Best receiver for sonus f. Grand Piano under 3000

You can also get the Outlaw Audio 950 Pre-Pro and Model 770 power amp. The amp is American made with 200 watts x 7 channels into 8 ohms. The Pre-Pro has all the hot new features and I have 2 friends that use this combo and it sounds great. The combo runs about $2500.00 + frt. It will do a number on any receiver out there sonically. It is also much more flexible for future upgrades. Check them out at: www.outlawaudio.com. Walter

Looking into a seperate pre/pwr combo for the same money is also a good idea like underwoodwally mentions-the Sonus are a little too nice to be driven with a receiver. Its doable; but a nice power amp might benefit your system more.

thanks for the sugestions. I will look into the outlaw seperates today. I didn't think I could get decent seperates in the $3000 price range.

outlaw's not shipping. There having problems with hiss. any other sugestions?

Magnum Dynalab has a $3,000 receiver Stereophile "A" rated. That's all I know about it.

B&k is non-current limiting w/ torroidal transformer and the amp section can keep up fine w/ other 5+ channel amps

Obviously for HT I would go Solid-state (I would usually always go solid-state, but since its five channels hopefully anyone would agree its just as well w/out any fight). Amps are amps over the years (technology doesn't really go obselete there, although designs do get better and some parts go out of production) so you might be able to find a nice 5 channel on closeout, demo, used something like that and then pick the processor you really want for features, flexibility, etc. Separate amps will give you flexibility and you could even do a 3 channel and a 2 channel for the rears. Ideally you want equal power to all five speaker, but if you are running your rears without the full bass content (high pass filtered which many processors have) they won't need as much power and you can get by with a smaller amp and nothing will suffer-since the bass sucks up alot of the power and it is debateable the benefits of surround sound bass in most listening rooms-although I can't speak from experience since I'm not a HT junky. Check alot of high-end dealers closeout/demo pages can sometimes snag a good deal and then here on agon. Not to mention, if you have seperate amps, if something new happens with surround and processor and you want to upgrade, you still have your amps and your only out a processer. Amps can be hidden away from the main compoenent rack to minimize cable runs and so they are ventilated better. And generally the performance of seperates is superior to a receiver. Highcurrent, high voltage devices like amps don't mix well in the same box and low voltage low current devices like preamps.

I have the same setup for my speakers as you. Grand Piano for the mains, the Sonus center channel, and the Concertino for the rear. I used to have the Concerto for the rear, but found the Concertino to work just fine. I know have the Concerto in a different system. I would not drive these speakers with a receiver, it will not do them justice. Seperates are the way to go. I am using the Proceed AVP, the Proceed AMP 2 and AMP 3. I have also driven this system with B&K separates and they sounded excellent. Check out the REF20 or 30 and the B&K five channel amp on the used market. You can probably find them for under $3000.00.

If you cannot find separates for that price, get a receiver with pre outs and a separate power for the front channels, including the center if it fits the budget...

Hear in the store, I don't like B&K driving GP for music. If receiver is what you want, I suggest trying top line marantz. I hear older SR-18 on Concerto and they sound better to me. Marantz is warmer and may match SF's house sound better than B&K (kind of harsh on piano even). BTW Marantz's tuner is pretty good. I prefer warm sound, and think most of SF owners like warm sound too. Oh, never hear a SONY I like so far. I love their TV and DVD/CD player better.