[thuway]

To all you digital reciever owners, can you comment on how your reciever performs in the Home Theater side of things.

We hear plenty about how the 2 channel performance is, but how is the reciever sounding when your driving all channels while watching a Solid DVD at EAR bleeding levels.....

BTW, when reading these specs, 100 watts by 6 sounds pretty bloated....... anyone have any idea if the new digi recievers are gonna be more powerful, and if they are real world specs available?

[Red Dragon Audio]

To all you digital reciever owners, can you comment on how your reciever performs in the Home Theater side of things.
We hear plenty about how the 2 channel performance is, but how is the reciever sounding when your driving all channels while watching a Solid DVD at EAR bleeding levels.....
BTW, when reading these specs, 100 watts by 6 sounds pretty bloated....... anyone have any idea if the new digi recievers are gonna be more powerful, and if they are real world specs available?

Most of these receivers as more like 85watts x 6channels.  Not really a huge difference from 100watts considering you would need to double the power to even hear a small difference (in theory not always in practice...there are 100watt amps that seem more powerful than their rated specs but those are audiophile grade components usually and mass market stuff like this is almost always overstated...which is what you said so  just repeated it to see myself write it down).


I use my Panny XR45 for 2-channel and theater listening in a room that is 12' x 25'.  For 2-channel listening I move my speakers way out from the wall so they are about 8' from each other and my listening seat.  plenty of power to make my ears bleed.

For movies I push them back so more ppl can watch (we have a couch to the side as well).  They are about 13' from the main seat at that point and the little receiver still has plenty of power.  I never get the feeling it is running out of power in action movies or anything for that matter.


So YES, it works well for theater too.

[thuway]

Any one else with experiences?

[Zero]

My parents are currently using a Sony AVD S-50ES receiver that sports a built-in dvd player and digital amps.  It is running a whole Polk Audio LSi system (4 ohm load) and does so very well.  The only limitation is the cross over on board the Sony.  I believe the latest affordable receivers that sport digital amplification have tackled that issue.

[DougM57]

I use the Sony C70ES with ACI speakers and it plays movies much louder than redbook cd's. I have never felt like I was running out of power.

My only gripe is the sound is brighter than when I was using a Denon receiver or seperate SS amp.

I still do not know if I actually like it or not. I am blown away by the tightness of the bass, the accuracy and the detail, but I am never engaged in the music.

Did not mean to get off on a tangent, it is as equally good for theater as it is for music.

[ABEX]

One of the benchmarks for how well a receiver will do is when playing normal 2ch.. If it does not perform that duty correctly then it would be rather worthless to even consider it for Multi channel which is done in the digital domain anyway.

Just my thought about it anyway!

[jakekit]

My "viewing area" is about 12x15, but its in an appt and one side isnt a wall, its just open to a dining and kitchen area, so its a huge space.

Panny XR50, B&W DM303, LCR3, Mirage 8 sub. speakers are 88db at 8 ohms.

It's got more than enough punch for me. Honestly I havent SERIOUSLY cranked it only because things become horrible with the bad accoustics of my room. I will say that even at high, but not insane, volume levels the sound is superb for home theater, excellent detail and clarity in voices even in sonically crowded scenes. Far better than my old h/k AVR300. It's an extremely amazing unit that for me is superb audio wise. It's lacking a bit feature wise, but its got it where it counts as far as im concerned.

[lcrim]

I have had the Sony 3000 digital receiver for about a year.  I did a review on it, in fact several.  The piece has its detractors but @ $700 from Oade Bros. and 150 Watts per channel, plus tons of bells and whistles, it more than does the job.  Speaker damping is world class, fabulous bass.  I had an initial problem with a DOA unit but Oade shipped me a new one w/o waiting to receive the original one back.  No problems w/ the present unit.  I use a bybee on the digital input and the harshness is cured.
I have another system for 2 channel listening but for things like The Bad Plus the Sony has bass that slams you in the chest.  Lots of headroom for movie soundtracks.  I like it but owners opinions are suspect.  I previously had an Arcam receiver there which has a rep for two channel but the Sony is better IMO.