WHat is the best Pre/Amp combo for 4K? (1 Viewer)

[Jeremy Hegna]

"I find the rude tone of your replies inappropriate and offensive. This was a civil discussion until you stepped in. All other participants are acting civilly. Why can't you?"

Marc and everyone else I offended, sorry. I found Evan and Michael's posts to be very offensive and untrue. Our original poster asked about a seperates package, cool. Notice, I did not step in until flagship receiver owners were called foolish.

I will step down from my high horse now.


Jeremy

 

[Evan S]

Bob, I think I may take you up on your offer, but probably after you get the projector and firehawk. The video side of things will be my next upgrade and I'm really confused as to what direction to go here, so seeing your set up in working order could set me straight. Thanks for the offer.

Jeremy, listen. I have no problems with you defending your gear...hell, we all do it, and are continuing to do so in this thread.

The title of this thread is best pre/pro/amp combo for 4K. If you just go by the retail prices of the goods bandied about here, getting a flagship receiver with external amplification puts you well above the 4K threshold stipulated by the original poster. Not everyone can obtain the electronics you have gotten at the prices you have gotten them, just like not everyone can go to Canada to get their Anthem stuff like I did.

So, taking everything at face value, the retail price for the Denon 5803 alone exceeds 4K. If you were to add an external 5 channel amp of any quality, you are adding at least $1500. Combined, that's $5800. Well outside of the original posters budget. The Anthem combo would be $1000 cheaper and Home Theater magazine just stated that the Anthem combo when compared to the Pioneer and the Denon, came out on top.

That's all I am saying. This is not a thread meant to debate the merit's of Flagships used as dedicated pre/pro's. That's already been discussed. The poster stated his budget, but you came back a quote stating something like "not everyone is limited by what they can spend". Well, obviously the man who started this thread IS limited in this regard and I am trying to stay in those boundries when giving my recommendations.

Even going through a local dealer, the Anthem combo can probably be had for around 4K after dealer markdown. I wasn't aware you can get the Denon for that cheap from an authorized dealer. If you can, I am mistaken and I apologize. Fair enough?

 

[Jeremy Hegna]

Fair enough.

My responses were only directed at you because of your "foolishness" statment.

Marc, I've sent you a PM.

Everyone else, back to the topic....


Jeremy

 

[Bob Wilson]

As an AVM owner I can give one reason why I did not buy the Denon or Pioneer. They are so large that they won't fit in my wall unit. To be hnest neither does the PVA 7 but it is really close. However I can hide the amp away somewhare wher it can get plenty of air circulation and the AVM sits comfortably in teh wall unit. Cripes those new receivers are over 18 inches deep and over 20 by the time you allow for the cables coming out the back.

Both receivers are nice units. When watching movies the sound does not need to be nearly as perfect as when simply listening to audio. The brain simply sepnds 90% of its concentration on the video. This is not to mean that good quality is not important but I would lay odds that if one were simply watching Phantom Menace rather than listening to see which is better that no one, including the Golden ears would hear much difference between teh three units. I might have to go in favor of teh AVM if the center speaker is sitting on top of a large screen however. the equalizer for the center speaker does work wonders on the dialog in the center channel. I don't know if the MACC on the peoneer does as good a job. Interestingly the clearness of the dialog was one of the items that Home Theater commented on and it is very very good.

 

[BobRoulier]

Etsoi,
looks like your on your way to some great pre-pros I am sure either one your looking at will be awesome I hope you get the opportunity to home demo these pieces in your own environment with your associated equipment I believe that's the only way to really get a feel for the gear. A lot of dealers will let you take home their demos and this way you have heard each unit in your home and pick what works best for you
Good luck Bob

 

[Mifr44]

"I found Evan and Michael's posts to be very offensive and untrue."

What do you find untrue about any of my posts on this thread? Basically, you are calling me a liar and I would like to know what you base that on? If you are calling my statements untrue because they differ from your opinions, grow up. State your opinion for what it is, merely an opinion, and not the gospel for the masses to follow.

Michael

 

[BobRoulier]

Oh boy, here we go again! cant all of us flagship receiver and pre-pro owners just get along This is off topic but so is everything else, any ways just saw Denzels new movie "John Q " good movie, the sound was awesome the dialog was precise it wasn't a big special effects movie but the sound was great! one scene in particular that I remember a hospital worker in the E.R. was walking from right to left talking and his voice panned from right front speaker to center seamlessly and he appeared precisely when his voice did It was amazing. I know it will sound great on the denon and anthem as well check it out
Evan It might be a little while I want to demo lots of dlps Marantz, sharp, dwin and lots more, like picking the rest of our gear it takes time I plan to live with it for a while and live happy I will
Bob

 

[Marc_E]

Here's something funny for the flagship/separates debate. Someone is selling a Denon 5800 in the hardware section. He says he is switching to a Ref 30 and amp
And no, back to our topic....

 

[etsoi]

Any one have any idea of Sunfire stuffs? I was talking to my dad, and then he wants me to audio Sunfire Pre/amp, I told him that I am going to go with AVM20 and the Bryston 9B SST combo but he said if the Sunfire Combo is better, he will pay for the extra. And is there a dealer in Vancouver BC?
Thank you guys!

 

[Jason_Me]

IMO, you cant beat the Outlaw 770/950 combo. Nothing you can get for $4000 will outperform it. You can get the combo for about $2500 from www.outlawaudio.com That will save you $1500, which can be spent upgrading your next weakest link. Factory direct gets a big
Its easily the best price vs performance deal on the market.

 

[Marc_E]

If you can get one.....

 

[Bob Wilson]

Another item to consider in the pre/preo vs receiver argument. Receivers usually have phono inputs, pre/pros usually do not. This is only important if you listen to records of course. One of the nice things about my AVM 20 is that teh FM section totally blows the doors off any receiver that I have heard. Don't know if they designed the FM section or had help but it is pretty close to a separate tuner. My experience with tuners includes

Old Marantz 23
Receiver section in a pioneer, a sony and an Onkyo (top of the line receivers in each case but obviously of different eras) and a Magnum Dynalab FT 101. Of these the best (no surprise the Magnum which I still own. Next would be the ancient Marantz from the early 70s (I used the unit up till the early 80s). The AVM would come next and all of the receiver sections would be orders of magnitude worse. So if you value quality FM (in some places an Oxymoron I know) then a reciever will leave you short.

 

[Jason_Me]

Outlaw is supposed to start shipping August 4th. They have fixed the hiss problem.

 

[Sihan Goi]

Do you mean CDN$4000 or US$4000? There's a huge difference there!

 

[etsoi]

4000US not CAD. For Outlaw, you can just bring it to your dealer and upgrade and stuff. And you all know how the shopping and post office do stuff here in Canada. I will rather spend more at a local dealer.

 

[etsoi]

Today I went to two of my local dealers trying to listen to Sunfire's, AVM20 and theta's. But they don't have any Sunfire's Pre/Power on demo. But I did A B compare the following products. AVM20 with PAV7, Casa Nova with Dreadnaught, AVM20 with Dreadnaught. I know, the PAV is the weakest of them all. But the best combo is AVM20 with Dreadnaught. Anthem's sounded more forward and lively with live CDs and voices. TOO FORWARD. Theta however is too laid back but excellent sound-stage and mid-range and better image too (really close to my CAD805B but of course Cary is better) So the best of both world is AVM20 with Dreadnaught, the sound is not overly forward and not too laid back with excellent image and sound-stage.However, the sound-stage is not as big and airy as the theta only combo. So I have a few questions. Will the Anthem MCA 50 and 20 sounded similar with PAV? DO you guys think I should go with Dreadnaught 2 and AVM20 or intrepid? Thanks guys!

 

[Scott Oliver]

See with what your describing from your testing results I would have preferred the Theta combo, but hey I guess that's just different listening tastes and preferences. Of course the Theta costs more, but I think its worth it for that last little bit of performance.

Thanks for posting your comparisons, and I hope all my correspondence helped some.

 

[etsoi]

Actually I love the casanova very much, it produces excellent soundstage and detail and air midrange and highrange. But only on live concret CDs, the AVM20 is more believable. I asked my friend to join me too, he thinks that too. Since I have a Cary CAD805B tube amp for music, he said that it will be wise to have more kick (fast, forward sound) for a HT gears and sound. My dealer is hard selling the Anthem over Theta. at first he said that he is trying to get rid of all demo Theta gears and said that they don't want to carry theta gears anymore. But we forced him to let us audio theta and then we told him we like theta better, so he went to the front desk and find us the prices for dreadaught II. And changed the way he said about theta. O well, tomorrow, I will try to audio Bryston, Classe and simaudio. The bad thing is it is cheaper to buy Canadian gears here. Hopefully I can pick a winner at the end of the week.

 

[Sihan Goi]

The Theta is an excellent amp with few competitors. The most notable ones are the BAT VK6200 and the Cinepro 3K6SE-Gold, which I think is a better buy as it offers more power for aroudn the same, if not less money

 

[etsoi]

You won't believe how salesman are now a day, I went to listen and take a look at Classe's gears today, the person who served me said that the best is Classe, it is the best amp out there but he won't even let me listen to it! And he is PUSHY! He said that he has on SSP-75 in stock and it is on special, if I don't take it now, it will be gone in a day and you won't find a better deal! And he kept putting others manufacturers down for an hour and won't even let me audio the classe! Finally he let me listen to it with B&W 800 Sig with CAV-180! They are too bright for my taste tho! And then I went to audio the Bryston gears! I listened to SP-1.7 with 14B SST with 6B SST driving all PMC's speakers! WOW, that is the best sound around, PMC is laid back and really really neutral! So they go really well with Bryston's! PMC sounded really similar to ProAc (which I loved the most for speakers) but with thinner sounds. Well, now I have to make a decision on which combo to get. Bryston's or Theta's. Classe is out because of the salesman!