[Chris Elm]

Hi everyone. I have been cruising around these boards for a couple of weeks but have just recently signed up. Just wanted to let y'all know how informative the members here are. I am new to home theater, but my dad has been around for a while.


First a little background. I have a pair of Klipsch RF 3II's as mains, just purchased a pair of Klipsch ss-1 surrounds for future use, and yesterday took the plunge on an SVS 22-31 PCi.
Right now I've got my towers and a run-of-the-mill Sony sub powered by an old 2-channel Carver amp (IIRC 225 wpc) and a Luxman preamp with an old Luxman disc changer.

We are having the basement finished and my Dad will need the affore mentioned components back to power an old pair of magnepans.
So I will need to get a receiver.
For the time being, this will be a music only system (I don't have a TV), with the ability to upgrade later.

Now to the question: I have my heart set on a Pioneer Elite VSX 45TX receiver, but my uncle just upgraded his entire system, so his old Elite (no model # at this time) receiver of about 8 years has become available. I would like to (in the near future) upgrade to the Elite DV-45A dvd player (dvd-a and sacd compatable). I know this would do no good with the old receiver.
I want my system to sound as good as possible, so I am concerned about the old technology in the old receiver.

I have auditioned many other receivers such as Denon, Onkyo, etc. but the Elite sounded the best to me with my speakers.

I guess my question is, should I not worry so much about SACD and DVD-A and take the handmedown receiver, or go for the goods and buy the new receiver. Does it even make sense to listen to music in surround mode.

Sorry for rambling. Thanks in advance.

[Ricky T]

If you want to watch dvds in dd and dts, you would need the new Elite 45 receiver. The old receiver won't be able to decode dd and dts.