PICK ONE... ONKYO 805 or MARANTZ 8001

i'll go against the grain a bit. I used to own a Denon 2801 powering a HT 5.1 system that ran a $4500 retail speaker set (Revels). I bought a dedicated 2 channel amp (NAD 218THX) and powered my mains....well, it didn't work. Sounded terrible to my ears. I replaced it with a Rotel amp that was less than half the price and...well, it was awesome!

What i'm saying...as much as you'd like to read reviews and guess, the real test is to 'hear' your options...period.

i know a separate amp should make a AVR sound better, but this you do not know. Be careful and go listen for yourself.

Well, you're a mite late to this party, but thanks for the thoughtful input. IT'S ALWAYS SAGE ADVICE TO 'TRY FIRST'... when one can.

I can see why the Rotel and Revel match was not a bad one. The rotel amps are more forgiving than are the Revels.

True that! Matching a 'whatever' amp to the receiver and speakers is a bit of a task, but not terribly difficult... or I got real lucky. both the choice on receiver and outboard amp (s0, has been made now.

With the Sonata IIIs inplace as mains, perhaps it's an easier task than with some other types of speakers. Personally, I've never been to enthralled with Revel speakers in any event.

The one main caveat to your spot on note is this... it's the "Going to hear" the ??? thing. One can at times, be very limited in that respect. More so when wanting to hear it in your own rig & home, for that matter.

hence we ask questions, get to know others here, ascertain their tastes and ideas as best we can, and make our best guess or choices.... or install a revolving turnstile and do the Audiogone "buy & Try" shuffle.

The Odyssey Stratos SE is quite an acceptable amp to me, for HT & music. to the point where I'd as soon forgoe installing a revolving door. Cabling played a big part in that integration too. In fact I'm leaning towards getting another Odyssey amp of sorts down the road. Which one or which type or if at all is the question now. I could as easily just trade up with this one as I bought it newly built.

The jury's still out on that last bit.

hahaa...good post... the "buy & try" shuffle is exactly what i plan to do... at least for some time.

Heck, i'm 3 Cape Cods into this post and will roll with it. The Revels were spot on in the demo room 2000) with Theta amps pushing them. When i had them home and let loose with...ohhh, a $1000 AVR they still sounded 3x better than the Polk RT3000p speakers.

At this point, as my income increases...i'm upgrading my audio gear. Not much for video my man!

"Not much for video my man!"

uh... me neither. hence the receiver, DIY screen, and 720P LCD FP.... Having the Sonata IIIs already though put me onto the path of outfitting the rest of the ch's with 'same same' speakers though. To be safe-er, adding the 2 ch amp gives versatility, and aids the HT rec... and I could use the SS amp for the rears, and my tube monos for the fronts for further WPC assistance, though I feel cohesiveness will suffer some.

Good luck on the upgrade mill.