Advice on new AV receiver

[ripz]

I have a pair of B&W DM305 and a NAD T743 AV receiver and i'm thinking on upgrading to the new Onkyo TX-NR809 or Pioneer VSX-LX 55. I have tested the Onkyo 609 with a pair of B&W 684, and i must say, i ve loved the quality from the pure audio mode that Onkyo offers on their AV Receivers, so im finding a little more to the Onkyo side than the Pioneer's.

Anyway, i would like to ear from you guys, what is you preference the 809 or the LX55.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I would say the Onkyo will be more up to the job of driving the 600 series properly. B&W tend to like meaty amplification with decent bass control.

 

[ripz]

Hey Frank. Thx for your reply! I have a demo of the 809 this Monday/Tuesday and i ll test it with a pair of 684, CM7 and a pair of CDM-1NT. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Frank Harvey]

David 🙂

I hope the price on the CM7's is good - they've been discontinued for over a year.... 🙂

 

[ripz]

Ops, my bad 😀 Sorry 'bout that David. The CM7s are 40% less from last street price, i think the cost will be around the 900 euros, which is a little bit more than the 684's. Will see how it goes.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

I have a pair of B&W DM305 and a NAD T743 AV receiver and i'm thinking on upgrading to the new Onkyo TX-NR809 or Pioneer VSX-LX 55. I have tested the Onkyo 609 with a pair of B&W 684, and i must say, i ve loved the quality from the pure audio mode that Onkyo offers on their AV Receivers, so im finding a little more to the Onkyo side than the Pioneer's.

Anyway, i would like to ear from you guys, what is you preference the 809 or the LX55.

Hi ripz

I'll recommend that you should also look at Yamaha's Aventage RA-A1010 or if budget allows the Aventage RX-A2010. In my experience Yamaha AV amplification and B&W speakers work a treat 🙂

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[ripz]

Hey Rick! Thx for the insight 🙂 The new Aventage was my first choice, and i would like to test the 810 and the 1010 models. Some people say that the Yamaha receivers are very much like the Pioneer, they sound a little bit metallic. The Onkyo are better in stereo, but that's what people say. I must say i did like the Onkyo 609 in pure audio mode, but i will not buy anything until i have tested the 809 the 1010 and the LX55.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hey Rick! Thx for the insight 🙂 The new Aventage was my first choice, and i would like to test the 810 and the 1010 models. Some people say that the Yamaha receivers are very much like the Pioneer, they sound a little bit metallic. The Onkyo are better in stereo, but that's what people say. I must say i did like the Onkyo 609 in pure audio mode, but i will not buy anything until i have tested the 809 the 1010 and the LX55.

Hi ripz

Your welcome.

bigboss has summed up the qualities of Yamaha AV amplification. I will just add that imo Yamaha AV amplifiers offer even greater levels two channel performance then comparable Onkyo AV receivers do.

Btw, the Aventage RX-A1010 is superb with music and movie soundtracks 🙂

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[bigboss]

Hey Rick! Thx for the insight 🙂 The new Aventage was my first choice, and i would like to test the 810 and the 1010 models. Some people say that the Yamaha receivers are very much like the Pioneer, they sound a little bit metallic. The Onkyo are better in stereo, but that's what people say. I must say i did like the Onkyo 609 in pure audio mode, but i will not buy anything until i have tested the 809 the 1010 and the LX55.

If by "metallic" you mean bright sounding, Yamahas are anything but bright. Pioneer receivers generally are a bit on the bright side, but Yamahas are beautifully warm & brilliant for music. When I demoed the previous versions, both receivers sounded very different to one another. I hated the Pioneer with my speakers, & loved the Yamaha.

I demoed the Yamaha RX-A1010 & I thought it sounded better than my RX-V1900.

 

[michael hoy]

Hey Rick! Thx for the insight 🙂 The new Aventage was my first choice, and i would like to test the 810 and the 1010 models. Some people say that the Yamaha receivers are very much like the Pioneer, they sound a little bit metallic. The Onkyo are better in stereo, but that's what people say. I must say i did like the Onkyo 609 in pure audio mode, but i will not buy anything until i have tested the 809 the 1010 and the LX55.

If by "metallic" you mean bright sounding, Yamahas are anything but bright. Pioneer receivers generally are a bit on the bright side, but Yamahas are beautifully warm & brilliant for music. When I demoed the previous versions, both receivers sounded very different to one another. I hated the Pioneer with my speakers, & loved the Yamaha.

I demoed the Yamaha RX-A1010 & I thought it sounded better than my RX-V1900.

BB,

I have to disagree with you about Pioneer amplifiers sounding bright, I am on my second one now changed from LX72 to a LX85 and the 85 is by no means bright sounding.

Please demo the Pioneer as well.

 

[ripz]

Thank you all for your replies!

I hope you're right about the Yamaha. I really have a good feeling on those Aventage receivers. Now, about the LX85, that's a totally different league mate .. a perfect "one for all" equipment, for sure.

 

[bigboss]

BB,

I have to disagree with you about Pioneer amplifiers sounding bright, I am on my second one now changed from LX72 to a LX85 and the 85 is by no means bright sounding.

Please demo the Pioneer as well.

I had demoed the LX72 with my speakers & I found it too bright for my tastes. I think the reason is because the MA Radius HD speakers themselves are bright, & the Pioneer only accentuated that. Yamaha, being on the warmer side, partnered my speakers very well.

You may have had a different experience with your speakers, & your listening tastes may also be different to mine.

Of course, the OP should demo the receivers & decide what's best.

 

[michael hoy]

BB,

I have to disagree with you about Pioneer amplifiers sounding bright, I am on my second one now changed from LX72 to a LX85 and the 85 is by no means bright sounding.

Please demo the Pioneer as well.

I had demoed the LX72 with my speakers & I found it too bright for my tastes. I think the reason is because the MA Radius HD speakers themselves are bright, & the Pioneer only accentuated that. Yamaha, being on the warmer side, partnered my speakers very well.

You may have had a different experience with your speakers, & your listening tastes may also be different to mine.

Of course, the OP should demo the receivers & decide what's best.

Agreed BB, only a demo will tell.

I have to admit I did not demo the setup you have with your speakers and the pioneer amps, maybe the Apex are not as "bright" as yours.

 

[ripz]

I'm going to demo the Onkyo tomorrow .. let's see how it goes. I m hoping to do a demo of the Yamaha next week or so.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi ripz

Nice one 🙂

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[Frank Harvey]

I'm going to demo the Onkyo tomorrow .. let's see how it goes. I m hoping to do a demo of the Yamaha next week or so.

It'll be interesting to see if you feel the Onkyo grips and controls the B&W's better than the softer sounding Yamaha 🙂

 

[ripz]

Hey David, Rick 😀 I ll be testing 5 pairs of BW's: 684, CM7, CM5, 685 and CDM1 NT. I ll share my findIngs with you guys this evening.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hey David, Rick 😀 I ll be testing 5 pairs of BW's: 684, CM7, CM5, 685 and CDM1 NT. I ll share my findIngs with you guys this evening.

Hi ripz

Fair enough 🙂

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[JorisC]

hi all,

i'm also looking for a new AV receiver, but I'm a bit rusty with all the new AVR tech currently on sale.

Currently I have a Denon AVR1910 (Sony BSD360 and Samsung LCD32") and a Rotel 10-series hifi set.

They used to be hooked up to their own pair of B&W speakers:

AV with DM601's and HTM7 Center and LM1's as surround + BK GeminiII Sub

Hifi with B&W DM17

But I managed to repair my 2nd hands DM6, and the thing is, my GF wants less speakers. so I currently have my RA1062 hooked up to the Denon AVR (interconnects). The Denon AVR drives now the DM6's for everything (Digital TV, Bluray, Rotel 1062 (CD+tuner+ZP90)). But i lost the sound of the Rotel.

Since i listen more music then watching telly or movies, I would like to keep a good stereo sound for music keeping the DM6's (which I lost now).

Unfortunately the Denon has no preouts for reverse the stereo sound to the Rotel int.amp.

We live in an appartment (livingroom: 5.5x4.5m), but in a year or 2 moving to something bigger.

So I'm looking for a decent/better (600€'ish) AVR with preouts capable of driving my B&W HTM7 and LM1.

Future upgrade might be a subwoofer.

A Rotel RSX-1550 would be a perfect solution but it would over class all the other equipment I currently have, no?

What brand or AV model would you suggest?

Thanks for the input,

Joris, Belgium

 

[ripz]

Hello ppl. So there I was, yesterday, ready to test the Onkyo 809 with all the above speakers. The 684s sounded really nice, so did the CDM1 NT. The CM7 were a big disappointment as they have sounded so bright with this receiver .. moving on, surprise was yet to come with those little speakers lying on a corner of the floor and, what the hell, as they were there why not test those too. And so I did and I'm glad I did cause that was like "seeing the light"! What a sound! I'm talking about the Monitor Audio RX1. They were so good that I rushed to a different retailer to demo the RX6 kit and it was just like heaven. I really really recommend to everyone who are thinking on demoing the onkyo, should demo the MA's too, they are unbelievable.

Next step is the Yamaha, so I hope. Oh, BTW, I have used Claire Martin's songs to do all the tests, in flac format. Worked a treat 🙂