The Eternal Question (1 Viewer)

[Jim Noble]

I am on the verge of spending $3500 on HT sound. I have a 5.1 speaker B&W setup (P6x2, CCM, 601x2, AS-6 sub) in a 15x16x8 room, and I haven't decided about adding 2 more speakers but I may.

I'm replacing a Yamaha 2090/DDP-1 Dolby Digital receiver/decoder, so I'm sure whatever I buy will sound (and be) better.

It comes down, as ever, to flagship receiver (probably Denon 5803) vs. separates (probably Rotel RSP 1066/RMB 1095). The Rotel setup lacks a tuner, lacks the two extra channels (which I'm not using yet), and would require another amp to power my second zone. I could use (I believe) the "extra" amp channels on the Denon to do the second zone.

I also am still using an older 50" 4:3 Toshiba (50F60, I think), so the universal video (composite to S) is a plus for me.

Most of what I read, here and elsewhere, seems to have a large subjective component.

Apart from finally "moving up" to separates, what ELSE can be said in favor of the Rotel/Rotel combo over the Denon 5803?

 

[chung_sotheby]

I think that anytime you are going to spend over $1500-2000 on your main amplification section, then you are best going with seperates. Manytimes, to get the type of amp quality in a receiver as you could with a $700 5-channel amp, you would have to spend over $3000 on your receiver. Remember, amps are always useful, so even if the preamp section of your setup is useless in three years, you still ahve a great amp. In other words:
$4000 Receiver(amp section quivalent to a $1000 amp) or $2500 pre/pro and $1500 amp
After three years, the sound formats in both the receiver and the pre/pro are obsolete, but with the receiver you have spent $4000 and are stuck with a $1000 amp, while in the seperates you have spent the same amount of money but you have a much better amp left over. This way, you can save $500. And also, the resale value of receivers, no matter how good, is really bad, while resale values on very good, but outdated, preamps is a little bit better.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Jim I have two 5 channel amps to power my 7.1 rig and the second zone upstairs so I'd consider that when buying your amp(s). For composite to S-Video conversion simply pick up an adapter from radio shack...it won't make much difference in image quality esp for some thing like the VCR and the rest of your gear should have an S-video jack already...this is what I'm doing as well with my 1066. While 3 years is a long time away at least the 1066 is easy to upgrade vs having to ship the Denon back to some facility to upgrade it..assuming they even bother. Like chung mentions though I paid around $1100 for my 1066 in 3 years I should be able to get $500 for it which means I'm out a total of $600. Take the $2500 Denon and try selling it in three years...I bet you're out a lot more then $600.