Receivers

Ckorody raises a few questions. The Pioneer SC-07 does have a class D amplifier section (refer to my post above for my subjective Integra / Pioneer sonic comparison).

The SC-07 uses a proprietary Advanced Multi Channel Acoustic Calibration (MCACC) 9 band EQ. This system uses parametric / graphic equalization along with time and volume balancing. The pre and post EQ are displayed on screen. I agree with Ckorody, room correction does make a huge difference. MacIntosh is said to be taking room correction to another level with their new AVP.

The SC-07 is equipped with 192 kHz / 24 bit Wolfson DAC's and Faroudja DCDi Video Upscaling. The unit weighs over 40 lb.

Mt10425, sorry to leave you hanging out there with the B&K receiver. Anyone got the B&K 507 or audition one before? I don't know much about the B&K brand before. When I see the their logo B&K, the first thing comes to my mind is Burger King. ha ha ha

I am not trying to make fun of B&K. I just never had experience with the B&K brand. It's obviously a great brand because it does not look like they make cheap products.

I had a B&K 305 I purchased used when I first started. It was a beautifully built tank - real made in the USA stuff. Power was there but it never made magic for me...

In the manual and with tech support it was clear that B&K is oriented toward the professional installer market. They did not seem to be set-up for consumers.

The seller told me he was selling because the thing was a PITA to use. I should have listened. The user interface (GUI) is the worst (least intuitive, most confusing) I have ever seen in this type of product. Normally I would shrug it off but an AVR is exactly the kind of product that needs to be easy to use so you can take advantage of all the capabilities.

One day it didn't make music anymore. Customer Service was not particularly helpful. Nor would they provide a quote - I don't find this unreasonable - or even an estimate - but you have to think twice about shipping 65#s cross country... to pay a minimum bench fee to get an estimate.

If I had loved the unit I might have gone for it. But the real issue was that the upgrade path was limited and would still be two generations back. Naturally the unit would never have HDMI, be able to decode the new codecs etc. It was clear that I had reached a dead end and I decided that there was no point in spending any more.

I actually got a few hundred bucks for it, guaranteed DOA, which says something very positive about their reputation.

I have not looked at their site to see if they have updated their offerings. But I have to think you can do better for the money.

I have the Onkyo TX-NR905 (not the 906) and am very happy with it. I like it much more than the Denon 3808CI I had briefly. Plenty of power, easy to set up, sounds really good for an AVR. Decodes the new Hi-Rez Blu-Ray audio codecs. HDMI 1.3 switching. Quiet fan. Really good remote. Very versatile set-up options. Not to pricey.

arcam avr350 much better sonics than the japanese crowd