Post your stereo system!

Gern Blansten

mrussel1 said:

Gern Blansten said:

Any advice for someone looking for a new home theater receiver?  I have the 5.1 setup for speakers.

Currently using a really old JVC receiver and I'm thinking it's time to upgrade.  We have an XBox One that we use for Netflix, etc.  The TV for the home theater isn't a smart TV but the xbox takes care of all that stuff anyway.

I came across a Sony and an Onkyo online and am leaning toward the Onkyo TX-NR686.  

I would stay away from Onkyo. Their HDMI boards have historically had issues.  I had a mid level one a few years ago and the board went bad.   So fine,  I'll use as an integrated.  Well shortly thereafter the power supply went.  Not worth fixing.  

Is there a Yamaha in your budget? Sony is good and reliable but I think not as nice sounding as Yamaha. 

possibly....I'm kind of out of the loop on what to even look for.  I'm surprised that the new ones I have looked at don't look much different (in the back) than the JVC that I currently have.  That JVC has to be at least 12 years old

Gern Blansten

https://www.cnet.com/topics/av-receivers/best-av-receivers/

This lists a Yamaha RX-V485...is this one to look at?

Gern Blansten

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/yamaha-rx-v681-review/

or this one?

mrussel1

Any of them will be good,  it all depends on your need of watts (size of listening area) and how many zones you need for audio.  Also,  if you ever plan to go 7 or 9 channel.  But they should all have that neutral Yamaha sound.  There is a difference when you get to the upper end and you get a really nice Dac.
Also,  don't get hung up on the remote.  They have a nice app that renders the remote unnecessary after the initial setup.  I never need it.
They haven't changed a ton over the years if your current JVC has HDMI. The big difference is streaming music though.  That wasn't around ten years ago.  Connect the Yamaha to your network and you can stream all those PJ shows seamlessly to your system.  The app makes it easy and lovely. 

Look at Pioneer too. I have four pioneer receivers and they are nice sounding.  They are a bit more clunky and HDMI switching can be tricky. Yamaha is my personal preference.  

Btw, the prices in those reviews seem a bit high.  One other thing to keep im mind is, to your point,  the technology does not change much year over year.  It's really on the margins for some features.  So look at amazon for last year's models.  You can get them at 30 or 40% compared to basically the same thing. 

Gern Blansten

mrussel1 said:

Any of them will be good,  it all depends on your need of watts (size of listening area) and how many zones you need for audio.  Also,  if you ever plan to go 7 or 9 channel.  But they should all have that neutral Yamaha sound.  There is a difference when you get to the upper end and you get a really nice Dac.
Also,  don't get hung up on the remote.  They have a nice app that renders the remote unnecessary after the initial setup.  I never need it.
They haven't changed a ton over the years if your current JVC has HDMI. The big difference is streaming music though.  That wasn't around ten years ago.  Connect the Yamaha to your network and you can stream all those PJ shows seamlessly to your system.  The app makes it easy and lovely. 

Look at Pioneer too. I have four pioneer receivers and they are nice sounding.  They are a bit more clunky and HDMI switching can be tricky. Yamaha is my personal preference.  

Btw, the prices in those reviews seem a bit high.  One other thing to keep im mind is, to your point,  the technology does not change much year over year.  It's really on the margins for some features.  So look at amazon for last year's models.  You can get them at 30 or 40% compared to basically the same thing. 

thanks!

dudeman

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.cnet.com/reviews/yamaha-rx-v681-review/

or this one?

Yamaha HT receivers in the RX-V6xx range are about impossible to beat for the money.

Lots of actually useful features, excellent build quality and they perform better than they should, considering their price range.

Echoing the suggestion from above, "last year models" from Amazon make it a no-brainer to me. You can save a lot of money and wind up with a badass core to build a system with.

Good luck!

May 30th

Just picked up an Arcam A29 amplifier on the weekend. Sounds incredible. Also, it has a pre amp inside so I plugged my Rega straight into it. Sound quality blew me away compared to my little Cambridge Audio pre amp. 

mrussel1

May 30th said:

Just picked up an Arcam A29 amplifier on the weekend. Sounds incredible. Also, it has a pre amp inside so I plugged my Rega straight into it. Sound quality blew me away compared to my little Cambridge Audio pre amp. 

I love Arcam. I'll find a reason to get one someday.  That's a nice lintegrated you got.  What's the cambridge you replaced? The 551?

May 30th

Cambridge was just a little phono stage. The amp was a Nad c326bee. 

dudeman

Found this old Project/One TT at the local hi-fi shop. 

Sounds really good with the old Ortofon cart. It needed a little cleaning but it has nice ICs and a new belt.

Made in Japan by CEC in the late 1970's. They made turntables for Marantz, Pioneer, Sanyo, Realistic and just about anyone who sold house brand gear.

mrussel1

Looks to be on great shape!

mrussel1

I hooked my 2245 preout to an outlaw amp 5000, which is about 120 wpc, all channels driven.  A real monster.  And boy did it improve the sound.  Before the marantz was a bit loose and I didn't think it was really driving my big B&W as well as I would have liked.  But now with the discrete power,  it just explodes and the bass is super tight. 

dudeman

Nice! When did you get your 2245? Did it replace your Pioneer?

mrussel1

dudeman said:

Nice! When did you get your 2245? Did it replace your Pioneer?

Last week,  from the same guy as the pioneer.  I wanted to try a different sound.  I like this better, although I couldn't amplify the pioneer since it doesn't have pre outs. I may keep it and give to my son or sell.  I'm positive I can get at least what I paid. 

dudeman

The 2245 is my favorite of the vintage receivers I have had or heard. There is a really nice balance of warmth and clarity that seems to evade most others, even with the Marantz name. In fact, it and a 2215b are the only ones I still own out of a few dozen makes and models that have passed through here.

I have been tempted to get a separate power amp but just haven't pulled the trigger on one. The speakers I'm driving with the 2245 are really efficient and get quite loud without too much movement of the volume knob. 10:00 is pretty much the limit for my space. At that level, the bass is still nice and tight and things are vibrating in the room.

mrussel1

dudeman said:

The 2245 is my favorite of the vintage receivers I have had or heard. There is a really nice balance of warmth and clarity that seems to evade most others, even with the Marantz name. In fact, it and a 2215b are the only ones I still own out of a few dozen makes and models that have passed through here.

I have been tempted to get a separate power amp but just haven't pulled the trigger on one. The speakers I'm driving with the 2245 are really efficient and get quite loud without too much movement of the volume knob. 10:00 is pretty much the limit for my space. At that level, the bass is still nice and tight and things are vibrating in the room.

I had the outlaw sitting around and I love to tinker with different setups, so figured wtf. I was mostly curious.  Now this 2245 hasn't been recapped so it might not be up to spec, leading to the audible difference.  I had my son listen with me and he has pretty good ears and heartedly agreed,  so I'll keep this setup. 

Interesting at 10. I couldn't get the pioneer above that without it becoming harsh.  I had the 2245 at 12 today both on the internal amp and the separate. It was loud and clean.  Speakers are 89db so maybe a bit better than average. 

One thing to note... both the remote speakers and the headphone amp are disabled when using the preamp feature.  The headphone piece surprised me.  So there are tradeoffs as usual. 

dudeman

Yeah, the headphone out has a separate tap from the output transformer on the 2245. Using the pre-out would bypass it completely. 

One of these days I'll get around to picking up a bigger power amp, and I'll definitely experiment with it and the 2245.

Seems like you have your system pretty well dialed in.  Congrats!

tempo_n_groove

I recently got a Yamaha CR-820 for free and was excited to use it considering my Pioneer 8500ii amp took a shit on me.  Hook it all up and nadda...

Power is on but nobody is home...  So I hooked up an Onkyo so I could finally listen to some records again.

It's a modern amp and sounds good.  I listened to the new La Luz album and I'm not really impressed with the pressing.  The Doors sounded good though.

mrussel1

tempo_n_groove said:

I recently got a Yamaha CR-820 for free and was excited to use it considering my Pioneer 8500ii amp took a shit on me.  Hook it all up and nadda...

Power is on but nobody is home...  So I hooked up an Onkyo so I could finally listen to some records again.

It's a modern amp and sounds good.  I listened to the new La Luz album and I'm not really impressed with the pressing.  The Doors sounded good though.

Did you try hooking a cd player or a phone preamp to the aux and/or tape in function to ensure that it's not just a bad phono stage?  The good news is anything is fixable on those things, if you're willing to put a few bucks down.  I'd take it off your hands!  

tempo_n_groove

mrussel1 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

I recently got a Yamaha CR-820 for free and was excited to use it considering my Pioneer 8500ii amp took a shit on me.  Hook it all up and nadda...

Power is on but nobody is home...  So I hooked up an Onkyo so I could finally listen to some records again.

It's a modern amp and sounds good.  I listened to the new La Luz album and I'm not really impressed with the pressing.  The Doors sounded good though.

Did you try hooking a cd player or a phone preamp to the aux and/or tape in function to ensure that it's not just a bad phono stage?  The good news is anything is fixable on those things, if you're willing to put a few bucks down.  I'd take it off your hands!  

The radio didn't even work...