hello all,
some updates...
AVR:
last weekend had a demo of Yamaha & Denon AVRs at ProFX, Atria mall, Worli. initially had gone to their Kurla centre (Phoenix Mall), but found that it had been closed.
the demo at ProFX was given using the Atmos demo disc. they didnt have speakers setup in the Atmos configuration though. the demo-room is small, but atleast they have one, and its good enough. the salesperson (Mr. Jadhav) was polite & courteous all through the session. i was accompanied by my brother and a colleague.
watched the clip of the bombing scene from the movie 'unbroken', first on Denon x1200w, plus some music. this was then replaced with Yamaha RXV581, fortunately the same AVR i was after. played the same clip. as soon as the action broke out, my brother's face more than indicated that the sound was harsh. it was indeed! too bright. IDK how earlier in the HT room of The Shop @andheri, i liked its sound when a clip from 'the jungle book' was played. even the music that was played (an orchestral soundtrack) was quite bright/harsh to listen. instantly struck off Yamaha from my options then & there (though after confirming 3-4 times with my brother & taking brother's & colleague's feedback)! Denon sounded well softer & easier on the ears.
(speakers were Polk 50 FS, Polk satellites for rears, cant recall the sub).
my options-list included Denon x1300w (successor to x1200w), which they didnt have ready in stock, but could have been made available. MRP quoted was ~55k. we thanked Mr. Jadhav and came out.
SPEAKERS:
for these, my options were those from
SMDaudio, then BIC america DV32 from a seller/user located in Bandra, & then the ones from Taga. since i had discussed with SMDaudio about my requirements first beforehand, went to the owner's place y'day.
had a thorough demo of an array of speakers there. impressive they were! after discussing with him for quite some time and getting clear explanations, realised that DV32 would've been quite small for my hall & usage. so decided on the speakers there itself.
so have decided to bite the bullet now!
AVR - Marantz NR1606
i wanted Atmos & DTS:X, & thus a future-proof purchase...some have observed that Atmos sounds similar to 7.1...however to me Atmos felt more impressive than 7.1 during a couple of demos (as well as affirmed by some folks with the same observation...plus, an Atmos-enabled receiver could anyway be used for 7.1 too, so decided to invest in it). there was/is an offer for an NR1605 from the same user from Bandra, for 43-45k, but since the price of NR1606 has reduced on HiFiMart, & keeping in view my requirements, have decided to go for NR1606.
further, the lowest quote i could find for Denon x1300w was ~55k, across a couple of stores, while NR1606's price seems to be varying wildly in stores (from 60-70k to 82k!). alfa too has no stock of Denon receivers. Marantz NR1606 is for 55k there IIRC).
so keeping all these factors in mind (and that Denon & Marantz sound similar while Marantz is said to be more musical), the best price i was/am getting, is for the NR1606. what more could i have asked for!
Speakers:
- a pair of 2-way 4 drivers bipolars for the rears
- 2-way 5 drivers center channel speaker
- a pair of micro swivel satellites (very small, but very big in sound!) or a pair of ceiling speakers - these, for ceiling (Atmos config)
- for fronts, i already have a pair of floorstanders (custom, drivers installed by SMDaudio some years back)...
- on sub i'll take a call later
the total cost of the whole 'project' then comes out to be
90-95k. and to think of it, i had started this hunt with a budget of 30k (or 40k max) aiming for only used items in mind! as always, repetition of the same old story whenever i have to buy a rather big ticket item.
from initially disliking Marantz to swooning over Yamaha (RXV581), i seem to have come in a full circle in my hunt! thanks be to everyone who contributed & assisted me in this (including the 1605 owner from Bandra), & esp. a big thanks & shout-out to FM
efernand1! :signthankspin:
P.S. - i will share pics of the devices later. also, after everything's set-up, FMs are welcome to come for a dekho & demo, esp. those who are in or will climb similar boat as mine, so that it helps them a bit to decide what they want to finally buy. this is because during this whole process i used to feel bad going to stores for demo, while i was finally going to buy either from forum or HFM. while sellers outside of the forum insist that you first decide that you will buy from us, then you can come for a demo. hence i thought why not start from myself & invite community-members for a demo if that'll help them arrive to a conclusion or atleast familiarise themselves with the unexperienced & the unlistened to.
