Ultimate Home AV Test

[admin_exported]

I have an AV weekend coming.
My brother and me are heading up to Manchester to the show on Saturday and looking forward to it.
Tomorrow I shall be disconnecting my Pioneer LX81 amp along with the Denon BT 2500 player to take to his house before we go to the show.
On Sunday the plan is to compare his Onkyo 875 amp and Pioneer LX51 player to my Pio 81 and Denon transport.
My brother was considering upgrading the Onkyo 875 to the Pioneer LX82 amp.
IMO the gain if any would not justify the price of spending so much on a new amp.
Now my LX81 was the top dog when I purchased it for £1299 in December, I could of at the time picked up the Onkyo 875 which was the top dog the year before for almost half the price and spent the rest on a dedicated stereo amp or whatever but I didn’t.
The point of this test is to establish firstly if my system is noticeably better than my Brothers and worth the extra cost I have spent, but also how much would he need to spend to improve his system.

 

[Messiah]

Look forward to the results!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Massiah,

Seems nobody's interested.

 

[Big Aura]

I'm interested - do tell!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I can pull in the crowds, Oppo thread..

 

[Big Aura]

tell a white lie and say you blind-tested an Oppo too and your telly exploded. Guaranteed 1000 post thread!

(that actually happened to a friend of a friend first time he used his new oppo with a pioneer amp!).

 

[Anonymous]

Here Goes,

During my test I blind tested the Oppo and it blew my telly up!

We started the test with the Pioneer 51 and Denon connected to the Onkyo into a Pioneer 50 inch plasma(don't know the model number but the best one), and his 7-8 year old THX kef speakers with Mordaunt Short subs x2 daisy chained.

First test upscalling on DVD, we put in the Incredibles.
On this test both players picture quality was about the same but the colours were more vibrant from the Pioneer especially the reds (this may have something to do with brand matching with the TV) also the sound had more bass.
Next test was I Robot on DVD, we couldn't find any difference that was noticeable in picture but the sound had a bit more bass IMO from the Pioneer. (what a great press this DVD is).

Blu ray test, the test discs were The Dark Night, Gladiator and Monsters Inc.
Again the PQ was negligible apart from the better colours again from the Pio, the Denon was slightly brighter in sound but that's about it, not enough to justify the difference in price for this system.

Next test was to swap the Amps over.
We decided to just use the 51 player to test the amp otherwise it could go on all day.
Initially the sound from Gladiator was ear piercingly harsh, and then I remembered that it needed calibrating, once calibrated and the discs played through it the difference in sound was quite surprising for me, the Pioneer was a little on the bright side, as I don't experience this at home I put this down to the speakers not being a good match. We put on The Police concert that we'd watched the night before with the Onkyo and the Pioneer just came to life and to me justified the price difference strait away, fantastic..even with the wrong speakers, it blended superbly with the subs, the bass was so much tighter than with the Onk

Before finishing we set up a Panasonic PT AE1000 projector and compared the players again.

The picture again was on par with the players but I think this time the Denon had the edge on the black levels but not massively.

So what have I gained from these tests?

If you have a fantastic TV then you don't necessarily need to buy the very best player out there.

Brand matching a TV/Bluray for PQ may be the way to go as they are generally designed to go together.

For sound, matching the right speakers to your amp makes all the difference, and you don't need to spend anymore than £500 on a player.

My amp review was spot on but the bluray player was over rated.

 

[Big Aura]

thanks for this - interesting.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Del Smith:My amp review was spot on but the bluray player was over rated.

Except, to be fair to the Denon, you didn't compare its sonic abilities with that of the Pioneer....

Anyway, all great stuff - nothing better than comparing kit with your own system

 

[Anonymous]

Clare Newsome:
Del Smith:My amp review was spot on but the bluray player was over rated.

Except, to be fair to the Denon, you didn't compare its sonic abilities with that of the Pioneer....

Anyway, all great stuff - nothing better than comparing kit with your own system

Although my discription was broken down trying to cover the important stuff I think I covered the sonic test using the Onkyo, i,e I couldn't hear much difference in the two players but the Pioneer had more Bass, it wasn't "hay the Denon is better than the Pioneer" more like trying to find which was better, I'm sorry but I couldn't find it. We didn't do a proper audio test between the two using my amp.

In hindsight this test was kind of one way, my brothers kit tweeked etc..But saying that my amp did shine. The players, there wasn't much in it, but perhaps a test in my home conditions may be in order, but for the difference in price I would expect it to be more obvious than trying to prove it.

Changing the subject, I was going to say hi on Saturday at the show, for some reason I bottled it, saw Andy also filming something as well.

 

[Sc00bied00]

Del, thanks for taking the time and effort to share your thoughts/experience

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Scoobs, much appreciated.

I really thought I would get more feedback on this, yes it took time to do and I shared my thoughts with you all.
I thought there would be arguments for or against my findings, positive or negative apart from Clare's response, which I have took on board and looking in to, absolutely nothing, at the end of the day I'm still learning.
I see a thread go on forever going round a round in circles and given way more credit than necessary. It's seems what I have to say doesn't matter, dare I say it but maybe there is a cool crew after all.
I think now would be a good time for me to call it a day on this forum.

Cheers..

 

[Sc00bied00]

Hi Del,

woah there my man, I strongly disagree, your review does matter!

I don't have access or time and the experience of listening to lots of kit, but when someone posts their own personal findings it is a reference point for me and hopefully others.

So I am happy to reply and show my appreciation for the effort taken by those who do this. I think you need to re- assess the merit of what you have done and that you were prepared to submitt the findings, consider also the level / price range of the equipment you were reviewing, it may not be in everyones budget and a limited responce may be appropriate.

People will post but if it's not in their experience and don't feel that they have a worthy / helpful or constructive comment to add most likely will not.

Lastly, calling it a day.... I fee is a bit knee jerk, your own advice in previous posts has not gone unnoticed.

my advice grab a beer and chill m8 - sc00bie

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Sounds like the pioneer blew the denon away, which I already knew as I have recently done the same.

The old Pioneer king below £1,000.

 

[Big Chris]

Del Smith:Thanks Scoobs, much appreciated. I really thought I would get more feedback on this, yes it took time to do and I shared my thoughts with you all. I thought there would be arguments for or against my findings, positive or negative apart from Clare's response, which I have took on board and looking in to, absolutely nothing, at the end of the day I'm still learning. I see a thread go on forever going round a round in circles and given way more credit than necessary. It's seems what I have to say doesn't matter, dare I say it but maybe there is a cool crew after all. I think now would be a good time for me to call it a day on this forum. Cheers..

There's no way that anyone can debunk your findings as they were your findings! You were there we were not.

Now if your brother came on here and said that he found the exact opposite, now you'd have a worthy thread show-down!

Forum life can often be confusing. Seemingly worthless threads run for ages, other seemingly much more worthwhile threads stall and die. That's the nature of forums. Don't take things personally and don't second guess what will make a 'successful' thread.

I'm glad you and your brother took the time and effort to carry out these tests. I have nobody close to me who is into this stuff to the level I am, so have never had the opportunity to have the equipment show-down that you have.

 

[indyjase]

Thank you for taking the time and sharing the findings with us. Very appreciated keep up the good work and I look forward to your next test...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the comparison of these equipments.

Everyone should post comparisons when having the opportunity.

Nice work