Quote Originally Posted by Aris
RGA: alrighty then i'll give you some more meaningfull numbers

im looking at the yamaha 1400 or 2400 receiver, and the B&W 602 s3 w/ the LCR60 and ASW650sub. i went and listened to a 2400 with B&W 602 s3's today. the highs were right on. and it had more bass than i was expecting from a main speaker. the mids however im sorta mixed with. it just wasnt exactly what i was looking for. but it didnt sound bad by any means. unfortunatly i wasnt able to compare it to anything because the place i went to didnt have it set up to compare speakers/receivers to each other. they couldnt even get the ASW650 sub to work at all.

i wasnt very impressed by the store's knoledge base at all. it took him over 5min just to set up the 2400 to play music properly, then he didnt even have the 650 in the same room, and it was hooked up to a pioneer amp, which he couldnt get the sub to play on anyhow.

i think im pretty set on the yamaha receiver just on its abilities with home theatre setups and all the good reveiws ive seen on it. also the price is alot better than the denon 3803 and HK 630, which were the other 2 receivers i was looking at.

i would however like to find a better place to hear some different speakers with the yamah receiver. definatly the different 600 sereies speakers w/ sub, along with some others in that performance/pricerange.
Don't make decisions on speakers without having something to compare with. It sounds like the poor salesman was unfamiliar with the gear, and/or the soundroom was setup wrong.

Do look for another B&W dealer if there is one in your area. Don't worry if he doesn't carry the yammy receiver to drive the speakers with. As long as the SAME gear is driving the speakers your demoing you'll have a good idea of what each speaker sounds like in comparison to each other.

Always use the SAME piece of music to demo with. Make sure it's something that you've listened to a lot. I don't recommend demoing more than three speakers at any one time. Your ears will get fatigued, and you won't be able to pick up the subtle difference that your looking for. This is especially true if you looking at just one brand, as the voicing tends to be similar.

Good luck!