Originally posted by Amianthus
I have heard of the Velodynes. But never heard them in person. From what I've heard from others they are pretty impressive. The local sound shop I haunt, carries Denon. They push that and Polk Audio pretty hard. But I like the upgradeability of the Onkyo and the Denon 5800. The only problem is the prices with the 5800. But, is having the upgradable part (the rs-232 port) such a big deal? I've never had a reciever that had that capability. So, any more opinions? I appreciate every one so far.
Back in '87, two of my brothers and I went to the stereo shop and bought 4 Carver receivers (mine with the remote control), two sets of Polk SDA-2Bs, a set of Klipsch speakers and three cheap, throw-away CD players - we expected to toss them once something real good came out, but never did.
My Carver has never needed work. Two of the other Carvers have needed replacement speaker relays a couple times. One CD player died, but was repaired - eldest brother was too cheap to buy a new one. The other two needed to have the upper CD holder/bearing cleaned and lubed a time or two. I blew one Polk tweeter, covered under warranty, IIRC. The fourth Carver was to replace Dad's old receiver, which was sounding pretty rotten after 10 years or so.
Everything we bought that day still sounds just fine. Granted, we have had the occasional problem, like Dad's system sounding like crap through his ancient Altec-Lansing 602A coax drivers. But that turned out to be bad speaker connections. Since we replaced the connectors, it's sounded just fine.
I also bought an Onkyo cassette deck, then another for Dad; they're both working fine, still.
Even though eldest brother is about to close his shop doors in a month or three (he's had a pretty good run these 20 years), I'm still going to rag him about that cheap CD player he swore he'd throw away a few months after he bought it. This, of course, whilst we drink his Johnny Walker Blue and smoke my Temple Hall Estates and/or Macanudo Maduro cigars.
I would suggest you do what we did. Research, then go to the shop and listen to every combination of everything you've researched. Do not let the sales droid push you. If they want to sell, they'll give you all the time you need to evaluate. (Of course, in turn, you'll be *glad* to let them wander off to assist other customers. ) And bring CDs of stuff *you* select to 'demonstrate' various audio features; we had brought some Joni Mitchell, Wagner overtures, George Jones and other eclectic selections). Then decide what sounds best for the price you're willing to pay and has the features you want, buy it, and walk out happy.
Good luck!
Fest3er
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