RX-V2065 or AVR-2310 or 650R or...

[Philp47]

Once upon a time, in Australia, in 1980, I purchased a pair of AR12's together with other Hi Fi components. As time went by I replaced the other items one by one and added a Boston CRC centre and 2 Energy EXL150 surround back speakers.

In 2002 I got a sub YST SW320 and a NAD C541 CD player. In 2005 I got a Cambridge 540R and in 2008 a pair of ProAc Studio 140's.

The AR12's are less efficient than the ProAcs. The music sound form the NAD/540R/ProAc's is very pleasant but I feel the need to upgrade the 540R receiver for a variety of reasons.

I have been looking around in shops and on the net and have narrowed my search down to the Yamaha RX-V2065, the Denon AVR-2310 and the Cambridge 650R which would fall within my budget.

I am no expert but I do like to have very good quality music with the ability to have good sound for movies or home videos (DVD's). For DVD player I have a $59 **** Smith model bought in 2005. Well it plays anything.

One shop informed me that the Cambridge would be better than the Denon because it was a high current amp. and would give me more power. I read a review of the Cambridge and it was not very good about the sound.

I have had a look at the other threads for ProAcs but would appreciate some expert advice in the area of a suitable receiver, or any other propositon.

Thanks in advance,

Phil.

 

[strapped for cash]

Hi Phil and welcome to the forum!

The WHF reviews would suggest that the Denon is the best of your three shortlisted receivers, though none will perform as well with music as a dedicated stereo amplifier.

As always advised on the forum, your best bet is to set up some auditions to see what suits you best.

As performance with music seems as important to you as home cinema, I think you have two options:

1) You might want to connect a stereo amplifier to whichever A/V receiver you decide upon via pre-outs. This way you can get the best of both worlds (stereo/AV) in the same room.

2) You seem to have only two speakers for stereo duties at the moment (please correct me if I'm wrong) and you will need a full 5.1 speaker system to make effective use of an AV receiver. So perhaps you want to contemplate keeping your existing system (perhaps in a different room) for stereo duties and a completely new surround system for your living room. This, of course, presumes you can accomodate two systems in your home?

Might be worth considering both options before making decisions.

 

[Philp47]

Thanks for the welcome sfc and for the advice.

Yes, the ProAc's are the main front speakers but I still have the AR12's in a cupboard.

Now I have a few other options to think about but, like your name, I am strapped for enough cash to have two systems. I could swap the AR12's for the ProAcs and remove the CD player and buy another amp and put them in another room.

Any suggestions for another medium-priced stereo amp for the 250W max ProAcs?

 

[strapped for cash]

Understand your budgetary concerns!

As a rule, it's wise to ensure that at least the front three speakers in a 5.1 set up are from the same manufacturer (and preferably the same range) to ensure tonal consistency. I'm not sure how well your Boston centre speaker would integrate with either the AR12s or the ProAcs?

Sometimes eBay is the way to go...

I wouldn't personally seek to advise you on a replacement stereo amplifier, especially as I have no personal experience of your speakers.

Just out of interest, what's your overall budget? If you can pick the best of your current components for a dedicated stereo system to be placed in another room, perhaps flog the Boston centre, use the other stereo speakers for rears in a 5.1 set-up, and look to get three well matched speakers for front and centre channel duties, that's probably a good place to start. Which all adds to the expense, I appreciate!

The alternative is to go for a new AV system from scratch -- perhaps the Q Acoustics 1010i speaker package for £300 from Richer Sounds (a bargain) with, say, the Sony STRDH800, for an extremely capable budget system at little outlay. Sounds like your tastes and preferences might demand higher-spec equipment, though...

EDIT: just reading your original post again, you of course have surround speakers already. The other idea might be to try to find front speakers to match your Boston centre...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Philp47,

I won't reply in detail for now because I don't have time. By all means contact me later for more information.

DON'T buy a Cambridge Audio 650R because I did and somewhat impulsively, a 650BD and regretting it. Both have serious limitations and the 650R has additional 'issues' to boot!

As I first auditioned it and ultimately purchased it, yes, the 650R delivers great stereo sound comparable I think to a good stereo amplifier.

But after my surround speakers and digital cables arrived I quickly discovered that in the language later put to me by the retailer and later the dealer, the 650R has difficulty deciding which decoding system to use to process audio signal delivered any digital connection.

The result as I first found with an audio CD is that you hear all this clicking noise between tracks and loose up to 30 seconds of the next track.

Yes the work around is to use analogue cables but that's not the point is it as I later find that the same happens with ANY source input such as the 650BD itself playing a DVD, a PVR or network media player.

The only 'work around' is to 'downgrade' every digital audio connection to an analogue one. And the 650BD doesn't even have a separate 2 channel analogue out.

The 650R doesn't have speaker A and B, HDMI pass-through (useful to be able to listen to the TV without turning the 650R on and only has one year warranty whereas the Denon potentially up to 3 years.

 

[bigboss]

You have to listen to all 3 of your shortlists to make a decision. Yamaha RX-V2065 is in the league of Denon 2310's elder sibling, the 3310. As far as I can remember, the opinion was split amongst WHF staff as to which one of the Yamaha 2065 and Denon 2310 is better, with the majority going for the Denon.

Denon & Yamaha both are excellent for music, although they cannot beat a dedicated stereo amplifier. I was fortunate enough to compare the Rotel RA-04SE with Denon AVR-1910, Denon AVR-2310 and Sony STR-DA5400ES which was featured in "The Big Question" in last month's What Hi-Fi magazine (I was a participant). The Rotel was clearly better than the rest (and Sony is 5 times the cost of the Rotel).