From: colosia@pepper.ra.anl.gov (MB Colosia RA/208/sd 9130)
Subject: Re: Money to blow, need good AV receiver or component recommendations
Organization: Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 00:20:41 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.032843.19823@coe.montana.edu> osyjm@cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen) writes:
>
>
>I have a budget of appx $1000 - $1500 to spend on a good Prologic receiver,

Jaye,

I looked at several a/v receivers, even trying the sony, denon,
yamaha, kenwood, and onkyo at home before deciding.  Below I will
reiterate my experiences, ordered from least to most preferred
from what I ascertained to satisfy what I was looking for:

	pioneer series:  I was not impressed with their quality
		of construction, nor, what I thought was a lack
		how the music struck me while listening.  I really
		did not evaluate pioneer as well as the ones below.

	sony gx67es: hiss on dead input and present during play;
		did not sit well with me.  xformr a little hot also.

	kenwood 9030: I liked this alot.  actually thought that
		I would keep this after listening to the sony, denon,
		and yamaha.  clean sound, somewhat musical, no hiss,
		not too hot at all.  However, found on some low bass
		musical passages (actually several), kenwood employs
		a self-limiting circuits that caps how much current
		is delivered to the final amp stage .... prematurely.
		I never play that loud.  after 13 days ... back it
		went.

	denon 1010: pretty musical.  But, gets extremely hot. too
		much for my liking.  also, w/i their sound processor
		chip, there is a small residual noise level introduced
		that I detected and did not care for (a small
		annoyance).  the small annoyance and the unit getting
		too warm (internal components will die an earlier death)
		warranted me to return the unit.

	yamaha 1050: pretty musical.  not too warm.  however, yamaha
		still has small residual pwr supply noise in the finals,
		that kind of annoyed me.  I play a lot classical, and
		I can detect the noise level whereas it may not bother
		others.


Now, what I settled for was truly a dsp processor.  the above units
do not have as complete dsp circuitry as the two below.

	yamaha dsp a700:  very musical. possibly a little more than
		than the onkyo below.  but the small amount of final
		amp residual noise and running a little hotter than
		the onkyo below, swayed me to the onkyo.

	onkyo 810: almost as musical as the yamaha a700, no detectable
		lower noise present (you really have to listen for it).
		runs fairly cool.

		the 810 was being discontinued, so I was able to pick
		it up for $825.  I have been very happy with it.
		I admit that hi-end separates, would have been much
		more musically sound, however with a 2 yr old, and
		wife patient enough with me spending a lot of money
		already, it was time to slow down.

	the yamaha cinemax 70mm(?) sounds excellent.  also the new
	onkyo 909 ambisonic is also something to hear.  tough choice.

	the onkyo 909 is very expensive.  I went out and got a separate
	tuner and feel it was a smarter decision than going with 909.

	kief's audio/video in lawrence, ks, 913-842-1811,
	(brent, I speak w/ usu.) may have some remaining 810s still
	in stock.

	my suggestion ... listen with a variety of music ... first
	and carefully making notes as you listen. I listen to jazz,
	classical, oldies rock, & new age.

	my system consists of (for your info):
		snell e/3s, stands, w/ a velodyne f1200 sub
		a nad 5k w/ a laser illusion's focus (focus recommend)
		a magnum dynalab ft11 fm tuner
		a denon dtr-2k dat player/recorder
		sony tv 27exr20 and sony 585 vcrs (jvc is good vcr too)
		audioquest ruby, pro-digital cables
		old technics sl-bd20 lp w/ audio-technica cart.
		signet mlu-250 bi-wire speaker cable
		design acoustics pv-cs center spkr + tandy modified m7s

	luxman also makes excellent a/v receivers that I should
	have tried out with more care: the rv-371 ($1.4k) & r-361 ($1k).


good luck (sorry for the bandwidth, but maybe
	    my experiences may benefit others)


mark colosia
argonne natl lab		colosia@salt.ra.anl.gov
argonne, il		work ph: (708)252-9130