Is there a Musical HT Receiver....?

I have tried everything over the years, Luxman reciver, b&k reciver, adcom gfa-7500 amps,paradigm speakers, a/d/s speakers, cheap cables, expensive cables and i have come to one conclusion. There is only one way for people of moderate income to build a home theater and have a truly nice sounding system when they are done. You build it over several years and you dont scrimp on any single item. all of the above experiements where dismal failures that cost alot of money. once i made up my mind to build it right, listened to the equipment and based my decesion on what sounded good not what was cost effective at the time i started to build a nice system. After 5 years i have a pretty nice sounding home theater. My advice is buy what you LOVE and only what you LOVE and then wait untill you can afford the next piece that you LOVE. any other system leaves you thinking "well this sounds ok but it could...."
jmo
Lee Ross
Lexicon DC-1 (last piece that needs to be replaced)
Proceed amp-3 (front center and rears)
Proceed HPA-2 (mains)
Toshiba TW65X81 65" HDTV (i love this tv)
yahama dvd player (ill buy a new source after i replace the lexicon)
Harmonic Tech Cables
B&W Nautilus 803's
B&W Nautilus HTM1
B&W Nautilus 805's

If you are running Monitor 9's, I would not put $3000 in a receiver. I believe you would get much better sound from upgraded speakers and less $ in the receiver. I don't think you'll hear sufficient difference in the Nak AV10 and Marantz 8000 class vs the big super-receivers like the 5800, SR14/18, or B&K 305/307. That extra $1500 would get you to Studio Ref 100's, if you're partial to Paradigm line, with lots of change, or sell the 9's and head upchain to any number of model/brands. I think this gives you very acceptable levels of HT with improved 2-ch. Look for a receiver with direct/bypass mode and pre-outs, and you can retain the same 750>150 path you have now for 2-ch. I find very little difference in the HT performance from mid-level to high-level receivers, and for the rest of your setup is overkill IMO. Of course, YMMV and you're paying the gas bill ;-)

....you can get very close with a Marantz 14Ex. No surprise, this thing is $4700 list, but the big Marantz has good two channel sound and the ability to bypass all the processor filters for clean 2 channel.

Is it as good as separates? Well, IMHO it's better than some of the lower end separtes and approaches some under $6K multichannel amp and processor set ups. (There's a good review in this month's Sterophile Guide to Home Theatre.) Built like a tank and easy to use ... the best two channel in a receiver and much better than the Yamaha RV-1 (too many bad sounding gimicks) and an ever so slight edge over the Dennon 5800. Great video switching -- it's really at home when you have a myriard of inputs to manage (Cable, Sat, Playstation II, DVD, DVD-A, Sony SCD-1 in my case).

This receiver is the cornerstone of my HT set-up. As good as it is, my Aranov tube monoblocks are MUCH better for 2 channel listening. To get into that "high-end" 2 channel league with HT, you'll to look at (and listen to)Classe, Bryston's best and the Theta Dreadnaught/Casablanca. Any of those three setups are clearly better sounding than the Marantz, but they should be, as they are $8 -$20K.

In sum, I'm not sure if low end separates (totaling the Marantz's $4700 list) will give you much better performance and certainly you want have the flexibilty of the Marantz's video switching and multisource management. And then there's that wonderful remote that is the very best. (Ok, I know this thread has been discussing some more modestly priced HT stuff, but the Marantz can be had for around $2700 or so on eBay or Audiogon.) --Lorne

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! There is no such thing as a musical receiver.
Lee

I recently installed an Adcom GTP-760 pre/pro in my ex-wife's HT system, and I must admit to being very impressed with its sound quality. It retails for $1800, but the unit I bought for my ex-wife was $1300 (plus s/h). The current issue of the Perfect Vision mag (issue #35) gave a very nice review to this model. I also noted a few days ago that Adcom has a new 7.1 channel pre/pro, the GTP-830, which has a MSRP of $1200. Haven't heard the 830, but I can vouch for the 760 being very good.

There are a few Denon 5700s around from time to time right here on Audiogon in the $1200-1500.00 range that will offer reasonable musicality and the other options that you want. I had a 5700 for about six months before a lightning storm took it out. For the money it will offer most everything you could want...decent power, DSP flexibility, enough imputs and outputs to satisfy even the most equipment heavy HT enthusiast. Check it out!!

Denon and Nakamichi hurt my ears It's the EAD 1000 that's sweet like tubes.

I second Elorian's recommendation on the Nakamichi, Denon, and Marantz; for the sub-$1k range, I would also add the Arcam AVR100 to the audition list.

Good luck and happy listening!

I have been very happy with my Nakamichi AV10; it sounds quite good to my ears. I auditioned many of the Denon and Marantz receivers in the sub $2K range and this was the hands down winner, at least for me. You should be able to get one new for around $1K (though I have not checked the price recently). Excellent for 2ch and theater (pro-logic, DolbyDigital and DTS). BTW, I have the Paradigm Esprit bipolars as my mains; the AV10 drove them quite nicely (at least before I put a Parasound power amp in the chain). Good luck and happy hunting...