Panasonic SA-XR58

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BrunoB

Panasonic SA-XR58
« on: 26 Sep 2006, 01:01 pm »
I bought the new full digital receiver Panasonic SA-XR58 in Germany. It has some nice features:
  • HDMI 1.2a input. I can play CD's through  HDMI instead of coaxial or Toslink. The receiver can accept  192K/24 bits through HDMI. With a player like the Oppo, one could play multichannnel SACD converted to 88 KHz (not tested, just read on the web)
  • Dual amp features: each front speakers is driven by 2 amps with only one wire. Can be turned off.
  • Biamp: dual wire , one can set a delay for one of the  two amps (time alignment)
  • tone control in digital domain
  • automatic configuration with a microphone (level, distance and polarity)


Since I received it yesterday, I haven't had the time to listen much. Setup is easy. It sounds very clean. The upper treble seems to be unnatural (or I have to get used to it ...). Using the HDMI input, the upper octave is less present when compared to the coax digital input (might be due to the cheap LG DVD player). Almost no heat generation (I don't play very loud). No hiss. The binding posts accepts bare wire. No spades. The holes are too thin for my US  banana plugs.

Bruno

TIC

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #1 on: 1 Oct 2006, 02:22 pm »
Bruno,

Well? How is it? How was the autosetup? Have you used dual-amp feature?

Enquiring minds need to know.................

Enjoy,

TIC

Ears

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #2 on: 17 Oct 2006, 03:30 pm »
Hmmmm. the SA-XR 45 output 192/24 via coaxial...and displayed it as such...so what makes this different other than the hdmi?

Mathew_M

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #3 on: 17 Oct 2006, 04:15 pm »
With a player like the Oppo, one could play multichannnel SACD converted to 88 KHz (not tested, just read on the web)...

It sounds very clean. The upper treble seems to be unnatural (or I have to get used to it ...).

Bruno

What about DVD-A?  I was under the impression that SACD had to be transcoded on the amp side if the signal is sent digitally.

I used a Panasonic XR-25 with VMPS 626r's for a couple of years until I could afford better.  It's a very listenable combination and I never experienced fatigue even with the raunchiest recordings.  However after finally pairing it up with a tube amp I'm finally hearing the fullness and the treble is much more natural.  The panasonic while being an excellent amp (it's fast, clean and neutral just like the VMPS) is now serving HT duties in my upstairs system.

Feisal K

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #4 on: 30 Oct 2006, 01:37 pm »
Hmmmm. the SA-XR 45 output 192/24 via coaxial...and displayed it as such...so what makes this different other than the hdmi?

Panny has moved on from the XR45 a bit.. the XR55 featured 7.1, PLIIx and the introduction of Dual-amp and Triple-amp Drive (look here) in stereo mode. They sacrificed Party mode for this.

Then the XR57 added HDMI and Dual-amp drive in 5.1 mode and I think Party mode makes a return

XR58 (available in Europe only) adds auto-setup; originally it was thought that room EQ was part of the setup but i have not seen it in the manual (although it was a German manual and I don't read German)

It's almost a waste of HDMI 1.2a which is capable of carrying native DSD to the receiver (it won't decode it). But the XR57 and XR58 will accept and amplify 7.1ch of LPCM audio from current and future HDMI players.

Ears

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #5 on: 6 Nov 2006, 11:46 am »
So is this the same as the sa-xr 700 then?

AphileEarlyAdopter

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Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #6 on: 6 Nov 2006, 07:10 pm »
With a player like the Oppo, one could play multichannnel SACD converted to 88 KHz (not tested, just read on the web)...

It sounds very clean. The upper treble seems to be unnatural (or I have to get used to it ...).

Bruno

What about DVD-A?  I was under the impression that SACD had to be transcoded on the amp side if the signal is sent digitally.

I used a Panasonic XR-25 with VMPS 626r's for a couple of years until I could afford better.  It's a very listenable combination and I never experienced fatigue even with the raunchiest recordings.  However after finally pairing it up with a tube amp I'm finally hearing the fullness and the treble is much more natural.  The panasonic while being an excellent amp (it's fast, clean and neutral just like the VMPS) is now serving HT duties in my upstairs system.

When playing analog inputs the Panasonic's performance is as good as the clock oscillator inside it (may not be that great). When playing digital inputs the clock/oscillator could be made to play at a quality equal to the clock quality in the player (minus any jitter introduced by the digital cable).
For eg. when I change  digital cables with my Philips 963sa and my bi-amped Panny XR55, I can hear changes. When I moved to the low jitter Squeezebox (running with a Bolded modded Elpac power supply) I can hear an improvement. Also, with the Panny, if you biamp it could improve the treble a bit. I think bi-amping is a requirement for most digital amps as they do not feedback built in. The lack of damping could lead to harsh treble.
I am told jitter could be worse in a HDMI cable, so I am not keen on the XR57+Oppo combo. I might get the Oppo for the video aspects though.

BrunoB

Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #7 on: 24 Jan 2007, 05:05 pm »
So is this the same as the sa-xr 700 then?


Oops, I forgot to watch this thread.

The SAXR700 has triple amp feature.

BrunoB

Re: Panasonic SA-XR58
« Reply #8 on: 24 Jan 2007, 05:23 pm »
Bruno,

Well? How is it? How was the autosetup? Have you used dual-amp feature?

Enquiring minds need to know.................

Enjoy,

TIC

Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time with this amp (too busy to mod my speakers and room).


The autosetup seems to work - I tested it only with two speakers.
I hate the binding posts. I want spades.
I haven't played with the dual amp feature. Note that it allows to delay high vs low freq drivers (I haven't tried).
It is very quiet (almost no hiss).
Although hissy and less powerful, the Sharp SD-HX500 sounds better (better bass and slightly brighter).
Best feature: tone control done in the digital domain. This could allow me to listen to recent CD's that are extremely bright (e.g. Sting's Sacred Love). Are some recording engineers becoming deaf?

I haven't tried SACD, DVD-A, multichannel, HDMI , ...

According to a few German audio magazine that I had in hand, it is a good system but no giant killer.

Hope this helps,

Bruno