HT Upgrade Help

[mdchambe]

Hello All,

I am in the process of upgrading from Old Denon Receiver paired with Denon POA-8300 used on the front and center. Eventually, the upgraded gear will be used almost 100% for home theater. I have B&W CDMNT speakers. The room will be approximately 25 by 13.

I am looking for an upgrade that will provide me, most importantly, the ability to fill the room with lots of sound, and something that I will not have to replace in a few years.

I have been looking at the following combos:

Outlaw 950 and 755 amplifier. Have heard that this pair performs very well for the price.

Rotel 1068 and 1075. This route would probably have to be purchased used, which I am ok with. Was at a rotel dealer and they recommended using the rotel receiver as the pre-amp instead of the 1068, any comments on this.

Have also considered using a new receiver, such as the Pioneer 1014, coupled with new 5 channel amp.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[lynn2c]

I have a room that is 14 x 28 and my Denon 3805 does the job of filling the room with sound very well. Rarely do I have to go about 0 db settings.

[topspeed]

Why did the dealer want you to use a receiver instead of a dedicated pre/pro when you are going to be using an outboard amp anyway? That just seems like a waste of resources to me.

I think either the Outlaw or Rotel combo would be more than adequate. I've never heard Outlaw so I can't vouch for how well they pair with the CDMNTs, but I've heard Rotel with these speakers (I have a full set as well) and it was made for a very nice match. Rotel has an excellent reputation for providing a lot of bang for the buck both from a performance and quality/durability standpoint, but again, I've never heard the Outlaw. Try them both out and pick whichever sounds best in your rig. I'd toss the idea of using a cheaper receiver and adding an amp.

Hope this helps.

[mdchambe]

Thanks for the great reply. The dealer said that the rotel receivers processor for home theater was very similar to the 1068's. He said that it also has a tuner whre the 1068 doesnt, and is a little cheaper.

As far as using either the 1068 or the outlaw 950, is there a reason to beleive that as long as I dont want to update to every emerging format, i could use these units for many years in the future.

Also, are there any changes that might be occurring in the next year or so that I would want to hold out to get.

Thanks again

[topspeed]

Used tuners are cheap and easy to find. I haven't done enough research on the Rotel or Outlaw pre/pro's to know if they are upgradeable yet, but that is certainly a feature worth considering. It doesn't sound like this is priority for you however, so I would lean towards dedicated pre/pro's which should bring you higher resolution and will last for many, many years.

With regards to your questions regarding future updates, naturally there will upgrades to processing techniques as new tech becomes available (this is where upgradeable pre/pro's such as the Parasound C2 become handy). On the horizon, we have Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats that look to start another war on the same level of SACD vs. DVD-A...and we all know how productive that has been . I think I also read that Dolby is working on a new lossless format or something, but to be honest I really don't keep up with all of that nonsense. I'm much more into two channel audio than HT, thus any advancements made in the realm of multi-channel movie processing isn't all that important to me. Whether or not you should "hold out" depends on where your priorities lie.

Hope this helps.