AV Reciever Updagrade

Posted by: Southweststokie on 21 January 2012

Hi Naim Fans,

 

A friend of mine is looking to upgrade his old Sony AV receiver for his home theatre and also to drive a new pair of floor standing speakers for a stereo sound system. What he has in mind is to buy a 9.1 AV receiver, use 5.1 channels for his surround system and then use the remaining 4 channels as a ‘zone 2’ to bi-amp the new floorstander (Kef 700’s) he is proposing to buy. Now I know the immediate answer is to go Naim where you can but he is not in a financial position to do that or he would. He proposes to spend around £1600 – 1800 on the AV amp. We have been looking at Onkyo, Yamaha and Pioneer and he is particularly interested in the Pioneer SC-LX85. I know how much experience and knowledge there is out there on this Naim forum and it would be a great help if you guys and gals would oblige us with you views as we are getting a bit confused as to which way to go. I have noticed a recent thread praising Pioneer AVR’s which prompts me to ask the question. Also does anyone have experience of the Anthem AVR's to add to the review?

 

Richard Dane – If this thread conflicts with the forum rules then I apologise in advance but my friend and I need the wisdom of the forum on this issue if it is allowed.

 

Thanking you all in advance,

 

Ken

 

Posted on: 22 January 2012 by Geoff P
Originally Posted by Southweststokie:

Hi Naim Fans,

 

A friend of mine is looking to upgrade his old Sony AV receiver for his home theatre and also to drive a new pair of floor standing speakers for a stereo sound system. What he has in mind is to buy a 9.1 AV receiver, use 5.1 channels for his surround system and then use the remaining 4 channels as a ‘zone 2’ to bi-amp the new floorstander (Kef 700’s) he is proposing to buy. Now I know the immediate answer is to go Naim where you can but he is not in a financial position to do that or he would. He proposes to spend around £1600 – 1800 on the AV amp. We have been looking at Onkyo, Yamaha and Pioneer and he is particularly interested in the Pioneer SC-LX85. I know how much experience and knowledge there is out there on this Naim forum and it would be a great help if you guys and gals would oblige us with you views as we are getting a bit confused as to which way to go. I have noticed a recent thread praising Pioneer AVR’s which prompts me to ask the question. Also does anyone have experience of the Anthem AVR's to add to the review?

 

Richard Dane – If this thread conflicts with the forum rules then I apologise in advance but my friend and I need the wisdom of the forum on this issue if it is allowed.

 

Thanking you all in advance,

 

Ken

 

Hi Ken

 

Really just a comment:

 

For £1600 – 1800 your friend can certainly get an appropriately capable A/V receiver from any of the well known makes. Personally I use a Denon and that seems to give out audio that matches pretty well with my Naim kit, which drives the front channels in my system, but I reckon the audio quality of the amp modules in A/V receivers in this price range regardless of make are going to be pretty good and matched across all channels. The 'what hifi' mags often seem to rave about Yamaha which I see is one of your friends choices.

 

As far as bi-amping the actual channels used in this setup may vary from make to make but in my Denon they use the official front channels and reassign the surround back channels as the 2nd set of amps for bi amping. IMO it is no great loss to loose the surround back channels since they really seem to do very little and it is mostly not audible.

 

Most A/V amps in this price range offer about 120Watts/channel on all channels and I suspect would drive full size front speakers with typical load demands without the need for bi-amping. IME bi-amping is not necessarily a success and single amp, biwired if you want, can be just as good if not better especially for timing.

 

regards

Geoff

 

Posted on: 22 January 2012 by Southweststokie

HI Geoff,

 

Thank you for your comments

 

Ken

Posted on: 23 January 2012 by Richard Dane

Ken, you haven't posted a wanted or for sale ad, you haven't written anything offensive, and you haven't mentioned the unmentionable - your post is well within forum rules. 

 

Not much more for me to add to Geoffs post here.