Video Asylum

Posted by Brad G. on February 25, 2001 at 01:36:51:

In Reply to: Family puts audiophile Dad under the gun!!!!! posted by audioman on February 03, 2001 at 00:12:08:

Well if your a tube man, I doubt you'd be happy with any HT receiver. Tube sound is completely opposite of solid state. While I consider myself more of a solid state person, I feel tubes have their place in producing live music.

Since I don't feel you'll be satisfied with a solid state amp, you have 2 solutions.

1) feed the HT receiver's front main channel pre-amp outs to your pre-amp inputs on your tube amp.

2)Maintain each system individually.

While I'm not a real fan of tubes, many prefer the solid state technology of the the Yamaha RX-V1 and Denon AVR-5800. Some also like the Onkyo 989. The Denon is the most expense at $3800, the Onkyo at $3200, and then the Yamaha at $2800. These are all MSRP. Yamaha has lowed their price considering it can't match the features of the Denon. IMHO, I would have to say that the only difference is price between the Denon and Yamaha. Denon comes with a $600 remote, more formats:dts-ES discrete, and dts:NEO, and a very powerful amp section. I have a preference for Yamaha on their lower end receivers, but at the 4800 and above it's a real toss up as the quality is very similar between the brands. I don't know a whole lot about the Onkyo 989 except that it's capable of future firmware upgrades. I have heard complaints on it new fan design. Owners have stated that the fan can be heard on silent passages, but I can't confirm that. Supposedly, it's more of an effect of the newly designed THX fan assembly. So technically, the Denon should have the same, but never heard any complaints on the Denon.

As I said, I feel you'll be the happiest using your tube amp since the difference between tube and solid state is night and day. If you also use a tube preamp, using the tube amp in the HT system still may not sound close to what your use to.

Good luck and happy auditioning.