Onkyo vs. Yammi

[Audioman00]

OK, here's how the story goes... I buy an ONKYO tx-8511 100 watt by 2 wpc, receiver, I guess the top-of-the-line by onkyo for 2 ch. Play it for a few yrs. 99% music in my home. Well one day i decide i'm sick of onkyo's customer service reguarding the volume control started making noise when turned up or down (only with the remote) wierd huh? so, I find an old Yamaha receiver called a RX-V870, quite the heavy beast, and looks awsome, but never owned yammi before, so.... holy $h!t, my speakers ARE actually capable of producing clean, tight bass! and I can hear kinds of new little details and things I couldn't hear before. -----the ? here is: Inside and out these two receivers are built well, heavy, high current transformers, 10,000 micro farad 63v caps, large heatsinks, heavy guage wire, solid alluminum front panel. The onlyo states 100wpc rms, the yamaha is 80, these 2 are built with quiet similar parts, but yet, the lower powered amp delivers cleaner tigher bass, increased soundstage, and overall better quality sound. Why would these two be so similar inside and out, but yet so much different sounding? Maybe someone can give me some insight as to why yamaha produces such a better receiver, with similar electronics inside as many receivers. I dunno???

[kexodusc]

Hmm...I wouldn't outright say Yamaha produces a better 2ch receiver...it might just be a better match with the speakers you're using. Onkyo usually makes some pretty good stuff, too.

As for the power ratings, well, someone's doing something a bit different here...the Yamaha weighs a good 13 lbs more, and when I look at the specs, I see its power supply unit is almost double the size. So it's really quite a step up. It probably cost quite a bit more brand new than your Onkyo, so you're not really comparing apples to apples here. The Yamaha likely was a bit more conservative in its power ratings than they Onkyo was. The numerical rating for watts/channel doesn't really mean much these days, especially for A/V receivers. NAD and H/K are the only 2 mass production receiver manufacturers I can think of right now that rate their receivers according to all channels simultaneously driven.

However, part of me also believes that some of the sound quality differences you're hearing is a result of the pre-amplification stages. As you take a step up in amplifier size, you usually see the pre-amp components improve too. The pre-amp stage is what accepts the signal from the CD player, and sends it to the amplifiers...this is a pretty important (and often overlooked) part of the process. A good pre-amp is just as important IMO as a good amp. Neither Yamaha nor Onkyo are known for having excellent pre-amp sections in their receivers, but they're not bad at all.

Yamaha and Onkyo both make pretty decent 2-channel receivers in that price range, but if you think the Yamaha is a solid little unit, I invite you to get your hands on a decent, used NAD, Arcam, or Rotel integrated amplifier/receiver from ebay or somewhere. I have little doubt these would be yet another step up for you in terms of sound quality.

[Audioman00]

that wouldn't really be a fair comparison would it? I know the yamaha cost about $700.00
dollars more.....but yamaha may make a better "sounding" amp, perhaps just more precise. Thanks for the reply.