I am looking at the Sony DA 5300 ES, Onkyo 905, and the Denon 4306. I am starting from the ground floor on my system. I will be using the 633T's, 634-VAC, and S-12 for starters. I'm not sure on the rear's yet I might have to go into the ceiling because of space issues. I will be probably 50/50 on music and movies. I totally want the best sound quality I can get from my Aperions, but also want the punch when needed. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Although there are not many on this forum that would suggest Sony, I still own the Sony STR-DE997 which powers my second pair of Front L/R’S, but seems to distort at high volumes, where the Onkyo TX-SR805 produces sound that is clear, clean and accurate at all volumes and yes it does pack a punch.

 

This may be because of the THX Ultra2 certification, which the Onkyo and Denon both have, but I don’t believe that the Sony does.

 

If what you are looking for is primarily SQ, then you may not need to look in the over $1500 price-range. My 805 has, 130 WPC, is THX Ultra2 certified and I paid $900 with free shipping.

 

I think you need to decide what features you really need that you will be happy with if you intend to expand your system to keep up with technology.

 

My Aperion Speakers:

2 632 L/R

2 532 L/R

1 532 C

2 534-SS

2 422 L/R

1 S-10 Sub

 

8 driven by Onkyo TX-SR805

 

2 driven by Sony STR-DE997

 

Nice choice of speakers by the way.

 

Jack

Hello,

My advice is to take the Sony out of the debate. It claims to do 120w per channel, but only has a 480w power supply. Driving 5 speakers (movie scenario), would only yield you around 96w per channel. 68 per channel drving 7 speakers. The actual wattage will be less given that does not account for processing power for sound, video, and receiver display.  The 120w rating is probably for 1 channel at a time and would probably be ok for stereo music. any action packed movie sequece will suffer with this receiver (in my opinion) in combination with your proposed speakers.

Both the Onkyo and Denon have power supplies that can easily manage the amp requirements.

I use the Denon 3806 with the 633T's and 634-VAC and love it!

-James

James has a point when addressing actual useable power 7 channels driven.

 

The 5300ES does appear to have a 480 watt P/S which cannot drive all channels at 120 WPC more like an honest 80 WPC. The 5300 weighs about 35 lbs.

 

My TX-SR805 has about a 1000 watt P/S and that may be why it weighs in at 51 lbs and qualifies for THX certification. Creating more output power requires a bigger P/S, where the transformer accounts for the majority of the weight.

 

When the demand is larger than the supply, something has to give and that would be SQ.

 

You may not always need the extra power but when the material is quite demanding, that is when you feel that reserve power.

 

 

Also the Onkyo and the Denon have about ½ the THD as compared to the Sony.

 

Jack

Thank you both for your input! Jack or anyone else, what are your opinions on the Onkyo TX-SR875? I am really liking what I'm hearing, but do you think it's worth the extra dollars over the TX-SR805?

4jacks,

 

If what you are looking for is sound quality, I think the 805 and the 875 would be equal.

 

The 875 may have 10 more WPC and more video conversion capabilities and a few other frills, but is it worth the extra $400 to you?

 

I don’t need the latest video up-conversion yet, since my Sony 36“ XBR CRT still has a great picture and I don’t plan to upgrade until it dies or I see something substantially better.

 

I am not saying that you should buy Onkyo because the decision is of course yours.

 

I can say that I am very content with the 805. I posted on Cnet that the 805 Rocks and you would need forgiving neighbors if you have the 805 teamed with really good speakers and a Sub.

 

I cranked the 805 up really loud, playing American Outlaws on DVD in Multi-Channel.

 

Within ½ hour two neighbors came over, husbands and wives, with frowns on their faces. I turned the volume down a bit and they stayed for a few refreshments as I was trying to defuse the situation and we watched the movie to the end. They did not leave with a frown.

 

Jack

Jack,

 I was first leaning towards Denon, Then I started hearing a lot about Onkyo and Marantz. Onkyo is now rising to the top of my choice because of your input and what I've heard from others about SQ and using it with Aperions. What's your listening percentage of movies vs music? The video conversion is what I'm having the most difficulties with. Like I said before I'm building a complete system from the ground floor and that includes the TV. So, I keep wavering back and forth do I go with the most up to date in video and audio or just get an awesome receiver for an awesome price. I'm just not sure yet if the $400 is worth it.  By the way Jack I noticed where you were from. I'm a Meridian High graduate class of 86. Now in Portland OR. Thanks again for your input.
 

Well, Isn’t that a coincidence, three posters on the same thread from Meridian, Idaho. James is here also.

 

I average about 60/40 movies/music.

 

My advice is to buy something that you will be content with for at least a few years. I tend not to buy the top technology out there unless I can use it today since it won’t be on top for long with the continuous advancements in electronics and you will pay a premium price.

 

I found that to be true when I bought my last computer. Three years ago I bought a Velocity Micro 3.4 Ghz, which was not the fastest although close, but it still serves me well while others I am sure have much lesser machines that they still find functional. Now there are Dual and Quad core processors that I am sure would blow my machine away, but at a price.

 

You have Blu-Ray and HD Dvd. Which of these will be on top if either in the next few years?

 

There are a lot of knowledgeable users on this site that may have different thoughts, but that is what you are looking for. After weighing the Pros and Cons, in the end it is you who will decide. There is a lot of quality equipment out there, which does not make deciding very easy.

 

Regards,

 

Jack

Looking at the Onkyo specs, I agree that the 805 and 875 are probably the same in regards to sound quality. I'm a Denon fan, so I don't have any first hand experience with Onkyo, but I do have experience with high-def goodies and up-conversion.

Which receiver you go with will depend on your other components. You said you would be getting a new TV. If you are getting a wide screen high-def tv, what is it's resolution? 720p, 1080i, or 1080p?  What about your dvd player? Does it have any up-conversion capabilities?

Meridian Jack is using old-school tv technology (poking a little fun), so he would not want to spend the bucks on those video features. DVD's and regular tv is standard def, and looks like crap on many hd tv's. Up-conversion somewhere is a must. Some of the higher-end tv's will upconvert the signal for you... others will do better with an external scaler (on the receiver or dvd player).

I'm using the denon 3806, which is equivelant to the 805 when it comes to video features. It has hdmi, but will only pass through the input signal, not convert to a higher resolution. But, my satellite receiver outputs 1080i, and so does my Marantz dvd player (quite nicely), and the Sony SXRD tv will change it over to 1080p. I'm very happy with the results.  The Denon 4306 looks equivelant to the 875 in video features, but I would not have taken advantage of those features in my setup.

If you have a good quality up-scaling dvd player and tv, I would recommend the 805, and you still get your hdmi video switching (and conversion from other types of video inputs to hdmi, but no actual up-conversion)... and save yourself some bucks to buy something nice for the wife/girlfriend/mistress for letting you buy new toys.

There is my 2 cents....

 -James

4jacks,

 

Last year I was all set to replace my TV with a nice Flat-Panel or Projection TV in the 46” range. Instead I bought 10 Aperion speakers and a new AVR and I am glad that I did. Below are links similar to those that I used when trying to decide on a TV.

 

http://www.greathometheater.com/1080i-vs-720p.html

 

http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5137915-1.html

 

http://www.lcdtv.com/article07.cfm

 

I found information like this helpful.

 

The size of the TV you want may influence your decision.

 

CRT Jack

Howdy Jacks,

I too spent my hard earned dough on the Aperion speakers first..  I am 50/50 music/movies.  Video will have to come eventually if you are into flicks. I think the tv native resolution is more important of a factor than size, but for some they go hand-in-hand. Meridian Jack provides some good links.

I found a review on the 875 on Ultimate AV (same folks that run Stereophile and HomeTheater Magazines). The link is http://www.ultimateavmag.com/avreceivers/907onk875/

The 875 also has the added goodies of the new Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. If you read other articles on the site, you'll notice that the hd-dvd and blue-ray players and many of the movies have yet to fully accomodate this new kick-butt sound formats... but soon they will. This may be added incentive to fork out for the 875.

-James

4jacks,

 

Below is a comparison between the 805 and the 875 from my manual.

 

Both have the features listed under Processing and the TX-SR875 Only shows additional features of the 875.

 

Processing

• THX

*1

Surround EX

• THX Ultra2

*1

certified

• Dolby

*2

Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital

Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Pro Logic IIx

• DTS

*3

, DTS-ES Discrete, DTS-ES Matrix, DTS-HD

Master Audio, DTS-HD High Resolution, DTS 96/24,

DTS Neo:6

• Neural Surround

*4

, THX-Neural

• Theater-Dimensional

*5

virtual surround sound

• DSD Direct

• 192 kHz/24-bit D/A converters

• Powerful and highly accurate 32-bit DSP processing

• Re-EQ

*6

function

• Tone control on all channels (7.1)

• 7-band EQ on 7 channels, 5-band EQ on subwoofer

 

TX-SR875 Only

• 140 watts minimum continuous power per channel, 8

ohm loads, 2 channels driven from 20 Hz to 20 kHz,

with a maximum total harmonic distortion of 0.05%

(FTC)

• Zone 2 composite video output

• 4 HDMI inputs, 1 output (Version 1.3a)

• Bridging capability for front speakers

• HDMI upconversion of composite video, S-Video,

and component sources (720p, 1080i, 1080p capable)

• VLSC (Vector Linear Shaping Circuitry) on all channels

 

You can D/L the entire manual from Onkyo.

 

CRT Jack

 

Thanks again Jack and James for all the info and links. The question on the TV is yes I will be using  a 1080p HDTV. I am still undecided which way I'm going on the DVD player. My buddy is using a computer to play his movies along with an Infocus projector and a Denon 3805. I have been very impressed with the performance of his system. We have gone to some stores that have much higher end projectors and found his system has better clarity being played by the computer VS a DVD player. He was told by a audio/computer geek that the computer can process much better and so far from the results that I have seen it holds true. I am leaning toward the 875 with all it's latest video technology and good reviews. I am going to wait for it to go on sale to the masses and see how people are liking it's performance. If it doesn't hold up to expectations then I will flip a coin and choose between the 805 and Denon 4306.

4Jacks,

I'm also a Denon fan and have the 3806 like James.  If you're looking at the 4306 I would suggest you add the 3808CI to your list of possible choices.  Better power (more headroom for those dynamic movie scenes and complex demanding audio sequences) and it has 4 HDMI inputs as well as Video Up Conversion.  You might head over to AVSForum and look up the 3808CI (and the 4306 and Onkyo 875) before making your decision.  So much easier to buy right once than have to buy again later and throw some of the money out the window when you upgrade (though upgrading is still fun :) ).

 

Good luck,
Mike

Note that the 4306 is discontinued (replaced by the 4308CI), so you may be able to get one on the cheap.  Then again, as Mike states, the 3808CI/4308CI has the latest/greatest technology including HDMI 1.3 and support for the HD audio formats.