I wanted to start a thread like this for quite some time but could not find the right way to do it and to present it effectively to start a discussion on equipment and its "Value" to their prospective owners. I start this thread now because in some ways it will help me in buying my next receiver/processor to be hooked up to my amps.
So I have been looking at what's available out there and the choices are innumerable to say the least. Every receiver out there offers preouts for 6-7.1 channels, offers all decoding formats (PL-IIx) and some top end models also offer digital link, USB ports, etc.
But the one question that comes to mind is should features outweigh sound quality or vice versa? And if one does stress on sound quality then what kind of laws of diminishing returns apply? I was looking at some processors yesterday at Magnolia HiFi and saw the Krell and B&K Ref50. The Ref 50 was selling for about $1800 and the Krell was more than that. There are receivers for half that cost that offer similar connectivity and more v.i.z. the Denon 2805 or HTR 5790 and they both offer some level of room correction which the aforementioned processors do not. I would have to spend upward of $4K and be real lucky to find the room correction features in a processor and get all the surround formats I want.
While I have no doubt that the processors should and I emphasize the word "should" sound better for 2 channel listening, will they sound 3-3.5 times better or $3K better?
The receivers I mentioned also use Burr-Brown DACs and have awesome processing power thus leading me to believe that their preamp processing sections are not built shabbily. So this brings up the question of Snob Appeal and why someone would overlook the benefits cheaper components offer over more pricey counterparts? I mean is it cool at some level to say I have a Krell vs I have a Yamaha acting as a processor for some of us?
I have tried and tested many receivers used strictly as prepros for quite some time and my initial findings were that the processors did a much better job at both movies and music. I then tried the Denon 3802 as a prepro and the gap had further narrowed between the receivers and processors and now when I tried the 1400 and most recently a 3805 as a prepro, I liked the receivers equally for music and movies when compared to prepros.
While I do understand that some prepros are built differently and even may include hand-picked parts, etc. but while electronics is becoming more affordable by the day, do you think that the gap has narrowed substantially between them?
I did derive this one thing from my testing is that while the receivers I tried as prepros did extremely well with external amplification, I was not at all impressed with the amplification on their own especially on some DTS movies. Maybe some flagship receivers out there can offer this real world power, many receivers out there simply lack in this department.
So for those that are in the market currently or recently have purchased equipment, what did you base it upon? Did you buy a receiver and amps and are getting better performance from them compared to flagships and prepros? Or, did you buy a flagship or seperate components and what was your rationale behind that?