Video Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on November 18, 2004 at 19:42:32

In Reply to: Best Money No Object Home Theater Receiver posted by Doublej on November 17, 2004 at 16:07:09:

If you want SOTA HT then you need to go to separates. I wouldn't spend big bucks on any receiver, not even if I wanted a tuner.

Meridian, Arcam, Theta, Sunfire, BAT, Cary, and many other high end audio manufacturers have medium priced to cost no object gear. Separates pre/pro and amps gives you maximum flexibility, better quality sound and video, and the option to upgrade the single piece that is likely to eventually need upgrading: the pre/pro. (If you keep the speakers, and you matched the amps to begins with, you won't need to change/upgrade amps). OTOH, with the new video interfaces and processing in the future, even "up-gradable" processors may limit a high end HT system in future.

With budget and space constraints, receivers may make some sense.

For cost no object, receivers are dinosaurs.

Even for a modest system, I would still do separates, looking closely at demo gear, or bang for buck companies like Outlaw.