[dave0209]

Hello Experts!

New DIY'er here. Would Love your opinions. I have Purchased the following: B&W: 8180 CWM In wall (L&R) Sig 7NT (Center) CCM 80 ceiling mount (surrounds) for a 15X15 Bedroom I'm wanting to 50/50 listen to music/ watch movies. Auidoquest rocket 33 wire, best 20 ft audioquest HDMI.

QUESTION: Which Reciever is Best for this set up?

Rotel RSX 1560 ? dealer recommended, $2500 + 350 for ipod usability . Seems high.

Marantz SR6004? I was sold on this until my dealer really tried talking me out of it saying it has had some "HDMI connectivity issues" I live a afar way from the dealer, and don't want problems, but still really like this receiver's features and price. Is this receiver for 1/4 the price going to sound that much worse?

Pioneer Elite SC25? dont know much about it other than what i'm reading.

Anyone have any opinions? or is in a similar situation?

My #1 goal is great sound, not bells and whistles. Thanks.

 

[cpatrader]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dave0209 /forum/post/18151187


Hello Experts!

New DIY'er here. Would Love your opinions. I have Purchased the following: B&W: 8180 CWM In wall (L&R) Sig 7NT (Center) CCM 80 ceiling mount (surrounds) for a 15X15 Bedroom I'm wanting to 50/50 listen to music/ watch movies. Auidoquest rocket 33 wire, best 20 ft audioquest HDMI.

QUESTION: Which Reciever is Best for this set up?

Rotel RSX 1560 ? dealer recommended, $2500 + 350 for ipod usability . Seems high.

Marantz SR6004? I was sold on this until my dealer really tried talking me out of it saying it has had some "HDMI connectivity issues" I live a afar way from the dealer, and don't want problems, but still really like this receiver's features and price. Is this receiver for 1/4 the price going to sound that much worse?

Pioneer Elite SC25? dont know much about it other than what i'm reading.

Anyone have any opinions? or is in a similar situation?

My #1 goal is great sound, not bells and whistles. Thanks.

Read the March issue of Home Theater Mag. They tested both the Marantz SR6004 and the Pioneer Elite SC27 (almost identical to the SC25) and you can draw your own conclusions from the reviews. I own the SC25 and I think it's a great receiver for the money with a particularly strong power amp section, great room/speaker correction and great surround processing modes such as THX Loudness Plus and Pioneer's Optimum Surround. If you want the SC25, be patient and wait for a sale for around 1k. You could probably get the receiver for a bit more than that right now if you haggle for it.

 

[hdblu]

I would buy the Rotel great sound for the Money and No bells or whistles if you get a Pioneer it has all the bells and whistles very confusing at some time using the pioneer stuff but they are great receiver so I would select in this order Rotel Marantz and then pioneer.

 

[phantom52]

Do realize that some of the 04 series of the Marantz's are having problems. It's called the "pop of death". There's a whole thread here with users having these problems. The Pioneer Elite you are looking into is a solid buy and will do everything you need for much less than the Rotel.

 

[Filthy McNasty]



Quote:
My #1 goal is great sound, not bells and whistles. Thanks.

Cambridge Audio 640R will give you high SQ at less cost than Rotel

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summar...MI+AV+Receiver

 

[dave0209]

CPATRADER: Thanks for your input. I Just found out I owe the IRS over 9k! ouch, so the Rotel is out, really wanted the Marantz, but with all the issues I've heard about, I'm scared of it.

The SC 25 is what I'm really leaning toward. found it for an affordable $1000. Any thing else you can tell me about the sound of The Pioneer Elite SC25 would be appreciated. Easy to set up? What Blu-ray do you use with it? Dish/DVR hooked to it? No Issues?

 

[phantom52]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dave0209 /forum/post/18155006


CPATRADER: Thanks for your input. I Just found out I owe the IRS over 9k! ouch, so the Rotel is out, really wanted the Marantz, but with all the issues I've heard about, I'm scared of it.

The SC 25 is what I'm really leaning toward. found it for an affordable $1000. Any thing else you can tell me about the sound of The Pioneer Elite SC25 would be appreciated. Easy to set up? What Blu-ray do you use with it? Dish/DVR hooked to it? No Issues?

There's a dedicated thread on that very AVR. All of your questions are problably answered in there. It has got very good reviews and owners seem to be having very few problems.

 

[cpatrader]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dave0209 /forum/post/18155006


CPATRADER: Thanks for your input. I Just found out I owe the IRS over 9k! ouch, so the Rotel is out, really wanted the Marantz, but with all the issues I've heard about, I'm scared of it.

The SC 25 is what I'm really leaning toward. found it for an affordable $1000. Any thing else you can tell me about the sound of The Pioneer Elite SC25 would be appreciated. Easy to set up? What Blu-ray do you use with it? Dish/DVR hooked to it? No Issues?

I use the Pioneer Elite BD23PFD player and a Motorola HD DVR (and a Sony CD Jukebox and HK CD Changer). Since I have both the BD and Motorola hooked up to the SC25 using HDMI cables, the SC25 performs no video processing at all on these signals. The picture looks perfect to me with my Sony KDL 52XBR4 tv. IOW, no degradation of the video signal passing thru the receiver. The feature I absolutely love on the SC25 is the dual HDMI out. This is great because I use both outputs at the same time going to the Sony LCD. When I watch the Motorola HD DVR, I choose HDMI 1 input on the Sony and I have all of the video settings the way I like for cable tv. When I watch a DVD or Bluray, I choose HDMI3 on the Sony and I have all of the video settings the way I like for DVDs and Blurays. I think on the Pioneer you just choose HDMI Out All to use both outputs at the same time.


As far as the sound quality, I would describe the sound as neutral. Not quite as warm sounding as the Denon receiver/Rotel power amp combo it replaced but cleaner sounding without being shrill. I think the Pioneer throws a more precise image in stereo mode and sounds much better with movies than my old combo. All channels including the center just sound cleaner to me with much improved separation. Pioneer's Optimum Surround mode really works well at lower listening levels as does THX Loudness Plus. The Pioneer ICE amps seem to have a lot of headroom as well. I haven't heard any clipping or having the receiver run out of steam but I really don't crank the music anymore. I did try the KURO link to try to use PQLS with my Pioneer BD23 but when I powered on the SC25 it seemed to revert to the BD input even if I told my Harmony One to "Watch Cable TV" which should set the Pioneer to the Cable TV input. It would also shut the SC25 display off. I decided not to enable KURO link because it was too much of a work around to simply watch cable tv and try to explain to the rest of my family how to do it. No other issues besides this. The MCACC seems to work well also. So far, I am very happy. Give the receiver a shot and see how you like it.

 

[dave0209]

CPATRADER: Thats probably the best response I've ever had on these forums....probably because its what I wanted to hear!

Questions: Do you run 2 HDMI's from your Pioneer to your Sony TV? if so, its so you can keep settings, and are jst controlling the TV.....right? No connectivity issues? how long of HDMI cables are you running?

Does Your Pioneer Blu-RAy enable you to stream movies wireless or ethernet cable?

i also will be using a Harmony One universal remote, no problems working with all your features on the SC25?

Sounds like you are pleased with the sound quality and at $1k a bargain compared to a current Denon/rotel combo......correct?

 

[cpatrader]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dave0209 /forum/post/18161082


CPATRADER: Thats probably the best response I've ever had on these forums....probably because its what I wanted to hear!

Questions: Do you run 2 HDMI's from your Pioneer to your Sony TV? if so, its so you can keep settings, and are jst controlling the TV.....right? No connectivity issues? how long of HDMI cables are you running?

Does Your Pioneer Blu-RAy enable you to stream movies wireless or ethernet cable?

i also will be using a Harmony One universal remote, no problems working with all your features on the SC25?

Sounds like you are pleased with the sound quality and at $1k a bargain compared to a current Denon/rotel combo......correct?

Dave, have a look at the SC27 review here: http://hometheatermag.com/receivers/...er/index.html#


I'm running 2 four meter HDMI cables from the SC25 to my Sony XBR. On my Harmony One remote, when I select "Watch Cable TV" it switches the Pioneer to the HDMI 1 input and the Sony TV to the HDMI 1 input. When I hit "Watch DVD" on my Harmony One remote, it switches the Pioneer to the BD HDMI input and my Sony TV to the HDMI 3 input. If I was watching cable tv, I can watch it thru either HDMI 1 or HDMI 3 on the Sony because the SC25 outputs the same video signal at the same time (once you set the SC25 to "HDMI All") to both Sony inputs. Likewise if I am watching a DVD or Bluray. Since most receivers can only output 1 video signal at a time, you would be stuck with the same video settings on your tv no matter what you're feeding it. If the receiver (like a high end Onkyo) can adjust video parameters independently and separately for each video signal sent to it, then it wouldn't matter as much that it only had one video output.


My Pioneer Elite Bluray doesn't have wireless connectivity. I don't think you can do any streaming thru it's Ethernet port but I'm not sure. I only have a wireless network in my house so I didn't try any of the network features on the Pioneer BD23PFD. Much more important to me with the Bluray player is the ability to make video adjustments (particularly gamma) and change output resolution on the fly. This player is also a great upscaling machine. The thing that struck me the most about its upscaling ability is the smoothness of motion and detail rendered on well mastered dvds. It may load movies a little bit slower than the current LGs and Oppos but its audio and video is beyond reproach.


When I programmed my Harmony One for the SC25, most remote functions were present once the remote finds the SC25 in its database. I think that I only had to program the up, down, left and right arrows into the Harmony One. Everything else seemed to be there. I did set a 3000 ms delay for the SC25 power on because I wanted to make sure that the video sources were already turned on before the SC25. If you don't do this, the SC25 may revert to the last used HDMI input. IOW, if you shut off the SC25 after watching a Bluray disc and then tell the Harmony One to "Watch Cable TV", the SC25 may default to the BD HDMI input instead of the Cable TV HDMI input. Setting the delay like I said should solve this problem.


Hope all of this helps. Please read the Home Theater Mag review as well.

 

[baziado]

I have B and W 804s with matching center.


I purchase the 6004 and got the dreaded pop of death right after dealer left my house from set up (I posted the whole thing on the 6004 thread). Then i went with the rotel 1550 at the suggestion of the store and I was blown away. Yes it doesn't have the bells and whistles but in my opinion you don't need them anyway and frankly i would rather be spending all the money on the sound. The 6004 couldn't hold a candle to the 1550. it was like 2 different worlds. If you want performance and sounds go with the rotel. if you are more concerned with "features" then maybe one of the others ones discussed above. In either case stay FAR FAR away from the 6004