A/V Receivers

[RGA]

Mr. P

Unfortunately Matantz has some issues matching prices to Canadian currency. Even though the dollar is almost at par they want $3150 for the AV8003 or some such thing.

I generally don't like to buy these things completely current because the drop off in value is massive once the new model comes out.

The new Rotel 1570 for instance is considerably more expensive than the 1069 it replaced.

I have done a bit of research on the Rotel simply because my intent is to use 3 RB-1050 power amps - they're really very inexpensive for what you get so long as you don't use stupidly hard to drive loudspeakers.

I am not completely sure but the biggest drawback of the 1069 versus the 1570 seems to be that the 1069 does not possess TrueHD or DTS-HD MA but if you have a blu-ray player that has this feature on board then it doesn't matter. The PS3 slim does have this ability - so I suppose there is no need to pay for it twice if the blu ray players have it anyway.

The other drawback is that there is no Audyssey MultEQ processing but I don't see this on the 1570 feature list either. But this appears to be more about helping with set-up and can be worked through with set-up by owner.

The other issue is only one HDMI out which is not a problem for me and the other is no balanced inputs which again doesn't matter to me.

The thing now is to see what the used market is like. I have to wait until the summer. I am still trying to finish my second stereo rig which is basically going to be a Stereo/home theater set-up.

I may look into George Lucas' favorite home theater speaker company and the one he uses in his own studios. Not B&W by the way, but M&K.

An alternative I suppose could be to look at a receiver with all the bells and whistles and that ALSO has preamp outputs. Generally just going to separate power amps cleans up the sound - it certainly did when I added a Bryston to my old Pioneer Elite receiver back in the mid 90s. I see that some mid level Yamaha receivers have preamp out puts. This would be cheaper and would allow to do it in stages. Power amp for the mains and use the receiver to power the center and rears. Such receivers are in the $700 range rather than $2400 for the likes of the Rotel. Since I have a Rotel preamp (RC1082) maybe there is a way to pass through the receiver and switch back to the Rotel for two channel listening while only relying on the receiver's preamp/processor for movies.