Hi All,
Its quite some time I have enrolled myself to this forum. However its my first post.
More than 6 months I am in search of a good set up of AVR + 2 speakers to start with and I am planning later include the rest of the surround set up.
I have started my search with intention of covering as many brands possible and then narrow down to next step.
This is when the forum helped me a lot in identifying a few models to start of my expedition. Here, I would say this forum is a gift to all AV lovers with plethora of info from a number of knowledge sharing mind.
My budget was about 70-80K for both AVR + two speakers.
So I prepared a list of models around 40K and the search covered Denon 1909,Onkyo 606, Yamaha 663,Marantz SR5003and Cambridge 540R/340R.
Strictly based on demo had and my pref, I immediately eliminated Onkyo as I felt the sound was loud and harsh.(Maybe Onkyo showroom was only as good as a warehouse!!) Denon though was good for music was not so impressive for movies. Same I felt for Marantz too. Yamaha was good for both music and movies. The last one I came across was Azur series and the first experience itself was so impressive that I was almost sold out to it. The only thing pinching me was of course was the lack of features in CA range.
However, I was not willing to compromise anything on the sound quality and rather I would on the features front which can be managed. Especially the video processing, which I can probably get later when I go in for my LCD/up scaling BD players .With my existing set up I would not miss much of video processing or the HD audio.
Thus I had finally narrowed choices to
Movies Yamaha or CA
Music- Marantz or CA
So CA being the common factor in both of my preferences, without any further doubts I went ahead for 540R.
And for the speakers, I was thoroughly impressed with the performance of MS Avant series and moreover an excellent matching with CA 540R.
Other speakers I auditioned were wharfedale 9 series, KEF IQ seires, Polk RTi series, MA BR2, Boston acoustics, Q acoustics. Though all of them were good in their own way, I found MS Avant series as a great value for money and also to my taste of listening.
Its been almost two weeks since I got this combo and I am thoroughly enjoying the system with all my favorite music .With movies too, it is really great. Though the surrounds are missed for an all round movie experience, the 908i clearly does not let you feel the absence of a sub.
All in all I love my system ...more to come as I enjoy the system
Its quite some time I have enrolled myself to this forum. However its my first post.
More than 6 months I am in search of a good set up of AVR + 2 speakers to start with and I am planning later include the rest of the surround set up.
I have started my search with intention of covering as many brands possible and then narrow down to next step.
This is when the forum helped me a lot in identifying a few models to start of my expedition. Here, I would say this forum is a gift to all AV lovers with plethora of info from a number of knowledge sharing mind.
My budget was about 70-80K for both AVR + two speakers.
So I prepared a list of models around 40K and the search covered Denon 1909,Onkyo 606, Yamaha 663,Marantz SR5003and Cambridge 540R/340R.
Strictly based on demo had and my pref, I immediately eliminated Onkyo as I felt the sound was loud and harsh.(Maybe Onkyo showroom was only as good as a warehouse!!) Denon though was good for music was not so impressive for movies. Same I felt for Marantz too. Yamaha was good for both music and movies. The last one I came across was Azur series and the first experience itself was so impressive that I was almost sold out to it. The only thing pinching me was of course was the lack of features in CA range.
However, I was not willing to compromise anything on the sound quality and rather I would on the features front which can be managed. Especially the video processing, which I can probably get later when I go in for my LCD/up scaling BD players .With my existing set up I would not miss much of video processing or the HD audio.
Thus I had finally narrowed choices to
Movies Yamaha or CA
Music- Marantz or CA
So CA being the common factor in both of my preferences, without any further doubts I went ahead for 540R.
And for the speakers, I was thoroughly impressed with the performance of MS Avant series and moreover an excellent matching with CA 540R.
Other speakers I auditioned were wharfedale 9 series, KEF IQ seires, Polk RTi series, MA BR2, Boston acoustics, Q acoustics. Though all of them were good in their own way, I found MS Avant series as a great value for money and also to my taste of listening.
Its been almost two weeks since I got this combo and I am thoroughly enjoying the system with all my favorite music .With movies too, it is really great. Though the surrounds are missed for an all round movie experience, the 908i clearly does not let you feel the absence of a sub.
All in all I love my system ...more to come as I enjoy the system