B&K 307 vs. Denon 5800 Debate

Ears, it remains to be seen whether DVD-A is better or worse than SACD. I agree that SACD is a great format but DVD-A hasn't yet been released, so making comparisons at this point is not fair.

You are correct, DAC's can be upgraded and in MOST cases upgrading a 20bit DAC to a 24bit makes a tremendous difference! I encourage all who can do this to do it.

You use ScanSpeak Relevators on your speakers huh? They are highly rated and are used heavily by DIY'ers... So.. Did you build them yourself? I know you reference how much better your speakers are than 99% of the home theater buffs out there but could you give us more detail? I'm also curious why someone who has within the top 1% of speakers of all of us "buffs" out here would settle on a B&K or the "best deal" receiver to drive those amazing speakers!

People should buy what they like. I am not dissing B&K by any means. I think it's a great product and before I did extensive research which ultimately led me to buying separates, I thought it was the ultimate! I loved it! But after comparing the 307 to a Marantz 18ex, I just went limp, and became very bummed out by the B&K. I didn't buy the Marantz but it led me to McIntosh and from there, to Krell.

I still believe the Marantz 18ex is the best sounding "comsumer grade" receiver out there. I'm curious if anyone else has listened and done A/B comparisons between the Marantz and the B&K.

My gripe is with upgrading and the belief that one can simply upgrade to a format (which currently doesn't exist) some day when it becomes available. How can anyone make that claim?

in the above post from bwhite,the marantz 18 is by no means
the better sounding receiver of the pack,i own both the 18 and the later model sr14,sold the sr14 and now have the onkyo 989 in both 2ch stereo and 5.1 surround it's by far a more sonically pleasing receiver.the marantz is hard and bright.the b&k is a wonderfull sounding unit but did not care for it's looks.

Bwhite,dvd audio players and software are available and the owners of both say sacd wins hands down.I think sacd will end up as an audiophile standard and dvd-a will be mass market.Check out audio asylum sacd/dvd threads for more info.Yes my speakers are diy as the cheapest commercial speakers with the revelator are 20,000 to 50,000 and beyond.I may add a 5 channel 4000.00 dollar multi channel amp to the b&k 202 as the processor/preamp is the reference model.by the way this amp is rated above the krell 5+100 amp and the krell ht will not pass full sacd output and the b&k will. Not saying you own either of these,just that you can not buy on name alone.Not even when the name is krell.

Ears, The new (silver) Krell KAV-HTS has true analog bypass for SACD. Older version of the Krell HTS sound HORRIBLE when playing SACD. Thank god Krell realized this and will be upgrading older versions in the second quarter.

Are you trying to tell me that a B&K amp or pre/pro is better than a Krell?

So you say that DVD-A disks and players are availiable? Really? I didn't know that! I thought that the only thing close which was currently available was DAD (plays on any DVD player) which is different but commonly confused with DVD-A will not play on non DVD-A compliant DVD players. Ears, who has a DVD-A player available and where can I find the media?

Chesky shows that DVD-A will not be available until late February - March...

Bwhite, no i am not saying b&k reference pre in the receiver is better than the krell,just that there are better rated multi channel amps than the krell for less money.Like i said go over to www.audioasylum.com if you want info on dvd-a or sacd.they have info on were to buy and reveiws of fleetwood mac rumors on dvd-a ect.I have made my choice and it is sacd,although i wish there were more titles available.What i meant on the krell avp is that it would not do analog direct but the b&k would.Krell has a great rep but they dropped the ball on this one.Every reveiw i have read on the krell hts,said the two channel sound left a lot to be desired.