Help a friend. Great pianist. Needs a modern receiver with a tuner, coaxial, and phon

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Happytalk1

New Member
A friend of mine is an incredible musician and a casual listener. I have tried to convert him to take the plunge and get a nice system but he's busy so for now he just needs a stereo amp or receiver that can accept coaxial to play CDs from his DVD player (which does not have rca out), has a tuner (he llkes the radio), and has capability to eventually add a turntable.

He was about to just go to best buy and buy a cheap bookshelf system off the counter, but I told him just use the money to slowly build a budget system. Originally I recommended a vintage solid state amp, and told him that he could just plug in his DVD player with RCA cables, but his DVD player just has digital out, so no go.

Any thoughts on a nice sounding budget receiver that can do the above listed jobs? Pre owned is fine. I know I should know what's hot right now, but I've been too busy to read here. Love this place.


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I'd suggest to your friend to get a nice vintage receiver AND a good CD player to go with it and use the DVD player for DVD's. If he can afford a receiver that's been serviced, all the better.
As far as which brand/model receiver, I would recommend a Marantz 2226, 2235 or 2245, or a Yamaha CR-620 or CR-820.
 
Best bang for the buck will be a vintage receiver and an outboard DAC.

As mentioned above decent CD players can often be found for cheap these days.
 
marqueemoon said:
Best bang for the buck will be a vintage receiver and an outboard DAC.

As mentioned above decent CD players can often be found for cheap these days.
Click to expand...

Actually, the best bang for the buck would be a 1990s BPC HT receiver and a used DVD or CD player. I just bought 4 such receivers for friends and family for $50, $25, $2, and $5 in the last 2 weeks. And a $10 DVD player will be marvelous for his casual listening as stated.

You should be able to knock this out in less than a week with a modicum of effort via CL...
 
mea2112 said:
I'd suggest to your friend to get a nice vintage receiver AND a good CD player to go with it and use the DVD player for DVD's. If he can afford a receiver that's been serviced, all the better.
As far as which brand/model receiver, I would recommend a Marantz 2226, 2235 or 2245, or a Yamaha CR-620 or CR-820.
Click to expand...


This is what I told him originally. His DVD player is what threw us off. I'll see if I can convince him to get a cdp


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A DVD player is fine for casual user...Dont over think or you will just scare him off, you can't make somebody share your enthusiasm.
I would love to see how many here could tell the difference between a CD and DVD player playing a CD.
 
do you think he will ever want to go 5.1 or whatever for watching movies?

If he really has nothing worthwhile ATM I might be tempted to suggest an AVR rather than a 2 channel receiver just for the flexability, and then down the road if he wants to set up a dedicated 2 channel listening room then get a better 2 channel receiver. Some of the newer AVRs sound pretty good, not super audiophile high end, but with decent speakers certainly better than what 95% of his friends have.

To the suggestion of a Marantz 22xx... I'd love to have one myself but can't think of ever having seen one for sale for less than the price of a refurb decent AVR from accessories4less... yeah the sound may be slightly better but you have MORE money into it by the time you buy it, have it shipped, then have it refurbed... IMHO the speakers are where the real money should be spent anyway
 
13x24mancave said:
A DVD player is fine for casual user...Dont over think or you will just scare him off, you can't make somebody share your enthusiasm.
I would love to see how many here could tell the difference between a CD and DVD player playing a CD.
Click to expand...

I have used a Faroudja DV1000 and a EAD TheatreVisionp DVD player for many years as my CD player as well as DVD. They sound very good and have a good picture as well. I have only in the last couple of years replaced the EAD in the main system with an Oppo BDP-95 for DVD/SACD and a Stax Quattro II for CD. I am still using them in my bedroom and basement systems.

I know these old players may be out of range for your friend but there is no reason a good vintage DVD player can't also be an excellent CD player. What is the budget?
 
carcrazy said:
I have used a Faroudja DV1000 and a EAD TheatreVisionp DVD player for many years as my CD player as well as DVD. They sound very good and have a good picture as well. I have only in the last couple of years replaced the EAD in the main system with an Oppo BDP-95 for DVD/SACD and a Stax Quattro II for CD. I am still using them in my bedroom and basement systems.

I know these old players may be out of range for your friend but there is no reason a good vintage DVD player can't also be an excellent CD player. What is the budget?
Click to expand...

I still have not found a better sounding CD then my Lexicon RT10 DVD player, its went head to head with Oppo, Esoteric, Marantz, Parasound and Rotel...also a California Audio and it has not been beat. 3 of my friends have bought one too, they sound that good. Its a even better SD DVD player. DVD, CD, SACD, DVDA all for about $500 used.
 
The new Yamaha receivers have many modern features and may accept coaxial; the new integrateds accept coax and optical, they're not very expensive, built well, and nice sounding.:thmbsp:
 
Andyman said:
Actually, the best bang for the buck would be a 1990s BPC HT receiver and a used DVD or CD player. I just bought 4 such receivers for friends and family for $50, $25, $2, and $5 in the last 2 weeks. And a $10 DVD player will be marvelous for his casual listening as stated.

You should be able to knock this out in less than a week with a modicum of effort via CL...
Click to expand...

Great recommendation, but don't settle for BPC. You should be able to get a TOTL or near flagship all metal monster pre HDMI for very little. Look for 40 lb + Yamaha, Denon or maybe Pioneer models that use high end DACs. Nothing can touch them for the price sound wise for what he wants to do. There are some great Marantz ones but some have proven less reliable.
 
As an example:

Edit: I typed a search on ebay of "Yamaha A/V Receiver with Phono inputs".

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yamaha-RX-V...249?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56746a9421

Front L&R: 8 ohms, 20Hz to 20kHz, 0.015% THD - 100 watts

I must admit that after searching for 4 months and looking up 100+ Yamaha amps, I have no idea how to read their model numbers. :( But, Yamaha's website is great for looking up specs for all of their amps. :)

Edit: Trust me, there is nothing on the web to help sort through the Yamaha nomenclature.

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/hifi-components/stereo-receivers/rx-v890_black__u/

Copy the name of the receiver "Yamaha RX-V890" into a search engine such as Bing.com, at the top of the page will usually be usa.yamaha.com with the amp you are searching for, open it and find and go to the PDF users manual. :)
 
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