Hi Outlaws!
Early forties guy frustrated with current HT/sound system. Had a rack of Carver separates I used for 15 years. Preamp started getting "noisy" and so forth. Wanted to get into HT. Tried an add on processer for a few years but it got so darn complicated, I thought a receiver would simplify my life! Bought a Yamaha (always wanted a Yamaha!) HTR-5460. OK performance, but certainly not the Yamaha experience I was expecting (later to find that Yamaha has the "Best Buy" line and the good line, and I am in the wrong line! Then I started having trouble with the thing and after many trips in for service, Yamaha has finally agreed to take it back in exchange for a HTR-5660 B-Stock. Waiting for it to show, and I am considering never opening the box! I had bought Polk speakers at the same time and when I contacted Polk about their less than thrilling sound once I got them home, they recommended that the Yamaha might be the issue and that I ought to check into a higher quality unit, such as an Outlaw! You guys can thank Polk if I buy! Anyway, I have been reading all this stuff and all these threads and I have a few questions:
1. I have an old house, one living area where HT will be set up. In other words, my system is dual purpose! Spends more than half of it's time listening to all kinds of music, and a good portion of that music time is casual-while making dinner, etc. Not much time sitting in the "optimal spot". With my Yamaha, there was a 5 channel stereo mode that allowed me to use all speakers to play music. I know some will say to use 2 channel stereo for music, but I like the room filling of 5, and I hate to have the center, and rears doing nothing-they are good units! With my old system, I just had the rears playing same as fronts-2 rights, 2 lefts and that was great! I don't like the artificial things like stadium or jazz club. I have read stuff about the Pro-Logic that uses only front 3. Can the Outlaw play all speakers in some sort of "all speaker stereo mode" without any of the effects added?
2. I read all this stuff about trouble decoding certain surround modes with dropouts, and you gotta have the center rear on even with no speaker, and Outlaw should fix this, etc, etc. If I simply get a resonable center rear speaker, does this take care of that concern?
3. The Yamaha had some thing in their book that said "recording devices that are hooked to this unit should be powered up, even if you are not using them or sound might be distorted". Have no idea what this was about-but I interpreted that my CD recorder had to sit on even if I was watching a DVD or something. Does the Outlaw have any quirky stuff like this that I must watch out for?
I am all about great sound without a bunch of fluff! I just need to know a few things before I decide, plus I need to find someone willing to take some of my old stuff off my hands, like a Yamaha B-stock thing that is on its way to me! The Carver stuff could also be parted with!
Sorry for the long sob story! Hope someone can help!
------------------
Sildog
_________________________
Sildog
Previous Topic
Index