[craigamrine]

Hi folks.  Well, I've been happily listening to my Veracity HT'1s for several months now... and love 'em.

I have been using an Integra 5.3 receiver to drive them.  Things are starting to act "funny" with this receiver...  had problems turning it on, now when of the optical inputs is not working.  I'm suspecting that it is on it's last legs.  So, I'm looking for a replacement.  Please understand I'm under a very limited budget and need a A/V reciever to drive 2 zones.  Zone 1 is a very modest 5.1 hometheater.  Zone 2 is a 2.1 stereo setup with my HT'1s and an Outlaw Subwoofer.   

My budget here is $1000 max.  I realize most of the owners here run separates, but that is just not possible in my situation.  A 2-zone AV receiver is my ONLY option.

I've narrowed my selection to either an NAD, Marantz, or another Integra system.  Here is my concern...
Some of these receivers (NAD) have a frequency response ranging from 20 to 20K Hz.  Others claim a frequency response ranging from 5 to 100K Hz.  Since the HT1's can have an extended range far above 20KHz, would I be short-changing these speakers if I use a reciever that has a 20KHz limit?  I LOVE the high-frequency detail and air-i-ness of these speakers and want to take full advantage of that with my receiver (within budget, of course)

Thanks for reading.
-Craig

[Big Red Machine]

I'd be more concerned about the "sound" of the receivers than the frequency range you'll never fully use.  I've had good results with Onkyo.  But any of the Pioneers, Denons, and Marantzs will work fine.  To save some bucks go B stock or Audiogon to get the watts up there.

[jsalk]

Craig -

As long as the FR is flat out to 20K and the amp is very clean, you should be fine. You can't hear anything above this anyway.  While some may argue that you can "sense" frequencies above this range, I haven't run aross any serious studies in that regard.  As long as the amp is very detailed withing the range of human hearing, you wil get what you need out of it.

- Jim

[PMAT]

I have an Integra that did that once after an electrical storm. I thought it was toast. My dealer told me to unplug it (or remove chord from back of amp) for 24 hours. Vio-la! El fixo. Lobotomy over. Been perfect since. If that works, spend $500 on music!

[Doublej]

How about DMR1 from Emotiva? Just under a grand.

http://www.emotiva.com/receivers.html

[bkatbamna]

What you want is a high-current amplifier that will maintain it's output with all channels driven.  Asking for that in a $1000 receiver is cutting it a bit close.  I would recommend NAD, Denon, or Marantz.  Those seem to maintain power even with 7 channels at the same time.

[craigamrine]

Thanks for the advice, guys!
I thought I had done my homework, and I get this suggestion on Emotiva!?  I've never even heard of this company.  Well, you learn something new everyday.

I tried unplugging the thing several times, and no luck. 

I decided to go with the safe bet and invested in the NAD T754.  From everything I read about their equipment, there should be more than enough power to drive the HT1's in 2-channel mode...and of course the reviews always talk about the "quality of their sound".  So, given my budget, I think I made decent choice

Thanks again folks!
-Craig

[avahifi]

Hey Jim, regarding amplifier measured frequency response and what we can hear, you may be overlooking one issue that most do.

Namely, although a human cannot hear much about 20K Hz, your equipment can!  Case in point, a few watts of 100K amp output will fry most tweeters.  Could you hear the 100K?  No.  Could your tweeters "hear it"?  Yes, and they melted.  Could you hear the result?  Sure, no tweeters any more.

The point is that it is critically important to investigate the performance of the electronics broad band to make sure that out of hearing range non-linearities are not disturbing equipment downstream and causing distortions you can indeed hear (or even smell in the case of the fried tweeters).

I would suggest to speaker designers that they design a top end low pass filter into their speaker system crossover to protect them from misbehaving drive electronics.  I suspect that in a double blind A-B test the speaker with the amplifier protection built in will "sound better" in most cases.

It would also suggest this might be a better experiment to try than debating the sound of the terminal jumpers.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

[jv8]

If you're willing to live with HDMI 1.2a instead of HDMI 1.3, you can pick up a brand new Marantz SR8001 for exactly your $1000 budget.  This is half price - the replacement SR8002 sells for $2000.

HDMI 1.2a will still do 7.1 lossless formats - but your HDDVD or BluRay player has to decode them.

I picked up my SR8001 from secondact.com, but I think there are a few places that sell the SR8001 for $1K.  Be careful though - some places sell refurbs, others sell new for the same price.

[craigamrine]

Hey folks. 

As a follow-up to my original question, I received a reply from NAD regarding the frequency response of their receivers.  This is from the engineering department.  You can't really get any more "from the horses mouth than this".   Sorry this is starting to sway off-topic a bit.  Just found this interesting about what the commercial "specs" claim on a piece of equipment versus what is "really going on".

Here is the message:

Hi Craig,
         Here is the response I got from the NAD lab regarding your
question:


The CD players are normally limited to 22K as the normal sample rate on
CD players is 44.1K so the frequency response will be 1/2 that at 22K.

In the receiver the frequency response will limited to 24K via any
of the surround modes since the normal sample rate of the DSP is 48K. In
analog bypass the response will extend beyond 24K as it by-passes the
DSP but most likely it will be up to 30K or so.