I have an old Denon 4806 as the hub of my system and its incredibly versatile and sounds amazing to me whether I'm playing DSD through Denon link and doing room correction in the digital domain using Audessy or switching through numerous components hooked up for maximum quality playback (ex. Node 2i decoding mqa via its internal dac, Node 2i to external Doge 7 tube dac streaming hi res, Pioneer reference BD09fd playing hi res surround through its Wolfson dacs in dual mode and sending video (only) through HDMI, two channel DSD via Sony EX SACD player or the cd layer as transport to the tube dac, etc., etc. There are practically endless permutations you can explore and compare with a click of your AVR remote. These AVRs can shut off the circuits not being used and as far as I can tell are more versatile. sophistcated, and high quality then alot of stuff sold today and you can find lots of reviews to get the best for pennies on the dollar. The Denon and Pioneer reference quality mid to late 2000s AVR and Blue Rays had separate hdmis for video and sound AND external analog inputs! You are free to play any source hooked up any wau you could possibly need (unlike most of todays stuff with very limited connections). Sure, you can buy a multi thousand dollar prepro but a reference quality Pioneer or Marantze Blue ray might sound just as good for a fraction of the cost. My experience is limited but I seriously doubt I'd be blown away by separates as the original poster stated as powerful and sophisticated as these 3 to 4k Denon's were back in the mid to late 2000s. Of course, cheap AVRs are always crap but u can buy super high quality used for pennies on the dollar these days that wasn't designed for obsolecence like so many of today's products. Sound quality used to be a mainstream thing back in those days. You don't have to buy these botiquey esoteric brands and chotchski's costing thousands for every piece in the audio chain to get good sound. Buy quality used components and put the savings into better speakers. All that being said, I love my new tube dac and its not like anyone is really stuck with the dac the comes in their amplifier.
