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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
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
12-30-14: Akg_ca
Three points to emphasize:

...

First 2 aren't supported with facts so can be eaisily diminished from equation.

2ch Receiver and integrated amp are practically same, except that receiver may or maynot have built-in tuner.
There is a HUGE list of receivers with unmatched built quality if compared to the today's designs. The only downside of most of them that they don't have capabilities to fit huge power supply needed for larger power into their chassis and therefore most of them averaging to 50wpc. Little Pioneer SX series, Sansui, Kenwood and other receivers of that vintage are specked out conservatively and do sound great.
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,483 posts
 
Hey Slappy, good to hear from you, how ya been?

BTW, Philjolet's recommendation is good for a new piece, take a look here.

Happy New Year and careful in that hot rod Mustang!
mechans
3,048 posts
 
They can't be doing million dollar installs with receivers and the speakers they carry.
Everyone has made the point that honest to goodness, real serious good audio can be bought on the used market, that will drive your MMGs.
bacardi's avatar
bacardi
663 posts
 
NOT GOOD!!!!! Buy seperates.........
scvan
99 posts
 
I don't get all the hate for class-d amps. I wonder if there were such feelings when SS first came out.

If you only want a dedicated 2 channel system, get the Classe. However, if you want a multichannel system with decoding of the digital audio formats, like Dolby HD and such, get the Pioneer. Several of the Pioneer models have pre-amp out. If you don't like the sound of the Class-D amps Pioneer supplies you can always get an aftermarket amp in the future.

Class-D amps are more expensive to produce the AB amps. The mid-fi companies are either producing them to waste money, marketing, or they believe they are better.

Meridian uses class-d, as does Mark Levinson, b&o, Classe, Burmester, MBL, Bryston, Audio Research and others. I don't think any of those companies are real slouches and would put out a bad product and risk their name.
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