[ArthurJ]

Or is there a fine line in price between going A/V or Seprates? What I mean is I have been putting tonnes of energy into finding the right receiver, pricing out almost every option. First I was considering seperates but there a little out of my price range, so I looked into higher end A/V receivers BUT the marginal difference in price is minimal so your better off going with sperates, for example, I was looking at the Denon AVR-4802, I would get it for $2500 CAD, for $400 CAD more I could get Rotel Seperates...then I was considering going for a lower end A/V and adding an outboard amp, like maybe a AVR-3803 and a Parasound amp...after it's all said and done it comes out to the same price as the AVR-4802 and again I'm back where I started...sure maybe the 3803 and parasound amp could outperform the 4802, but for a few hundred more I could have "true" rotel seperates. LOL, sorry for the rant, but does anybody else have or had the same problem when searching for the right recievers/seperates? I guess my only choice is going for a lower end receiver or jump right into seperates.

[DanaA]

I understand what you say perfectly about being confusing. Much depends on things such as room size and speaker efficiency, but I flat out think that outboard amps sound better than those built into the receiver, except in rare instances. I bought my first Dolby Digital receiver around a year and a half ago. I had no idea what I was doing and, because of previously good experiences, thought the new receiver would do the trick. Although I tried to convince myself that I liked the receiver and the sonics of my system, I really wasn't satisfied, despite the fact that I thought it would be a kick ass unit.

Given that my Klipsch speakers are very efficient, I knew it probably wasn't the amount of power the receiver put out, but the quality of power, so I bought a Parasound 1205A amp, despite warnings from some that an outboard amp might not make a huge amount of difference. As soon as I connected, callibrated, and powered up, I was in audio heaven. Sound across all the frequencies sprung to life, dynamic and full of detail, but much warmer than the sonic characteristics of the receiver. Best of all, I noticed that there was less smearing of sound across the soundstage. Sound came from where the instruments were supposed to be and quiet took hold between them.

A few months later, I bought the Rotel 1066, which marked my first full incursion into full separates. This further improved my systems sonics to the point where I no longer felt upgraditis...well, except for my new CD player,a cable here and there, and some minor tinkering with room accoustics and speaker placement, etc. The addition of the pre-pro helped out mostly my two-channel sound, although HT was stepped up also.

As I say, I'm probably through for the time being. The only thing I might even be remotely interested in at this time is perhaps a two channel preamp, but even that is remote. I know there are a lot better systems than mine out there, but I'm personally very happy with mine and it sure beats what I started out with.

By the way, I expect Chu and his minions to come on and dispute everything I've just said, but I will assure him in advance that I did multiple double and triple blind tests each step of the way.

[ArthurJ]

DanaA your opinion means allot to me, I'm excited about going with seperates...however, why did you go with parasound? Why not Rotel? I have no idea which is better (prob similiar?) I looked into parasound and there amps look really nice. See, I absoluty love 2ch. music, and I have a hard time understanding people who say amp A sounds good with music but not good with movies? whats up with that? I mean, shouldnt it sound just as good with movies? anyways, I listen to tonnes of music and I want an amp that can do both jobs perfectly!

[DanaA]

Arthur, imo, you'll be getting some extremely nice components if you go all Rotel. The reason I went with Parasound is its reputation of being a warm amp. I wanted to tone down the brightness of my bright speakers a bit and it did the trick for me. I've read many posts by owners of Rotel amps that also loved their gear matched up with the Klipsch. When I bought the Parasound, they were auctioning them off at Ubid, which is an authorized Parasound dealer. I was able to grab one at a bargain price. Believe me, either of these companies make fine products. I've heard the Rotel amp and loved it.

As far as two channel sound, my feelings are that this is mostly the design of the pre-pro. Rotel has a fine reputation for both their two channel or five channel sound. Some pre-pros don't. Before changing my system, I used it for HT 80% of the time. Now, I'm really enjoying music so much more that I use my system for music maybe 90% of the time. Of course, there are pre-pros that would best the Rotel, but most of those would be much more costly.

The link I'm now going to post is a shootout comparing different brands of separates, including much more costly options such as Tag and Arcam. Hint: Rotel comes out very nicely. By the way, you should definitely join up over at HTforum.com as it has a dedicated Rotel board loaded with tons of information about Rotel products. Now, here's the link:

Press here for shootout results