Video Asylum

Posted by HTFanatic (A) on March 26, 2002 at 07:57:19

In Reply to: Which HTReciever has the best DAC`s under £800 for CD (pcm)conversion?? .... posted by woodduck on March 20, 2002 at 17:02:32:

Hi, I'll offer a few suggestions:

1. Most seem to think that Marantz are the more musical sounding of the available receiver brands.
2. A feature you will want is a reciever with a 2 channel direct listening mode. This will bypass all the DSP junk and send the audio out directly to your power amp and speakers: Onkyo and their higher end Integra units have this feature, I think that the Marantz may as well.
3. Many are very happy with the Denon products such as the 3802.

If you are in Europe, you may want to check out the offerings from NAD and Arcam. Be warned that they are basically the same design, with the Arcam version implementing some different parts to improve music listening..

Almost all of the reciever's now rave about 24/192 hz capable dacs, but I'm not sure whether they are the same quality as those found in good quality integrated units.

As you already have a good power amp for your mains, you may want to check out www.outlawaudio.com as they have a model 1050 reciever and a newly released model 950 pre-amp. The pre-amp and a used 3 or 5 channel power amp would give you the most flexibility in your system.

Hope this helps.
I'm not sure what prologic 2 has to do with CD reproduction, but you could certainly make use of that feature if you watch a lot of broadcast TV, or older vhs movies with dolby surround decoding only.