its a supposedly lower range than the XR70, OSD and HDMI were left out :|

 

[Danny Tse]

Are the analog inputs improved? I heard that they were no so good on the XR25/45.

 

[FeisalK]

some people on the huge XR55 thread on AVS seem to like it... can't say for sure myself.

someone on ecoustics forum just replaced his HK7200 receiver with it

 

[Don Ing]

Hi everyone. This is my first post to this board, but I have been lurking for a while. While reading the 27th post on this subject by Stephen Dodds I was intrigued by his using the receivers to bi/tri amp his speakers. As I am thinking of bi-amping my speakers I would like to know how to go about the hook-up from my receivers pre-outs into the Panasonic receivers. I assume the Panny does not have inputs to the power amp section. Hope this question makes sense, as while I'm not a newcomer to A/V, there is much I do not know. Thanks in advance. P.S. I realize the pre-outs from my receiver must go to a X-over, just not sure how to go from the X-over into the Panasonic receiver.

 

[FeisalK]

Don,

you can just connect the pre-outs (or xover output) to any stereo input on the Panny. Biamp doesn't work with the 6ch analog inputs. Since they say speaker B gets a full signal I'm going to assume its to power the midrange/bass driver

is there a way to bypass your speaker's internal xover circuit?

 

[Don Ing]

Feisalk, Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking this was the way to hook it up, but wasn't sure if electrical specs were compatible. (impedance, voltage, etc.) So the signal leaving the X-over simply goes into the receiver, say for example an aux. input? Yes, my speakers I built with this in mind. The have seperate woofer, mid/tweeter cabinets, and corresponding hookups. Using Peavey woofers, 2 12" each side for the bottom cabinets, and Eminance 8" mids with Hi-Vi Isodynamic Planer tweeter horn type speakers. I've been wanting to bi-amp one of my systems since the mid 70's, but the price of seperate power amps always held me back. This lower priced receiver set-up for the power amps is intriguing. Thanks again.

 

[FeisalK]

sounds like it would work; if the shop has a return policy it could be a cheap experiment?

i'm not sure about the horns, though - I'm sure you've read that the digital amps are ultra clear. with horns... you might need shades

 

[AlbertD]

Based on the resonse, I would say that the title of this thread is inaccurate. It looks like there is a LOT of love out there.