B&K 307 vs. Denon 5800 Debate

BWhite,

OBVIOUSLY the B&K Upgrades are hardware as well as software driven; i think every internal component can be swapped out. Therefore if 6.1, 7.1 or 8.1 channels need to be driven; the amplifier would be upgraded to accomodate.

Okay.. Okay.. I get it... :) Lets look at the size difference between the 202 and the 307. The 307 is MUCH larger than the 202. The 307 is a 7 channel receiver and the 202 is a 5 channel. Justy, how will the extra amplifiers, cards and powersupplies fit inside the 202 box? I believe the B&K 202 (as with most multi-channel manufacturers) uses descrete amplification, which means one 105w amp (plus associated components) per channel.

I think I'm going to call B&K and tell them I want to upgrade my 202 to a 7 channel unit just to see how long
they laugh at me.

Ears, it remains to be seen whether DVD-A is better or worse than SACD. I agree that SACD is a great format but DVD-A hasn't yet been released, so making comparisons at this point is not fair.

You are correct, DAC's can be upgraded and in MOST cases upgrading a 20bit DAC to a 24bit makes a tremendous difference! I encourage all who can do this to do it.

You use ScanSpeak Relevators on your speakers huh? They are highly rated and are used heavily by DIY'ers... So.. Did you build them yourself? I know you reference how much better your speakers are than 99% of the home theater buffs out there but could you give us more detail? I'm also curious why someone who has within the top 1% of speakers of all of us "buffs" out here would settle on a B&K or the "best deal" receiver to drive those amazing speakers!

People should buy what they like. I am not dissing B&K by any means. I think it's a great product and before I did extensive research which ultimately led me to buying separates, I thought it was the ultimate! I loved it! But after comparing the 307 to a Marantz 18ex, I just went limp, and became very bummed out by the B&K. I didn't buy the Marantz but it led me to McIntosh and from there, to Krell.

I still believe the Marantz 18ex is the best sounding "comsumer grade" receiver out there. I'm curious if anyone else has listened and done A/B comparisons between the Marantz and the B&K.

My gripe is with upgrading and the belief that one can simply upgrade to a format (which currently doesn't exist) some day when it becomes available. How can anyone make that claim?

in the above post from bwhite,the marantz 18 is by no means
the better sounding receiver of the pack,i own both the 18 and the later model sr14,sold the sr14 and now have the onkyo 989 in both 2ch stereo and 5.1 surround it's by far a more sonically pleasing receiver.the marantz is hard and bright.the b&k is a wonderfull sounding unit but did not care for it's looks.

Bwhite,dvd audio players and software are available and the owners of both say sacd wins hands down.I think sacd will end up as an audiophile standard and dvd-a will be mass market.Check out audio asylum sacd/dvd threads for more info.Yes my speakers are diy as the cheapest commercial speakers with the revelator are 20,000 to 50,000 and beyond.I may add a 5 channel 4000.00 dollar multi channel amp to the b&k 202 as the processor/preamp is the reference model.by the way this amp is rated above the krell 5+100 amp and the krell ht will not pass full sacd output and the b&k will. Not saying you own either of these,just that you can not buy on name alone.Not even when the name is krell.