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Old top-of-the-line A/V Receiver vs. new mid-level

Howdy all. First time posting here, thanks for any help anyone can offer.

Basically I have been looking at a lot of the older, top-rated Denon A/V receivers as a replacement for my current Rotel RSX-1065. Understand that it performs great, but I am stepping up from the 600 series B&Ws to the 800 series (804S to start in the front, will upgrade to one of the HTMs for center and probably 805S's in the rear). Since I do not have internal decoding on the Rotel for the newer HD audio codecs anyway, I am going from Blu-ray and HD-DVD into a Zektor switcher then into the sole set of analog inputs on the Rotel.

My question is, since I am going analog anyway right now, would getting into an older A/V receiver, like a Denon AVR-5xxx series be a step up for me to feed some better sound into the 800's? In particular, the Denon AVR-5800/5803s have not one but two sets of 7.1 external analog inputs, so I could immediately also get rid of my switcher, as well as what I would think would be a step up in my amplification.

Would love to get something like a Rotel RMB-1096 with RSP-1098/68/69, but I just can't afford that right now. Also, a great condition AVR-5800 can be had for as little as $500-600 on eBay.

Thanks for any opinions!
hasaanchop
mumbles
83 posts
 
Hasaanchop,
A couple of days ago I would have said go with the Denon 5803, even tho it is a avr integrated, it is no slouch for power with its 7x170 watts, and for used price its a good deal. But Jamesw's responce has got me to rethink that a dedicated amp would be better.( and more expensive)
I have noticed with my denon 5900 universal that sacd's sound way better than cd's. In fact cd's sound like crap. I thought this was due to the player, but now wonder if it is an avr shortcoming.
ckoffend
684 posts
 
If you are concerned about two channel performance, then get a two channel amplifier. Having owned some of the most highly regarded multi-channel amplifiers, none of them (and I mean none of them that I have tried), could compare to a solid, good 2-channel amplifier. The multi-channel amps that I have purchased include: Theta Dreadnaught II (mediocre at best on 2-channel, lasted 2 weeks, sold it where it also lasted two weeks before being re-sold again for the same reason - lack of performance in 2-channel by a person who was running a Halcro multi-channel amp, which he also was not satisfied with for 2-channel), Conrad Johnson (better than the dreadnaught on 2-channel), Krell @ 300 wpc (I believe it was the KAV 1500 if memory serves correct, 300 wpc 8 ohms all channels driven) okay at 2-channel. Plus a couple of other, lesser multi-channel amps.

I have never found a multi-channel amp that can perform well with 2-channel performance - regardless of price. Just a short warning for those seeking a single amplifier to power all channels while have high performance demands for 2-channel operations.

My recommendation: as good of a two channel amp as you can afford and then a 3-channel amp for the center and surround speakers. But my caveat is that I care much less for surround sound than for 2-channel performance!
weekendtoy
20 posts
 
The nice thing about having an older top of the line AVR with two sets of ext. in's is that some of the newer blu-ray players can pass 7.1 via analog.
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