Flagship receiver as a core (1 Viewer)

[BobRoulier]

Ya your probably right! we should all return oun 49tx's and get what ever you have ..... or can we afford it?
Bob

 

[Dave E H]

I dont think to many 49tx owners are to worried about an upgrade at this point from what Ive seen all are to busy enjoying them,

I'll second that - I've got mine and LOVE IT! I plan on using it for a pre/pro as soon as I can safely buy and amp and not have to sleep on the couch for a month Probably next year I'll look for a good multi-channel amp and use the 49TX as the base of my system.
I think going the high end receiver route is a fine way to go. Generally speaking - with the exception of the highest of high end separates, you get a lot more features with a receiver than you do with pre/pros in a similar price range. It's a great way to ease into separates IMO. I looked at separates, but what I could find in the 2.5k range wasn't much that really appealed to me, and the Pioneer just had far more features that I wanted (MCACC, 3 component inputs (I use them all!), component video upconversion, THX Ultra2, etc.)
I'd say go for it!

 

[Martice]

It seems to me that the main attraction with receivers is the amount of features given. I personally still run a 5.1 system and enjoy it quite a lot. I come from the "let's hear it the way it was intended" school of thought and find the features other than the ones dealing with calibration to be not of any use to me. Upgradeability is a hot issue as well but even since the Denon AVR-3300 and the Sony 333es days, I've been hearing how they are upgradeable but unfortunately there hasn't been a meaningful upgrade to justify the sales pitch. I do remember a salesman trying to get me to buy the Denon and using upgradability as a selling point which when I asked him upgrade to what? He said "to any other future formats".

In short, does the receiver decode the latest dominant formats? Does it have adequate amplification for your particular needs? Does the software available justify the upgrade to a much more expensive unit promising future compatability. If you keep the cost of the receiver in the high hundreds and low thousands, you will guarantee yourself that you're at least compatable with the latest offerings on the market for a few years and can now afford 'QUALITY' amplification that would take care of what's most important and that's 'quality' SOUND and POWER.

If you're into processing flexibility first and amplification second then I could see why you'd spend that much money for a flagship as I've come to learn that the amplification may be the soft spot of the 'Flagship' receiver. I guess it's a matter of taste and what your HT/audio preferences are.