Thanks for the info Bob.. Gather Onkyo is your fave. Owned a 9.8 processor years ago so I'm somewhat familiar with Onkyo and yeah, they seem to be most on top of the latest features.
Helps me see what might differentiate the mainline Japanese brands from one another. Anyone have any recent experience with Yamaha or Pioneer?
Bob, what do you mean? YPAO is only a Parametric EQ, and MCACC is also I believe.
And they are certainly not as sophisticated as Audyssey MultEQ XT32, but they are more manually adjustable, which some people prefer, regardless of the final results!
Each has his own sound signature, and from yesterday to today they have incorporated various new technologies. My older Pioneer Pro Logic receiver used Mosfet transistors and was real sweet sounding, but that was with CDs, LPs, VHS tapes of that era. Now they have ICE amplification (class D).
My ex-Denon receiver was lacking clarity and tightness in the bass that my ex-Yamaha receiver had. And my Yamaha was much better built than my Denon. But then it wasn't the flagship either (5805 at 97 pounds)!
My ex-Marantz receiver was pretty good for overall power, sound & build quality, but totally obsolete today.
But to find an individual who have tested all these new receivers in his own setup is challenging.
Perhaps two or three.
You can't ask that question, because there is simply no clear answer; only some directions....
Today, Room EQ is big! And I mean Big because it helps correcting for room's acoustics.
And that, is IMPORTANT. And to control a receiver perfectly is something else too.
But I guess with REW and other great tools you can do pretty good with Yamaha Aventage and Pioneer Elite receivers.
Methinks you want a receiver with the flattest frequency response all across the board (from 10 Hz to 50 kHz). And with the lowest distortion, and the highest S/N ratio, and good crosstalk, and good dumping factor, and 4 Ohms drive capability, and big power supply, with lots of current available ...
Then used it with the best integrated Room EQ system.
Just THX certification for example, is a battery of tests from the amp and preamp sections that are totalling up to hundreds of tests, many many pages sometimes (hundreds)!
Not many receivers nowadays are THX Ultra2 Plus certified.
Not many receivers nowadays have more than three DSP chips or more inside them (you need this for computational force of today). By the way, the Yamaha RX-Z11 has eight (8) powerful DSP chips in it (DSP sound effects and Parametric EQ with 10 bands per channel for nine channels and two subwoofers)!
Check inside each of these receivers to give you a better idea, by removing their top covers.
We're still talking mainly Japanese, Malaysia, China here right? And A/V Receivers?
And integrated Room Calibration and EQ systems inside them receivers?
I bet if we would have a vote among one million people, all across this planet, that Onkyo/Integra would gather 51% or more of all the votes. I got a very strong feeling about this. And being wrong is simply one of many options ... :b