receivers

What drew me to this receiver was actually the power requirements - about a third of my present Sony receiver. Set it up in my office and one by one hauled my speakers upstairs to try it out...gave the old guy quite a workout :-)

I was really surprised how good it is. There's an ocean of different sound options and it takes a while to wade through them. Result: really clean sound, but don't even think about using it without a sub-woofer in multi-channel modes. The bass and treble controls only work in 2 channel stereo mode. I found this mode useful for FM radio when I didn't really want the woofer pounding away.

OK.. the bottom line here is lots of clean sound but a little bright -- choose your speakers carefully (Paradigms sound great). The sound has a hint of "digital" -- not as "warm" as a good conventional receiver. You will need to play with it for a few days before you realize the sound you want.... but there seems like dozens of different options -- good thing your settings are remembered. I do miss the equalizers on my big Sony.

Great Sound! Almost enough volume to make your ears bleed -- gets a little compressed at very high volume, but no distortion (I didn't drive it high enough to see if it would start clipping). I won't miss the massive heat produced by my old receiver... and my electric bill will surely be a lot less. No doubt you'll see a lot more digital receivers in the future.

I'm using it with Athena Point 5 MK II speakers and it sounds fantastic. Sound is very clean and detailed whether you're watching a DVD or watching TV in Dolby PLII mode.

The Harman Kardon AVR125 that I had sounded 'warmer', but not as detailed or clean.

I also thought this sounded slightly better than the SA-XR25.