Best Receiver to use with Airport Express?

[jbnova]

I need to replace my receiver and would like some advice on a good replacement (in $350 or less range). I will be using it primarily for music and plan to hook it up to my Airport Express and a turntable.

I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, but would like optical in for the Airtunes. And, I would like an A/B switch or other from of multizone switching.

Here's what I've been looking at:

Harman Kardon HK3480 (seems to be a good 2-channel receiver with phono pre-amp, but doesn't have an optical in for the Airtunes)

Pioneer VSX-516-K 7.1-Channel
(has optical in for the Airtunes, but I don't necessarily need the 7.1 Channels)

Yamaha RX-V459 6.1-Channel (has optical in for the Airtunes)

Both the Yammy and Pioneer also seem to be built with digital (compressed) music in mind since they both have "Digital Compression Enhancement" technology. I'm currently planning to hook it up to a pair of BIC America DV62si Bookshelf Speakers with Ed Frias' crossover mod.


Thanks!

[ericl]

Panasonic SA-XR57
Just buy it. Don't concern yourself with those others.

It's got the "digital amp" technology which gives you great sound in a light, efficient package. The digital inputs sound great. I use the Airport express with it's optical output to an older version of this receiver, and it just sounds awesome. It's cheap. It's flexible.. you can hook up a surround sound system, a multi-room set up, or you can bi-amp with it.
It's a great unit. Probably best sound for the money.

Just buy it and don't look back. And if you buy something else, i just might ban you from the site. (just kidding)

eric

[Rock789]

ericl,

does this have hdmi in? I see the specs say hdmi out but no in stated...

also curious about the amp section, how good is the amp section, the whole unit is only 10lbs...

just curious

later
Mike

[ericl]

ericl,

does this have hdmi in? I see the specs say hdmi out but no in stated...

also curious about the amp section, how good is the amp section, the whole unit is only 10lbs...

just curious

later
Mike

I think it has one HDMI input and one output, which is pretty much useless, and in fact, somewhat annoying. Why only one?!?! What's the point?? I guess to get the audio. and i believe that component may be converted to hdmi. But i am not sure on this. LIke i said, i have the previous model which doesn't have HDMI. I don't use the video switching on my unit.

Don't judge the amp section by the weight of the unit. It uses very efficient and cool running "digital" amplifier chips that produce really incredible sound. Especially with a digital source. Good Stuff!

Eric


Rear Photo

[Rock789]

it does have conversion from component to hdmi...

I am curious what these "digital" amp chips are...
a switching powersupply (similar to a computer power supply) perhaps
computer power supplies are usually rather light for the wattage...

I'll have to do some research after work on this ;o)

[jbnova]

Eric,

Thanks for the tip on the Panasonic SA-XR57. It makes sense to go with a full digital amplifier since most of the music I'll be playing will be digital.

Is the XR55 the one you currently have? Are there any major advantages to going with the 57 over the 55, other than the HDMI Input/Output? Since I'll be using it primarily for music, I'm not too concerned about HDMI and wouldn't mind saving $80-$100.

Don't suppose you could recommend a decent pre-amp to go with this for my phono? Maybe something that also has USB so I can use it to capture vinyl on my computer.

Thanks again,

Justin

[Rock789]

apparently a digital amp is a high power digital to analog convertor...
I have not found (but haven't looked much) info on these high power dac's
24bit 96hz perhaps? I'll have to look that up some time now...lol

http://www.puredigitalaudio.org/digi...rs/index.shtml
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/A...4304/4304.html