Officially Paranoid! (1 Viewer)

[Eric_Philips]

I’ve yet to buy a single thing for fulfill my home theater needs/wants. But I’ve been looking and reading a lot. My price range puts me in the sub $500 receiver area:
Denon 1802
Yamaha 5550
Onky 600
After reading I have become Officially Paranoid about clipping; how real are my concerns?

I’ve looked at a set of L&Rs that had a rating of 20-150w, a center that was 20-80w (if anyone wants more info, I can post it).

My concern comes from seeing posts on this site about Onkyo’s 600 only producing 27W when all five channels are driven, that is still above the recommended min. of the speakers I’m looking at.

Does that mean that I’d be safe w/ the Onkyo because even at its worse performance it’s still pushing more than the minimum recommended wattage?

-Sidebar- I’m not yet sold on any particular receiver, I’m actually quit interested in Denon. Are their places that still sell discontinued lines and are they discounted by any substantial amount?

 

[ChrisMatson]

My advice would be to invest more money into quality speakers. What speakers do you have in mind?

What are your needs for a receiver? If you don't need multi-room capabilities or more than 5.1 DD/DTS processing, don't pay for it! I'm not familiar with all of the receivers you mentioned, but I can highly recommend Yamaha. The 5550 is available through J&R for $330! It would be tough to find another authorized dealer selling it for less. This would give you another $170 for speakers...

 

[Eric_Philips]

Thanks for the J&R recommendation; I’ll look into them.

As for speakers, I’ve been looking at Polk Audio:
MainsR50
Center Ci20
Surrounds R20
Sub PSW350
Polk has deal running right now where you can get the R20s Free when you spend over $499.99; the speaker setup would run around $1000.

 

[ChrisMatson]

I think you should be all set with the Polks, but maybe bump up to the CSi30 center channel. You may want to ask for some opinions in the Speakers section.

 

[Ted Lee]

i realize clipping is a real phenomenon, but i wonder how many people in "real world" situations encounter it.
when i was selling gear, i handled and played with most of the major receivers on the market - but that's been a few years now.
i don't think, unless i really pushed the receiver, did i ever encounter clipping. you could tell right away because the sound distorted pretty significantly. again, i really had to pump it to make it do that.
it sounds like you already know about clipping, so it doesn't sound like you'll let your amp get to that point. i say you find a receiver and go for it.
i still don't know what to make of the onkyo fiasco. cheaphometheater.com did a review of the onkyo600 and they seemed to like it just fine. read the review here:
Link Removed
i've also had pretty good experience with denon receivers. i've always thought they had more "punch" then other receivers. btw - i have an older onkyo and am also happy with it's performance.
bottom line...i wouldn't worry about clipping too much.

 

[Ted Lee]

btw - just ran across this link posted by jim in the receiver forum - it's about clipping:
http://www.audiovideo101.com/dictionary/clipping.asp