Expensive receiver or less expensive and old amp (1 Viewer)

[Mike Shellito]

Posting for a friend of mine, who's in the markeet for a receiver. He's looking at the ~$400 AV Receivers from Panasonic and Yamaha, and the local sales guy is recommending the higher end receivers, since he has high quality mains (Vandersteen) which were bought about 15 yrs ago. My question - is he better off jumping up to the next level of receivers, ~$700 or $800, or sticking with the original ~$400 receivers and take advantage of his older amp he has with his existing pro-logic system and hook his mains up to that and leave the AV receiver to handle the rears and center? I know there's no absolute answer to this, but do the extra $300 or $400 receivers mainly give you more power/headroom and cleaner sound, which he could get from his existing amp?

Thanks -

Mike

 

[John Garcia]

I'd stick with the $400-500 receiver and the existing amp, providing it is a decent amp. A decent separate amp will always deliver better power than a receiver, and by off loading a large portion of the work, the receiver doesn't work as hard. Usually going from about $400 to $700 doesn't buy you a considerabe upgrade in power, mostly features and inputs/outputs, maybe some transcoding or upconversion, etc... Amps generally last a long time, so I don't see what he has to lose by going that way.

 

[DavidSGT]

Hiya Mike S,

I echo what John G says in using a mid AVR as a pre/pro would yield better results. I used a budget Pioneer 811 to power my speakers until I added an used Rotel 985 into the chain and I am very happy with the sound.

Just my 2 cents...

Regards.
DavidSGT

 

[Eric_Bender]

He should buy a good used pre/pro, such as Rotel, Adcom, NAD. The sound circuits in these units will be far superior to those in a ~$400 receiver and allow him to use his exiting amplifier and allow it to sing.