Get free Onkyo 626 or pay (~£100) for the Sony 1040?

[Retne]

Hi folks

It's been a while, and I'm a bit out of touch, but my Onkyo 609 is taking it's final journey right now, as it developed a fault that's uneconomic to repair.

I've been offered a free replacement of the 626, which I would imagine is a better amp than it's predecessor, but I did just wonder if it is worth paying a little for the award winning 1040?

What would you do in my position?

That level of money is okay, although I'd be happy to not spend money given: I'm currently waiting for the washing machine repair man to appear, my new lawnmower is sitting in the dining room awaiting it's first use after the last one died two weeks ago and I have a 2 month old fridge freezer as that gave up a month ago!

I have some fairly old cheap speakers, and I can't replace those just now (Celeston F2 front, Eltax surround, can't remember which).

I have a day to decide...

Thank you for any knowledgeable person who can help!

Rob

 

[jonathanRD]

If you were generally happy with your 609 then would you have been happy enough with just the offer of the 626 replacement?

Are there features on the Sony that you would particularly like that the 626 doesn't have?

Are you going to notice that much difference with your 'fairly old cheap speakers'?

Do you really need that £100 now for something else or can you use it to save for your next upgrade - speakers perhaps - assuming you want to upgrade them?

You did not mention if you have a blue ray player - I have an Onkyo 609 and Sony BRP - on the 609 I use the V tuner alot (Sony doesn't have it) and on the Sony I use Love film and BBC i player (Onkyo doesn't have these) so the combination of apps from Onkyo/Sony gives me more than I would get from one make.

Personally (without knowing your full set up) I would want to put the £100 towards improving the speakers.

 

[jonathanRD]

So what did you decide Rob?

 

[Retne]

Hey, and thanks for the reply.

Mine, in turn, is very belated as I had thought I'd just go and grab the amp on Friday but totally forgot when writing that I was at a conference on Friday, painting all day Saturday (house painting, not exciting) and entertaining friends on Sunday. That's also why it seemed I ignored you after you'd taken the time to reply. I hadn't had time to look, so thank you again.

My current plan is to catch Richer Sounds' opening in about an hour.

And, I think I'll just get the 626. The questions in your reply confirm to me that that's the sensible choice. I had been looking at the specs on the WHF site, but both the Sony and Onkyo tech specs were wrong in many places and from a pure feature point of view the Onkyo certainly has everything I'd want, with the Sony not adding anything (albeit also including everything I would want too).

So I went to a decent source (the instruction manuals) to check what the spec actually was and that for my use there was nothing missing (I think the most alarming due to cables in place is the lack of optical digital in listed on the WHF site, but I think that's one of the 5 or so errors I discovered on the Onkyo side).

My BluRay player is a Panasonic BDT500, with my TV being the Samsung D7000. I would like to get newer speakers, and more than everything else I've bought that would be just about how the sound. With the other stuff I've bought, features have come into the decision a lot.

So no, I suspect your point is correct that I won't notice the sound quality improvement with my current setup, so I'll save the £100 now and put it towards something else. As long as the 626 lasts I'll be happy.

Cheers again,

Rob