High end AV receivers, worst investment in audio?

Jenkster

Bonzo!
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A friend of mine has a big,TOTL Yamaha receiver he purchased about five years ago. He paid over $5 grand for it at the time and it served his needs well. He decided to downsize so he put the Yammy’ on CL. It is mint, works perfectly and he has everything that came with it, including the box. After a couple of months, he couldn’t even give it away. Granted the technology has progressed but, damn!

It led to do some searching and I came to the conclusion that those TOTL AV receivers have to be one of the worst investsments in Audio. Especially when your done with them and want to sell them.

What do you guys/gals think?
 
Some of them are good yes but I generally agree with you.

The ones that were built with proper dual mono amplifier sections for example, and gained a good reputation at the time, will probably hold their value for longer.

I guess its also a disadvantage that the current technology at the time is integrated into the machine - ie: these date fairly quickly if they have S-VHS connections, or no HDMI, or VGA connections or whatever....

Plus there is probably no emphasis on the audio circuits in these things, more emphasis on bells and whistles.
 
AV receivers are generally regarded by the vast unwashed as semi-disposable home-theatre accessories for a television, not audio in the music sense, and definitely not an investment. For the hard-core HT buff, investing in AV receivers would be like investing in tires for your car. I.e., the only return is what you get out of it until you throw it away.
 
I disagree, yes AVR do depreciate quickly, and their supported formats, and inputs get obsolete quickly as well. But the TOTL units usually have very good amplifier sections, and some have amp sections that are comparable with separates. In those cases, the AVR usually also has multi channel analog inputs. Which means even if everything else on it is obsolete, the amp section can be used as a power amp. That's probably what I'm going to do with my Yamaha RX-z7 when I finally upgrade to 4k.
 
I think your right about those who paid retail for those Totl receivers. They won't come close to getting what they paid and that's to bad however, those of us who realize the diamond that's within alot of these Totl receivers and can be had for very cheap, just like your friends, can reap the benefits of how good alot of the amp and pre amp sections are on them. This applies to alot of electronic gear though, buy new don't expect to get a great return on what you paid retail for, but used and you may get the deal of the century.

Audiofreak71
 
I confess I've never understood the allure for big receivers of any type. I prefer separating the power amp section for multiple reasons.

$5k for an AV receiver? I use the power amp / processor approach. Only the latter becomes obsolete over time. :)
 
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$5k for an AV receiver? I use the power amp / processor approach. Only the latter becomes obsolete over time. :)

To buy a separate processor with all the goodies and equal or better quality as a TOTL receiver costs about as much. More or less you get the amps free in the deal with a receiver.
 
To buy a separate processor with all the goodies and equal or better quality as a TOTL receiver costs about as much. More or less you get the amps free in the deal with a receiver.
Sorry, don't buy your assertion. $5k would buy one heck of a processor / amp combination.
 
HT processors without amps are even more susceptible to planned obsolescence. They join the list of other obsolete pieces of electronics. Laser disc players, DAT machines, Beta, and VHS machines, etc etc.
 
Some of those older TOTL powerhouses from Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo etc. maybe worthless for home theater now, but they can be fantastic for audio and you can get them at ridiculously cheap prices. I particularly like the TOTL Dolby Pro-Logic units. I won't ever get rid of my Yamaha RX-V870.
 
Some of those older TOTL powerhouses from Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo etc. maybe worthless for home theater now, but they can be fantastic for audio and you can get them at ridiculously cheap prices. I particularly like the TOTL Dolby Pro-Logic units. I won't ever get rid of my Yamaha RX-V870.
There not quite worthless for HT as you can use there multichannel Inputs and use a blue ray player that has the latest codecs and that has analog outputs I.E. Oppo players and still have the best of both worlds.

And you are spot on, alot of those powerhouses are excellent for 2ch listening.

Audiofreak71
 
Then what was your assertion? Free amplifiers?

Sorry, don't buy it nor would want to be stuck with an 85 lb boat anchor when processor standards change.
Everyone has there opinions and that's cool but read above ^^ there not quite boat anchors yet, as long as there are players that have analog inputs your good to go.

Audiofreak71
 
HT processors without amps are even more susceptible to planned obsolescence. .
No, they are equally susceptible to industry standard changes. The difference is you don't have to replace the amplifier every time.

I have updated an earlier Emotiva processor to a new version - and got a significant credit towards its purchase. Amp? Why change it?
 
There not quite worthless for HT as you can use there multichannel Inputs and use a blue ray player that has the latest codecs and that has analog outputs I.E. Oppo players and still have the best of both worlds.

And you are spot on, alot of those powerhouses are excellent for 2ch listening.

Audiofreak71

Even the word obsolete isn't quite right, IMO. The units play everything they were intended to play back in the day, and all the new delivery formats like BD contain backward compatible tracks in plain old Dolby Digital that's 20 years, if not more than, now.

Granted, an old processor doesn't internally decode the newest formats, but as you say multichannel inputs can bring a lot to the table.

Me, though, I'm done with that stuff. HDMI baby...HDMI. ;)

Just don't know if I'm going to make the leap to Atmos or not. My "old" Marantz is pretty well depreciated by now. I should be able to get a few hundred for it, maybe. LOL.
 
Everyone has there opinions and that's cool but read above ^^ there not quite boat anchors yet, as long as there are players that have analog inputs your good to go.
Unless of course you want to take advantage of faster HDMI switching, 4K resolution, 7.1 processing, etc.
 
People, people, nothing to see hear...move along.

Big AVR's suck and everyone knows it. Leave 'em be, trust me you don't want 'em.
 
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