Reciever Choice Help (1 Viewer)

[riggs]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie here and am trying to figure out what receiver/ amp is going to be best for my system. My budget is up to $1000 and will be plugged into the following:

Monitor Audio GR 20 Fronts
MA GR Center
MA Bronze Surrounds
Sony 52xbr4
Sony PS3
HD-DVD (still to purchase)
CD Player

I will be using this 50% Theater and 50% Music. I have been told that the MA speakers require a high current receiver to get the best out of them. In this budget I'm uncertain if it is best to forget about HDMI for audio and focus on getting good power in seperates, or to look for the connectivity first. Here are some of the receivers I have been looking at:

Denon 3806
Marantz SR5002
Marantz SR7001
Outlaw 970/7075 Combo
Emotiva Ultra Combo LMC1/LPA1
HK AVR745

Would really appreciate people's input on what they think would be the best way to go - any other suggestions within the budget are welcomed.

Thanks!

 

[Perry Jonkheer]

For what it's worth, my Father has a Denon AVR-3600 (huge receiver) mated with some Monitor Gold Series towers. The sound is quite real and impressive. Imaging is near perfect and the presence is astounding.

 

[riggs]

Thats a vote on Denon - thanks - I've heard that they are a good pairing with monitor.

So I have narrowed the field a bit, and it's down to:

Denon 3806
Emotiva Ultra (LMC-1/ LPA1)
Onkyo 805

So I guess the next step is to decide if Seperates with limited connectivity/ decoding trump connectivity/ decoding. Since most my video is all coming from HD sources, I do not care about scaling (players will do any neccessary) - so in someways it comes down to lossless HD audio vs. Power... which will make the biggest difference, plus the question of possible upgrading further down the line (boy, it's bad when you are thinking about upgrading before you even have got the first one) since Emotiva offers a 40% discount on future purchases of upgraded products.

Hmmmmm......

 

[riggs]

Well I made the choice and went with the Emotiva combo - in the long run I'm thinking the seperates will be a better investment and with the 40% discount in the future hopefully I will be able to upgrade sooner than later.

 

[frapso]

just received my lmc/lpa comp on friday...what an upgrade from my marantz sr5400 ....Sooooo much better,bass,imaging very happy so far. My monitor audio silver s6 front S1 rear cent and fb110 sub have never sounded better.....enjoy you made a good choice