AntonS
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2001
- Messages
- 164
As the idea of of getting AVM-20 from Canada for a pretty good price has flopped, I'm looking for a pre/pro again.
As I don't see too many choices on the pro/pro market, I'm toying with the idea of buying a good receiver (online) and using it as pre/pro.
Basically I have narrowed down my search to Sony DA5ES and HK 520 for budget receivers, and HK AVR8000, Onkyo 989 and Pioneer 49-TX as more upscale. From these the AVR8000 looks most interesting.
From what I see it has dual Crystal DSP and Analog Devices 192kHz/24bit DACs (are these good?) It seemingly has very flexible bass management with variable crossover and 4th order filtering. It can decode all possible formats. It seemingly has full blown Logic 7 which works even for DD5.1 sources (Lexicon on the budget?) It's THX Ultra (not Ultra2 though). It has pure direct mode. It has several separate power supplies. It can memorize settings for different inputs. It supports multizoning and even comes with 2 remotes. Icing on the cake is automatic calibration, some fancy VMAx processing (may be used with headphones, but who cares), MP3 decoding (who cares), HDCD decoder. It has 5 channels amp, but I don't really care as I'll be using external amp (although may need two channels for rears, or may use some channels for 2nd zone). Right now I see only one drawback - no RS232 port, so if they find a bug in the software there's no way to fix it.
So all that for just $1600-1800 street? C'mon there just must be something wrong...
I cannot find much online on this unit. Anybody has it? How is it built? It it good for music? Any gripes about it? How would it compare sonically to a good (or not so good pre/pro or receiver? To AVM-20? To Rotel 1066? To Denon 5803? To 49TX? To Outlaw 950?
Anyway, is it a good idea to use it as pre/pro? The rest of my system is Paradigm setup with Studio 100 for mains, and Sherbourn 5/1500A amp (still waiting for it.)
As I don't see too many choices on the pro/pro market, I'm toying with the idea of buying a good receiver (online) and using it as pre/pro.
Basically I have narrowed down my search to Sony DA5ES and HK 520 for budget receivers, and HK AVR8000, Onkyo 989 and Pioneer 49-TX as more upscale. From these the AVR8000 looks most interesting.
From what I see it has dual Crystal DSP and Analog Devices 192kHz/24bit DACs (are these good?) It seemingly has very flexible bass management with variable crossover and 4th order filtering. It can decode all possible formats. It seemingly has full blown Logic 7 which works even for DD5.1 sources (Lexicon on the budget?) It's THX Ultra (not Ultra2 though). It has pure direct mode. It has several separate power supplies. It can memorize settings for different inputs. It supports multizoning and even comes with 2 remotes. Icing on the cake is automatic calibration, some fancy VMAx processing (may be used with headphones, but who cares), MP3 decoding (who cares), HDCD decoder. It has 5 channels amp, but I don't really care as I'll be using external amp (although may need two channels for rears, or may use some channels for 2nd zone). Right now I see only one drawback - no RS232 port, so if they find a bug in the software there's no way to fix it.
So all that for just $1600-1800 street? C'mon there just must be something wrong...
I cannot find much online on this unit. Anybody has it? How is it built? It it good for music? Any gripes about it? How would it compare sonically to a good (or not so good pre/pro or receiver? To AVM-20? To Rotel 1066? To Denon 5803? To 49TX? To Outlaw 950?
Anyway, is it a good idea to use it as pre/pro? The rest of my system is Paradigm setup with Studio 100 for mains, and Sherbourn 5/1500A amp (still waiting for it.)