[CSMR]

(CSMR, the Spendors are a little bit difficult to drive, best bet is the XR70 than the XR50).

OK, thanks for telling me. I'll ask at the asylum about speakers for Classical music that have a flat impedance (that's what I'm looking for?)

[CSMR]

Anyone know how the Teac is at driving difficult loads?

[mcgsxr]

I had the Teac driving my 4 ohm, 86db Totem Rokks with NO problems, for months.

Not sure how nasty the overall impedance curve was, but with a rating of 4 ohms, I am sure that somewhere along the line, they likely dropped below that.

Great amp.  Often overlooked due to the buzz around some of the other designs, but with the current mods that Bolder did to mine, it is just fantastic.

[CSMR]

Thanks. There are certainly some nice choices around. The CIAudio VPC1 passive preamp should be a good match for the Teac; plus the combination looks more audiophile than a humble receiver!

AphileEarlyAdopter, the Spendor I'm looking, the S3, hasn't much info on the web, but according to this site it's easy to drive:
http://www.auctionworks.com/store/itemDetail.asp?id=11931871&sfid=16791
Do you think you would trust them? Maybe it's built differently from the rest of the Spendor monitor line-up?
I bid on these and the winner pulled out, and now I have the option to buy them at a good price.

[AphileEarlyAdopter]

CSMR,
That Spendor is totally inefficient at 84db. Also, the impedence dips to 4.9ohms. I think, this might be okay with the XR70 in biamp mode, but not certain.

The Teac will drive it, as the Tripath architecture has a different mechanism, almost feedback built it. But then you have to choose good preamp and cd player/dac, as the Teac can only sound as good as its analog input.

I know the Spendor's are well reviewed, but do you really want to buy such an inefficient speaker ? There should lots of other speakers reasonably efficient and better loads for your price range. If you can use the Panny, then you dont have to worry about preamps/dac and interconnects. Eliminating a DAC and Preamp and interconnects is a big deal in my books. So choose your speakers wisely

[CSMR]

CSMR,
That Spendor is totally inefficient at 84db. Also, the impedence dips to 4.9ohms. I think, this might be okay with the XR70 in biamp mode, but not certain.

The Teac will drive it, as the Tripath architecture has a different mechanism, almost feedback built it. But then you have to choose good preamp and cd player/dac, as the Teac can only sound as good as its analog input.

I know the Spendor's are well reviewed, but do you really want to buy such an inefficient speaker ? There should lots of ot ...

Thanks again; your advice has very helpful. I did consider getting more efficient speakers, but I couldn't resist Spendor with its repuation in classical music - looking particularly for a good violin tone. The deal's done now anyway, so I'll have to accept the need for a DAC/passive preamp. My DAC should hold up for a while.

[AphileEarlyAdopter]

CSMR,
You may want to consider the Sony digitally amplified receivers as well. The 3000ES can be had for $750. This was used by Zcable in CES (as you might have read already). This receiver also takes digital input and amplifies without an internal DAC (unlike the hybrid JVC F10).

[Les H]

Back to the initial inquiry, comparing the JVC digital receiver to the Panasonic digital receiver (in my case, I have both the ES1 and the XR50).

As pointed out, the Panny's strength is digital input, while the JVC's strength is analog input.  So one factor to consider is what type input you will primarily use.

As also noted, the JVC appears to have more "oomph", the ability to drive inefficient or difficult loads (low impedance, widely variant impedance) better than the Panny, without giving up.  So another factor to consider is the type of speaker that will be used.

Further, the JVC has an internal fan, the Panny does not.  There is some fan noise in the JVC, though from a reasonable distance of say 10 feet it's unobjectionable to me.  Thus, another factor is how close you'll be to the receiver in your listening room - the JVC fan might bother some people.

I also have to agree with those who prefer the JVC for music.  It has extraordinary control of the speaker, yielding fast transients, excellent microdynamics, and loads of detail.  At the same time (and this combination is tough to find in amps), it has an overall warmth and musicality, a heart, that I feel the Panny lacks.  Not to say the Panny is bad, it's just more clinical and neutral, which some may prefer and some may not.  So, another factor is how you'll use the receiver; if mainly for music, I think the JVC is better; if mainly for home theater, the Panny's shortcomings are probably less significant.

My net take is that, even considering its weaker digital inputs, and even for home theater use, overall the JVC is preferable to the Panny because of its musicality and smoothness, combined with its incredible speaker control.  The JVC is sort of like the perfect sweet and sour dish; those two flavors shouldn't work together, and usually don't, but when done right you're amazed how they seem made for each other.  

Hope that helps point you in the right direction.

Les
ISF Calibrator Bay Area California

[Neild]

First, let me state the weaknesses of XR50.
It is unable to drive certain speakers (which have too big a dip of impedence).
One recording engineer posted on avsforum, it kills the backwall reflections. Another person said, the XR50 is less detailed and less dynamic than the XR45, which he places in the company of Krell, CJ.

As you will know ChairGuy, Dmason and many friends here are taken by the JVC's sound. I am only hesitating to go for it because it seems to have only one usable analong input. It al ...

I would agree the XR45 nudges out ahead of the XR50.  But the avs posts with the recording engineer and the 'backwall reflections' have not been convincing to me or too many others.  I'm not saying that guy's wrong, just not sure I'd put a lot of stock into that as a comparator between Panasonic & JVC amps.

[CSMR]

To go back off topic, thanks for the advice everyone. The Teac and my Spendors arrived yesterday, and they sound fantastic. These are sophisticated speakers. Recordings that formerly sounded a little harsh are now smooth and musical. The Teac is hooked up straight to my DAC, volume control from my PC. Glad to have joined everyone on the Class D bandwagon.

[mcgsxr]

To clarify - you wrote that you are connecting digitally from PC to DAC, and you retain volume control doing this?

Also, Class D is actually a form of analog amplification, and you my friend, have joined the swelling ranks of those who favour digital amplification.

Have you tried removing the C amp board, as per the recommendations of many - this is a great tweak, if you are using 2 channel music, and don't need the 2nd amp board slurping up juice from your stock power supply.

Enjoy!  The Teac will likely improve over the first 140 hours, the treble really smoothed out on mine around that mark.

[CSMR]

Yup, volume control from windows. 24bit output, and My DAC reads 20bits which is just enough not to lose information. Harder work for the DAC but I doubt there would be better results with a good preamp. Thanks for the suggestion, but I'll probably limit myself to tweaks that don't involve cutting things up. I don't trust myself with fiddling around with internals.

BTW if anyone here is interested there's a CI Audio preamp on ebay at a very good price that I was about to get before deciding I could bypass a preamp stage.

[mcgsxr]

I can understand your desire NOT to cut anything up, but I urge you to consider removing the C board - it is just "plugged" in, no need to touch ANY wiring - you can just remove it - if you read the REALLY long thread I started about Initial Thoughts on the Teac Tripath, a number of folks have done this, and none have harmed themselves, or the unit.

Up to you in the end, of course.

Thanks for the clarification around the PC and DAC, I am beginning to plan an Audio PC, so I am always interested to hear about how others do it.

[mcgsxr]

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=11728&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=70 this page, about 1/2 way down I describe how to remove the board, IF you decide to explore that...

[CSMR]

OK I've pulled out the board. Thanks for pushing; it is pretty easy. To be more precise, I use foobar to play in 24bit with volume control - feels safer than using the windows control.