[Hogan]

Beyond the HDMI capability, what do you all think the audio difference is between these? Saw both in a store - seems the 604 is beefier. I know the wattage is not much different, but are the amps/etc in the 604 stronger/better (or did they just put some lead weight in there?)


Will I notice a difference with my Velodyne CHT bookshelf speakers?


More general question - for bookshelf speakers is there a point at which the extra power in larger receivers is a waste, or even a negative?

 

[axs]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Hogan /forum/post/0


Beyond the HDMI capability, what do you all think the audio difference is between these? Saw both in a store - seems the 604 is beefier. I know the wattage is not much different, but are the amps/etc in the 604 stronger/better (or did they just put some lead weight in there?)

Other than HDMI and some extra wattage, SR604 also has auto setup/calibration and video upconversion to component video. Power supply and amps also should be better, going by the weight. SR604 also has zone2 capability and more optical/digital co-ax audio input, which might be handy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hogan /forum/post/0


Will I notice a difference with my Velodyne CHT bookshelf speakers?


More general question - for bookshelf speakers is there a point at which the extra power in larger receivers is a waste, or even a negative?

I don't know, if you will notice a difference or not, but having more power is certainly not going to be a negative.

 

[Humanoid1]

As stated the 604 is more powerful and has HDMI and auto setup. I've owned the 504 for 6 months and it powers two polk RTi8's, CSi5, and two FXi3's without any problem. Never had an issue with it and have calibrated it with a SPL meter. Music and HT both sound great.


I will have the Onkyo 804 tomorrow and it will provide the HDMI interface I need for my Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player. Some have experienced the ground loop issue with it and if I do, its going back for a Marantz 7001 or Denon 2807.

 

[Jakeman02]

The 604 does have individual speaker eq for the front/center/rears and sub which you can tweak if you want to get a sound more to your preference. It's ment to level room response and not really to tweak sound preference to your liking so it isn't a wide range eq and won't a world of difference but it will change the overall sound with some trial and error. I've demoed them both, other than that as far as sound quality, both receivers will be comparable as far as sq.


The amps are a bit heavier and beefier in the 604, will you be able to tell the difference of that in the sound differnce between them, imo no.

 

[Hogan]

Thanks - negotiated a decent price for a new 604 and picked it up last night. Sounded good in the little time I played with it. For $75 more than the Pio 816 I have been trying, it will give me HDMI functionality and some additional "futureproofing" I guess. Still trying to determine on another thread whether it suffers from that LFE 10db issue or not, but since I don't have BR or HDDVD yet it is a moot point for me right now - but would of course prefer that it will be right when the time comes.


I did notice the 604 has individual crossover settings for each speaker, which could be nice if I ever were to change the mains to floorstanding from bookshelf, for example.