# Onkyo, Sherbourne, Marantz or .....



## gbreda (Aug 23, 2013)

I have had my Onkyo SC886 for 4-5 years now and thinking of upgrading. No real rush on this but looking into options. This is where Sherbourn comes in with the closeout sales.

How would the sound quality compare for all aspects of HT and music? Obviously the PT7020 is very attractive but is the PT7030 worth the difference? 

I have been looking at Marantz for the 7701 in the $1500 range, which would be the upper end of my budget. Actually less than that is ideal. How does Sherbourn compare to Marantz? 

I have had NAD receivers in the past and have loved their sound but my 4 ohm Klipsch Fortes kick in the protect mode. That was why I went to separates 12 or so years ago. My amp is the B&K 200.5 and has performed flawlessly. Boy do I miss the Nakamichi Stasis amps of years ago.

As I said, there is no rush and if it were not for the closeout, I probably would not be making a change right now. I can wait if Sherbourn is not an upgrade from the Onkyo.

Kind of rambling here but looking for some experience with these products if possible.


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## fmw (Aug 11, 2013)

The only differences in sound between the various receivers can come from the processors and how they deal with room calibration. If used unprocessed, they will all sound the same so no point in trying guess how they might react to your room. So I recommend you ignore the sound quality issue and make your choice based on the features and capabilities you need and will use.

I'm really interested in your comments about Klipsch speakers causing thermal shutdown on a receiver. First time I've encountered that. How loud did you play? How big is the room? Did you use a powered sub?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

My personal thoughts is your not getting an upgrade going from the Onkyo to a Sherbourne. You will be giving up THX processing modes, the HQV video processor and Audyssey Multi EQ XT all of these are very good features to have.


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## gbreda (Aug 23, 2013)

fmw said:


> The only differences in sound between the various receivers can come from the processors and how they deal with room calibration. If used unprocessed, they will all sound the same so no point in trying guess how they might react to your room. So I recommend you ignore the sound quality issue and make your choice based on the features and capabilities you need and will use.
> 
> I'm really interested in your comments about Klipsch speakers causing thermal shutdown on a receiver. First time I've encountered that. How loud did you play? How big is the room? Did you use a powered sub?


Thanks, I am leaning towards keeping the Onkyo for the features it has. The Sherbourn closeout pricing is what got my attention. This way I can put the idea to bed and move on.

Regarding the Klipsch shutting down the NAD receiver, that happened when driven a bit over reference on hard rock music for a period of time. This was at a time before I used a subwoofer as the Fortes play rather low on their own. Even with my current B&K and now XS30 sub, there are times I still listen to music in Stereo Direct mode without a sub without issue. When it would happen, the unit may have been at the level for maybe 45 minutes and the receiver was getting very hot. Prior to this, my old Nakamichi stereo receiver and then the Nakamichi surround receiver with the Stasis amps would handle this. Nakamichi amps handled the 4 ohm load very well. This being said, I did look into issues with the Fortes and found none, plus my current B&K separate amp handles it with ease. 

I still have seen some posts of current NAD receivers going into protect on low ohm speakers. The suggestions to those posts have been, cool the amp, turn it down, or go separates.

My issues happened back when I was much harder on the amps than I am now. Being a bit older now, I dont listen at those levels any longer. I leave that for the live concerts :bigsmile: So, maybe NAD would be an answer for me in the future, I always loved the way they sounded.


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## gbreda (Aug 23, 2013)

tonyvdb said:


> My personal thoughts is your not getting an upgrade going from the Onkyo to a Sherbourne. You will be giving up THX processing modes, the HQV video processor and Audyssey Multi EQ XT all of these are very good features to have.


Yeah, the lure of a deal got the upgrade bugs' attention.

Thanks for the wake up call !


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## jbrown15 (Dec 7, 2011)

Yes those close out deals were really tempting on the Sherbourn pre pros. I actually ended up buying one of the PA 7-350 amps even though I had absolutely no intention of doing so when I found out they still had 5 units left last Friday.

The amp was only $999 shipped! That's an amazing deal, if I'm not mistaken the list price on that amp was over $3500. I just couldn't pass that deal up.


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