How good are recievers these days?


Hi Folks. I haven't been on here in years. I sort of fell out of the high end audio about 8-9 years ago. Need some advice

So long story short, i have a set of Magnepan MMGw's i use as my mains which replaced a damaged paif of Jmlab Chorus.. I had a Denon 3805 and planned to pick up an outboard amplifier to drive the speakers. A friend loaned me an amp which had serious issues and killed my Denon 3805, so my amp budget got raided to replace it with a used Denon 3806.

As it stands now, it does not sound horrible, but i now have a small budget for an amplifer. between 500-1000 and i had planned on getting something used.

I ran into an old friend when i was picking up a 4k LED TV this weekend who worked at Best Buy (i can already hear your eyes rolling) at thier magnolia center. He mentioned they did multimillion dollar installations, full high end audio, etc. Today i asked him if he had any recommendations for a good 2 channel amp that can handle a 4 ohm load.

His response suprised me, he recommended a Pioneer Elite SC-81 receiver.

He does this stuff for a living, I have been out of the audio hobby and not been paying attention for the better part of the last 10 years. This receiver sports the D3 digital amp, and it claims to be stable with a 4 ohm load.

How good are these digital amps? I remember Velodyne putting digital amps in thier subwoofers a long time ago, but i know nothing else about them. Can that actually push the Magnepan MMGw? or should i go back to looking at a second hand Parasound or even some Adcoms?

Thank you in advance!
slappy


A new just-posted new 3rd party comment today on the current CAM forum blog re: ONKYO receiver failure.

This guy is allegedly a tech: his edited extract from that post:

"....IMO, stick with separates, even for the switching. Screw convenience, it'll eventually stab you. Always a price to pay, especially when it's a cluster bomb of all in one, like a VCR/DVD/TV. VCR lasts one year, DVD maybe two...and the integrated TV for another 15.

As a guy who sometimes services those all inclusive monstrosities, I'll tell you, I'll never buy or use one. All compromise, for the sake of convenience. From $400, to over $4000, all the same. I've never seen (heard) one make it past a mid-fi sound, no matter the price...."
Re:Clutter. I still wonder, "If you do not have phono equalization and moving coil signal boost, what are all those preamp components doing in big preamps, since the incoming signal doesn't really need improving?" Attenuation, yes, but do active components participate in that?
Or you could buy a $55000 amp that can't even put 1/3 of its RATED power for an hour. Stereophile link Or krell amps that catch fire krell fire

Sometimes products have design flaws. It is how the manufacturer owns up to those issues that is important and Onkyo has agree to fix these units outside of warranty until 2019. extended warranty Not ideal, but not bad. Also, how many of users units here even have HDMI audio?
I just got a new Denon and am delighted with it. No the sound is not as good as my big system, but it is very enjoyable indeed. The TV picture is fabulous using Wireworld HDMI cables. With the 5.1 working, it delivers a big open sound that is very nice...I have speakers all over the house and around the pool, which enables me to have music around me all the time as I deal with the day. It connects to Spotify, Pandora, et.al. so I have just about all the music that has been written...highly recommended.