New amps from Denon and Sony

rafared

Denon have just released a new amp in direct competition to the Onkyo 606. Its not on sale till august as far as I know but here's a review here...
http://whathifi.com/Review/Denon-AVR-1909/

Sony also have a new range of Amps due shortly in the same price range and with similar specs to the 606.

http://whathifi.com/Review/Sony-STR-DG820/

In my opinion both of these look better than the Brikyo....sorry onkyo.
Would be interested in Johnmc's opinion and price on the new amps.

Richersounds.ie: John

Hi guys,

I have to say that I feel that the Onkyo 606 is exceptional and in general I feel that Onkyo has raised the bar for all AV receivers especially over the last 2 years - as some of you guys know we have stocked Onkyo products for over 15 years as the build quality is just exceptional.

However I have to profess that I am also a fan of Denon and Marantz receivers - I feel that in general Marantz just do not produce duff amplifiers ever - ok they may not always win awards, but in the past Marantz have been a bit of a prickly company and have refused to submit their products for review to many of the Hi-fi magazines - so they tend not to feature in reviews or when they do they can receive negative feedback due to their hostile attitude to mag reviewers. This is just not reflected in the quality of the product however and Marantz (along with Bonkyo) were one of the first Companies to have the faith to extend their warranty beyond the standard 2 years. I have always felt that Marantz amplifiers deserve to be listened to even if sometimes they cost a little more and have a few features missing.

With regard to Sony - they have had a few crackers over the years but in general my personal opinion is that these have been few and far between - essentially I feel that as a Company they are not just dedicated to producing Audiofile components but produce reasonable products to enhance their TV range.

Now Denon - I have to profess a personal interest here - I worked for Denon for many years and I have great loyalty to the product - however whilst they were the dogs do-dahs for years in AV - I seriously feel that they lost their way over the last few years - the product was never bad, but Denon always used to be exceptional at every price point. I feel that Onkyo over the last 2 years have taken the high ground and given Denon a serious kicking - now the difficult bit - I heard the new 1909 a few weeks ago at it's launch and I think it is exceptional and it looks great too so I think the battle is on - I have not had a chance to listen to the 606 and the 1909 in the same room yet but I am looking forward to that demo.

If I was forced I would say that the dynamics of the Onkyo 606 appeared to be better than the 1909, but the 1909 was exceptional on stereo and the sound stage the Denon produced was far above the medium price level demanded for the receiver (and this was produced via reasonable Mordaunt Short Speakers). The feature count of the 2 is slightly different and I think the Denon will cost slightly more than the Onkyo - but at last Onkyo has serious competition.

The new Pioneer 1018 will also warrant a listen in this company!

The interesting thing about Denon & Marantz now is that they are both owned by the same holding Company and I am sure they must be sharing R & D resources and technologies and I am not sure if eventually they will just become badge engineered versions of the same thing - I do hope not and at present they do have different sound qualities and feature sets and long may this continue - another interesting aspect of both Denon & Marantz is that they are both now run in Europe by an Irish Woman!

We have preordered loads of 1909's which are due for delivery in a few days and when I get one home I will have a blast of the 2 together (maybe a boardies demo movie night out in North County Dublin?????)

So there now you know exactly which is better....

rafared

We have preordered loads of 1909's which are due for delivery in a few days and when I get one home I will have a blast of the 2 together (maybe a boardies demo movie night out in North County Dublin?????)

So there now you know exactly which is better....[/quote]

So is that an invite?:)

Dont be at yourself

Any word on getting the Pioneer 1018s in, or any idea on price points?

I'm looking at picking up at 606/1018/another so am hoping to get a chance to demo them all!

Respector

Hi John,
Any news on when you will have the Denon 1909 in stock? I called the shop today in Belfast to get a hold of one but there's no sign yet.
Cheers

Chaz

They have stock of the 1909. I did know that last week but can now freely share this info AFTER I collected mine on the weekend.

Very happy thus far and good service from Richersounds ...

rafared

Chaz wrote: »

They have stock of the 1909. I did know that last week but can now freely share this info AFTER I collected mine on the weekend.

Very happy thus far and good service from Richersounds ...

Hi Chaz,

Im hoping to buy a 1909 from richersounds and I would love to hear about your setup. What speakers are you running it with and how it sounds ect?
Thanks a mil.;)

Chaz

rafared wrote: »

Hi Chaz,

Im hoping to buy a 1909 from richersounds and I would love to hear about your setup. What speakers are you running it with and how it sounds ect?
Thanks a mil.;)

Im using 4 x B&W VM1s and 1 x AS1 sub. Missing 1 x VM1, currently bidding on one on ebay.

I dont know that much about audio - but know enough that this is decent and far better than anything else ive seen without going to a shop that will nail you a couple of grand upwards ....

The amp has lots of options and once setup - gives decent sound for my needs.

Richersounds.ie: Dave

The VSX1018's are now in stock and are priced at £549.95, but we have a cracking deal on the VSXLX50 at just £469.95.

http://www.richersounds.ie/asp/product.asp?ObjectID=&Mode=0&CategoryID=3&SUB=24&ProductID=798

As usual, if you get a better price on either, let us know and we'll beat it.

Respector

Chaz wrote: »

They have stock of the 1909. I did know that last week but can now freely share this info AFTER I collected mine on the weekend.

Very happy thus far and good service from Richersounds ...

Thanks Chaz, I reserved mine today and will collect on Saturday. I'm looking forward to getting the switchable 3 HDMI inputs and the 4 audio inputs (2 opt and 2 coax) as my existing Octava HDMI+Optical switch only allows switching of HDMI (paired with optical/coax) and not of optical separately. This has meant, for example, that digital audio on my NTL box which has no HDMI out (only scart) but has optical audio out had to be manually switched for audio to the amp which is a right pain. I will however need to retain my cross-over HDMI switch to switch between 2 HDMI outputs (one for Plasma and the other for Projector) as the 1909 does not have cross-over capability.

noodler

Can we order in sterling to the South if it converts cheaper than RS's Euro prices?

Chaz

noodler wrote: »

Can we order in sterling to the South if it converts cheaper than RS's Euro prices?

Richersounds take € and £ and will do a simple 'credit card exchange rate' check and give you a price in either.

noodler

So im looking at something for 180 sterling. They have it translated as 240 euros
when in actual fact the exchange rate would put it at 220 euros.

If I order via sterling I'll get it for the 220 then?

Chaz

noodler wrote: »

So im looking at something for 180 sterling. They have it translated as 240 euros
when in actual fact the exchange rate would put it at 220 euros.

If I order via sterling I'll get it for the 220 then?

Not sure, why dont you call them? I suspect it might be £240 as the bank normally takes around 5% for the forex exchange bit.

noodler

I must say Ii don't think my credit card company has ever done that when I have bought something in sterling.

Chaz

All banks / credit cards / cross currency transactions attract a forex fee.

The rate they give you is typically 5 'pips' different to the actual rate.

noodler

So the 180 pounds tv (tghey have it translated as 240e) wouldo work out to 220e PLUS a 5% add on. Surely still works out slightly cheaper to order in sterling.

Chaz

I give up. It was just a possible explanation - call them.