I went to a specialty store today and they sell Denon, Marantz,Pioneer Elite, Nad, Rotel and many more brands. They have 3 different rooms according to the level you want to spend, I was in the lowest room which is still good stuff. Someone was in there auditioning tons of equipment so I will go back when I make an appointment so I can spend all the time I need with cds I am familiar with to listen to some speakers. The guy told me he rated the receivers in this order.
Rotel Nad Pioneer Elite Marantz Denon (he said Denon was bright also) They have access to Yamaha but don!t stock them
After I left I stopped at a Tweeter and was in a room all to myself and put on a music dvd they already had in the machine and when started it was a Yamaha receiver. I switched to the Pioneer Elite and what a day and night difference so I made sure the Pioneer was off of tone bypass and I tried the Yamaha with tone bypass on and off and it was no comparison, the difference was incredible in favor of the Pioneer Elite. I also tried different speakers with it and listened for detail because seeing and hearing all the remarks of how they are warm sounding I was wondering if they would lack detail but it seemed I could hear more detail with the Pioneer Elite.
I was impressed. I was in a store the other day and a Denon was playing and I switched to the Pioneer Elite and it was also much better sounding than the Denon to me. A few places I have been have been highly recommending the Yamahas even 1 custom installation store I contacted. From what I have seen in my mind according to my tastes it is a no brainer for the Pioneer Elite unless I take the plunge for the Nad T743.
I also saw the review in December issue of Home Theater for the Pioneer Elite today. I have called several Nad dealers and 2 have told me they have had no problems with the T743 receivers. Others don!t seem aware of any problems but really sell very few Nad receivers. One dealer admitted they sell a lot of Nad and there has been problems with some of the receivers and said their(Nad)customer service was aware of it so reacted very well to that situation.
I need to figure out if I need a dvd player with HDMI connection or not. I have seen a professional review where he said he chooses not to use it. One store told me that it adds a huge amount of contrast when you use it and you have to back the contrast adjustment on the picture way off and then some areas are washed out. Others rave about it.
cb...i'm the proud owner of an elite 54tx and am completely happy with it.....that said...when you are comparing the elites with other receivers, make sure it's an even playing field...if the mcacc (equalization) has been enacted,turning off the tone controls will not affect equalization (even when set to the "stereo" mode)...to hear to the "pure" signal you must listen in the "direct" mode.
cb...i'm the proud owner of an elite 54tx and am completely happy with it.....that said...when comparing the elites with other receivers, make sure it's an even playing field...if the mcacc (equalization) has been enacted,turning off the tone controls will not affect equalization (even when set to the "stereo" mode)...to hear to the "pure" signal you must listen in the "direct" mode.
cb...in order yes...i haven't tried it,but,according to the manual,A/B would be the same as 2 zone configuration...the second zone speakers are hooked up to the rear surround outputs(so they are not true A/B as they are powered by separate amps).unfortunately,this means that in the main room you can only listen in up to 5.1 channels and in zone 2 you have stereo...the switching is controled by a button on the front panel.
i own AR speakers...fronts AR1s(each has a built-in 15" sub-woofer powered by 300 watt sunfires)... rears AR15s (bookshelves)... center AR2c