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How good are recievers these days?

Hi Folks. I haven't been on here in years. I sort of fell out of the high end audio about 8-9 years ago. Need some advice

So long story short, i have a set of Magnepan MMGw's i use as my mains which replaced a damaged paif of Jmlab Chorus.. I had a Denon 3805 and planned to pick up an outboard amplifier to drive the speakers. A friend loaned me an amp which had serious issues and killed my Denon 3805, so my amp budget got raided to replace it with a used Denon 3806.

As it stands now, it does not sound horrible, but i now have a small budget for an amplifer. between 500-1000 and i had planned on getting something used.

I ran into an old friend when i was picking up a 4k LED TV this weekend who worked at Best Buy (i can already hear your eyes rolling) at thier magnolia center. He mentioned they did multimillion dollar installations, full high end audio, etc. Today i asked him if he had any recommendations for a good 2 channel amp that can handle a 4 ohm load.

His response suprised me, he recommended a Pioneer Elite SC-81 receiver.

He does this stuff for a living, I have been out of the audio hobby and not been paying attention for the better part of the last 10 years. This receiver sports the D3 digital amp, and it claims to be stable with a 4 ohm load.

How good are these digital amps? I remember Velodyne putting digital amps in thier subwoofers a long time ago, but i know nothing else about them. Can that actually push the Magnepan MMGw? or should i go back to looking at a second hand Parasound or even some Adcoms?

Thank you in advance!
slappy
bacardi's avatar
bacardi
663 posts
 
No processing is the way of the future. DSD tubes and straight digital.
paraneer's avatar
paraneer
818 posts
 
I think it is the only way to get the
lossless sound off a blu-ray digitally. Also, no SACD
players output their signal digitally except on HDMI.

The future is DSP. Roomperfect, Dirac, just the beginning of
the future.

Sorry sport, initial Blu-ray players had 7.1 analog outputs
to obtain lossless sound into legacy, non HDMI equipment.
My friend still does this into his non HDMI Sunfire HT
system. Further, I happen to own an old Pioneer DVD player,
DV578A (in mothballs), that outputs 5.1 SACD via analog
outputs. In fact, you may not know this but SACD was out
long before HDMI.

But if you're actually talking about outputting the signal
from the player, digitally, then yes, I suppose you need
HDMI. So it can only converted to analog somewhere else
down the chain.

Better be careful or you'll date yourself as a newbie with a
digital agenda. Why I'll bet you also believe that all amps
sounds the same too. Have a good one pal.
manoterror
216 posts
 
Wow...lots of vitriol on this thread. Let's remember these are mostly opinions, and thus subject to personal taste.

I have the Pioneer Elite SC-57, that I had modified by Stereo Dave's. I run Mirage OMD-28s (bi-amped & tri-wired) fronts and the OMD-C2 (bi-amped & wired) center channel. I am no longer using surrounds. I also have the fantastic Harmon Kardon HK990. My audiophile friend and I did an A/B on the two amps, and the Pioneer won hands down...on these speakers. The amp presented a much cleaner sound in the upper range. In addition, the class-d amps offer a higher dampening factor, so the bass is much tighter.

Both these amps are great, but I would recommend the Pioneer Elite receiver, especially the newer ones with upgraded DACs and amps. When mine dies, I will get another one. Now I had the Tannoy Definition DC8s in my bedroom with the HK, and it was an incredible setup. So a lot of it boils down to system synergy.

Every Magnepan dealer I've ever been to demos them with class-d, and the desktop mini-mags even come with the class-d Wadia 151 if you buy as a set. There seems to be a good synergy with them. I think the Pioneer Elite would be a great fit. BTW, What HiFi regularly awards them as the best receivers to buy, if you are looking for a professional review.

One last option for you is to check out Music Direct. They currently have the Wadia 151 PowerDac discounted to $500, and a pair of Music Direct M1 Mono-block amps for $800. Worth a look.

Hope this helps,
Mot
michaela
314 posts
 
Hi Slappy:

In re-reading your original post, it seems that you already bought another receiver, the Denon 3806 and you were asking which 2 channel amp would mate with it. I don't know your receiver but can you de-couple the preamp and amp sections? And are you looking to use the new amp with the preamp section of the Denon?

It seems the recommendations above, although all good, all of them might not be answering your question, with the except of mofimadness' answer.

Just wondering....
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,471 posts
 
My father just picked up an Anthem MXR510 and it's awesome. Great feature set with no gimmicky stuff you'll never use. Easy to set up and use and it sounds great driving his Sonus Faber Concertos and solo center. I'm strictly 2 channel but if I ever did surround in another room I would not hesitate to pick one up.
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