Quote:
Originally Posted by WestRace
Some of more affordable receivers are about $250 from Best Buys which are a lot better than something similar in price 10 years ago. It depends on your budget. If you're willing to go separates then it would be a bit more expensive but will gain in sound quality.
Are you looking to purchase speakers as well or only the receivers? I mean a proper surround sound system would probably need two fronts, one center, and two rears. If your front speakers are large enough, you probably won't need a sub.
|
It really depends on what you classify as better. Yes, modern receivers have a lot of bells and whistles packed into them. But as far as sound quality, that depends. Older receivers didn't have to deal with sharing space with all the new fangled features. So there wasn't the need to rob Peter to pay Paul with the design of the amplification stages and power supply.
As far as not needing a sub, unless you really have large speakers, most everyone needs to have a sub. Since I'm thoroughly familiar with B&W speakers, a 802D3 is what I would consider a fairly large speaker. And even with the 802, I would still recommend the use of a sub. I used to be anti sub because all I was exposed to was crap sounding subs which only played loud and had boomy distorted bass. It wasn't until I heard properly designed subs that my mindset changed. Now I run subs with all my serious systems. My main system has 2 subs; a 15" and a 18". My 2 channel system has a single 12" sub.
Dropping the use of a sub in a surround system is also a mistake as there is a discrete LFE channel with all multichannel audio mixes.
Not only is having a sub an advantage for low bass reproduction as subs are designed with this in mind, subs help with the overall sound quality of the rest the audio system. Setting the other channels to small will alleviate the amplifier driving those speakers from having to reproduce deep bass which is the hardest load on any amplifier. Having a sub is essentially bi-amping your system. With the economization of consumer audio for the masses, I wouldn't bet a $250 receiver has the necessary amplification and power supply to be driven hard. Having a sub provides better flexibility in placing the sub in the optimal position based on your room characteristics to get the best performance/sound. Where one places a standard speaker is not necessarily the best placement for bass reproduction. Many times this is the rule and not the exception.