About 3 weeks ago I picked up an Onkyo tx-nr818. While I've been happy with the cinematic performance and general feature set, I'm left feeling underwhelmed by the SQ when listening to music (as compared to my 20yr old Nak/McIntosh... still running the mac for the fronts) so I've been contemplating returning it. Bottom line is, I just don't feel the 818 provides the warm richness my previous AVR did (which really surprised me) Note that, currently, all my music comes through my squeezebox (and maybe soon, a sonos).
So... getting to the point of the post, i'm thinking about switching to one of the above AVRs. I can get a decent (not great... <$1800) deal on a demo 70.3... not sure where I could get a deal on the arcam but, at this point, i'm not as concerned about the cost.... just want something I'm gonna be happy with for several years and provides a nice balance between music and cinematic SQ.
If folks would recommend another solution (even separates and I don't *need* to keep the McIntosh 7100... would be nice to keep using it though!) in the sub $3k range I'm all ears. I think my feature *needs* are pretty modest... 5.1 channels plus a second zone. At least 4 HDMI 1.4 inputs.
So... getting to the point of the post, i'm thinking about switching to one of the above AVRs. I can get a decent (not great... <$1800) deal on a demo 70.3... not sure where I could get a deal on the arcam but, at this point, i'm not as concerned about the cost.... just want something I'm gonna be happy with for several years and provides a nice balance between music and cinematic SQ.
If folks would recommend another solution (even separates and I don't *need* to keep the McIntosh 7100... would be nice to keep using it though!) in the sub $3k range I'm all ears. I think my feature *needs* are pretty modest... 5.1 channels plus a second zone. At least 4 HDMI 1.4 inputs.
