matching a receiver to speaker, could use help (1 Viewer)

[Dave.Zeb]

Hi folks

Thanks for the browse. I'm currently outfitting my room with the PSB Stratus line(minus the sub, will get that elsewhere), already have the new silveri's for fronts, and will be getting the C6 center and mini's for surrounds.

My question is what would be some of your higher recommendations for a well matched receiver with these speakers? Give it a price range of $1k. I know that the Denon 3803 can be had for $700 from 6th ave right now, and the HK 7200 is also showing at under a grand.

(I currently have a denon avr1700, and have been very pleased with it's performance; however, it's very underpowered for the new speakers I have, and I need to upgrade.)

General fyi, I listen 60/40 movies(tv)/music, and when it comes to music, I enjoy jazz, classical and in general "soulful" voices. Throaty wrenching mids and clear highs, non-punchy bass, and I love the detailed orchestral sound, picking out individual instruments...

Hope that helps some. I'm still releatively new, just having receievd my first stereophile mag 2 days ago, and plan on reallly becoming a highly informed person regarding all things home theatre over time(just love it!), but am still at the lower end of the learning curve currently.

I would also wonder how PSB speakers might be characterized by you folks, warm, bright, etc...? From my initial research, I got the opinion that PSB's were really versatile with respect to the type of sound they put out, in as much as the better receiver, amp, etc.. you power them with, the better they will run, and rarely flinch at the highest end components. Aside from actually auditioning them, this was the main reason I went the PSB direction.

Sorry for the long post. I'd be grateful for any advice you might want to give, as I'll be looking to purchase my receiver in the 1st or 2nd week of January.

 

[ChrisLazarko]

Well I have only heard the PSB speakers once which was paired with a NAD T762 I believe. From listening to them for about 1 hour during a movie I found them to be neutral to a little warm. Definantly sounded good with the NAD.

In any case, my personal opinion would be the HK AVR-7200. It offers more power than the denon, and it is also a flagship reciever from HK so it's going to offer alot.

Not to mention the HK reciever comes with a Zone2 features which i'm not sure the Denon does, which is really cool if you have speakers outside or plan to put speakers in another room eventually.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Dave.Zeb]

Thanks very much for your reply.

I probably need to research the two receivers a good bit more, as I've heard people with very strong feelings one way or the other. As far as power ratings, I thought they were about the same, within 5w per channel. Also, the 3803 does come with multi zone features if I remember correctly.

I've heard that perhaps the HK's may be a bit more power hungry and run a good bit hotter than Denon, though I don't know for fact.

It'd probably be nice to know the general characteristics of both brand, and how they differ, and the advantages/disadvantages of these features.

Would love to hear from more folks on this, but thank you again Chris for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated.