Take your pic of features and price. Any of them will sound great as long as your room is good and you have a decent amp and speakers. But why not just get yourself an AVR? It will save $$ over an AVP and amp.

 

I guess I am a fan of separate amps. I also have a few older but quite good IMO class AB amps (Proceed HPA2's and 3's), as well as some newer class D amps. I feel that a receiver just doesn't have the headroom to drive larger speakers. The mains will likely be my JBL 4367's and a Array 880 center channel.

 

In that case, use your existing amps and get an AVR with pre-outs. An AVP will be much more expensive.

 

What do you think of the Marantz processors? Are these pretty good for audio? How about Anthem or Arcam? JBL pre/pro's seams to keep dodging the mark...

I have not been able to listen to any of these units for a comparison. I live in a very small town with no real way to go listen and compare.

 

IMO all AVRs are within 10% of each other. For balanced outs you should be looking at Marantz or Arcam, but honestly I think you would be just fine with a X1800H and unbalanced outs.

 

Thanks for your reply. It's been a very long time since I have researched these devices. I kind of figured that the Marantz units were good/great. I have not listened to the Arcam's, but I read that folks like them as well.

 

McIntosh MX200

I just hooked mine up and still dialing in Dirac. I have two MI254 and my two MC611 just arrived at the dealer, so will pick them up this weekend. You should be able to get it close to $5K with discount.

Movies and 2Ch stereo with Eversolo DMP-A10.

 

Do you think you would have chosen the Marantz AV20/10 over the MX200 knowing you could get Dirac bass control as well as Dirac live? Also, what do you think about Marantz getting Dirac ART? Will McIntosh get it?

 

For Prepro : Acurus Muse
As long as the dealer isnear you , for room tuning with ASPEQT
Very good sound for music

 

Indy Audio Labs , sells B Stock with full 5 years warranty

 

Surround processors for 5k leaves you with only the Anthem AVM 70. A-lot of people swear by them but the forums mention a trouble where they go to full volume unexpectedly.

If you can go 6K the Marantz AV20 got a great a review.

Marantz 13.4CH AV 20 Pre/Pro and 12CH AMP 20 Power Amplifier Review!

Marantz announced their 13.4-channel AV 20 Preamp and 12-channel AMP 20 Power Amp designed to deliver similar performance to the their flagship AV 10 and AMP 10 but for smaller systems and less cost.

www.audioholics.com

Marantz also has the least potential for software glitches unlike Arcam.

 

https://www.minidsp.com/products/ht-series/flex-htx

 

I have one of these but somewhat disappointed it doesn't have Dirac bass control.

 

My exact situation. I went with an Anthem AVM90 and it’s pretty special. You could probably find one pre-owned near your budget. If you can stretch they’re on sale right now.

 

I run a 5.2 configuration and just picked up an AVM 90 while it was on sale and if you work with a local dealer you might be able to get close to your budget. Unfortunately I just checked and the sale has ended. It does check all the boxes though. Anthem seems to run a number of sales throughout the year. I prefer separates and XLR as well.

 

@Lynkage for pure audio under $5k the HTP-1 and then high-end (used) jbl sdp-55 or cousin Arcam av40/41

In no particular order...
Emotiva xmc-2 and xmc-2+
Tonewinner - at300 and new at500
Anthem - avm70
Marantz - av7706 or av8805
Integra - drc-r1

I didn't see anything about gaming and 8k needs in this space so some of these are older models.

 

What speakers are you using?

 

This room will have a pair of JBL 4367's and maybe a pair of 4365's if I can find some. It will also have a JBL Array 880 center and some 66LCRs in the rear.

 

What speakers do you have? Are they good? Since you are only doing a 5.1, i probably wouldn't go all in with umpteen channels and complications that may take a lot of work. You could probably try to find something more barebones like.....

Have you ever heard of a barebones small 5.1 processor called the Schiit Syn? which sells for around 250 dollars. I use one in my office for nearfield surround. But, nothing's stopping you from using it in a big room. It is a fully "analog" surround processor...so you can take the analog output from your hifi dac into it (without worrying about it doing another ADC)....you can convert a turntable into a surround sound turntable (without any adc conversions), etc.

 

Thanks for the reply!
Speakers are listed above, however they are currently JBL 4367's but hopefully I will run across a pair of 4365's. Center is an Array 880 and rears are 66LCR's. Already have one AV10, so the interface is easy and familiar for my wife. That really is the driving factor. I do have a dedicated 2 channel system that I am working on as well, but I have multiple speaker systems and want rooms for my favorite systems.