One step up from entry-level?

Mark:

Who cares what others think is "the next step up"? I have NAD gear that I auditioned one on one with various other "better" gear, as well as against typical consumer stuff. I bought the NAD because I could hear a significant improvement over the consumer gear, but not a significant difference between it and the other "better" names I could afford. What you might want to do is figure out what you want to spend, then go listen to whatever is in that price bracket. Go a little higher, go a little lower. Some lower price gear will really surprise you. I absolutely love my Creek OBH-12se passive pre ($225 used); and KNOW that it's as good (actually, better) than several units 3+ times it's price. It's never the name, it's always the sound you want. Of all the houseguests I've had, none ever asked about my gear, only about the music playing. I take that to mean the gear is doing the job quite nicely!

Another anecdotal observation: I've seen several threads lately about audio savvy folks using consumer grade cd players (even those 200 cd changers) as transports, feeding it into modestly priced DACs (ie. MSB Link III with upsampling), and getting great sound. Some of these people have highly respectable amplification and speaker gear, yet swear by this digital front end. That tells me it's not who you buy but how it sounds.

chas

Current issue (Jan/Feb 2001) of "The Perfect Vision" has an AV Receiver Buyers Guide in it. Good place to start.

Good Luck

Would all of the people who have replied to this post please accept my apology. I DID NOT intend for my remarks to be directed at ANYONE in particular. After reading this again, I can easily see how it looks aimed. My verbal (written?) diatribe was a result of spending MANY hours on forum sites such as this one, SMR, AudioAsylum, et al. and reading over and over people bashing ALL receivers as the lousy poor mans toy. Comments like ANY seperate is better than the best receiver. When you ask the specifically which models the are comparing, they respond that they have not auditioned any of the current top of the line receivers.
I guess my level of frustration was reached and I vented.
Again, I apologize for my rude venting. And to the poster with the porche, sorry if I offended you, I thought I was making the point that ALL porches are Not created equal.

Wish you all the best. Gerry Conway

Thanks for those who actually replied to the question. I
accept that one should judge by how it sounds, not by what
it says on the front, but one also needs to know where to
start -- got to narrow the field somehow!

By the way, my own knowledge is a step up, not a step down,
from here. I'm a Bryston kind of guy, myself. I mostly
want to know what I should be recommending to friends who
want a "good" system without spending much money, who have
never heard of anything not sold at Circuit City.