Receiver Recommendations for Sierra-2

[Beave]

My thoughts? If you have chance to return snake oil for a refund, you do it.

He's either ill-informed or purposely misleading you with his pseudo-scientific talk on cables. Either way, it's bunk. Return em, get your money back, and buy some reasonably priced cables ($1/foot or less?).

[eliwankenobi]

Well, I just got an email today saying that the Sierra-2s won't be back in stock for 4-6 weeks, so I'll let you know eventually.

I could always return the cables. I'm not sure I would term it "a good price" as it is still ridiculously priced for copper and insulation. He charged me $325 for 8' of these(MSRP of $500):
http://www.amazon.com/Audioquest-Cv4.../dp/B002TIUZKG
The guy knew what he was talking about and offered to make me up cheaper cables if I wanted to wait. He stated the cheaper ones would offer 90% of the performance. Knowing a little about EE, I can see why stranded cabling would not be recommended.

Having put little research into the matter, I went with his suggestion (which was to take the deal he was offering me on the Audioquest). Just MAYBE I could have heard a slight difference at 22 years old, but I doubt I could now.

What's your thoughts?

I read a paper from AQ on their DBS system. In my opinion, this is snake oil.... sorry. This patented systems pretends to create an active shield over your cable run. Not necessary on your/mine/most everybody here's application. On AQ's website, there is no impedance specification either. A shielded (if possible) oxygen free copper cable is all you need. The lower the AWG rating for lower resistance you can afford, the better.

I would recommend you to buy from BlueJeans Cable or even Monoprice's Oxygen free copper wire. You will save money and get equal performance. You want a speaker cable to be as close to a small jumper as possible with as low a resistance as possible. You may get braided cables too, they look cool, but essentially do the same thing and help minimize inductance and capacitance created by using multiple wires together.

Check this video by Audioholics' Gene DellaSala, an electrical engineer with $50k/pr Status Acoustics speakers in his setup (review here), and what he uses are kimber kables 8TC (review here). which is braided cable essentially.




Also check this link with info about speaker cables: HERE

[markie]

Interesting video and reviews, thanks.

And wow, that is some endorsement for that $50K speaker. So Gene saw that they used Kimber Cable inside his incredible new speakers, and he decided to try out Kimber cables to see how they were relative to his Blue Jeans cables. In short, they were better looking and that's about it - they seemed to perform the same as his much more modest looking Blue Jeans. Frankly for $50k speakers I might get better looking cables as well.

But wait! Apropos to the thread, in the last month or so Gene said the following to a poster at Audioholics:

Also, all Amps do NOT sound the same, even when NOT driven beyond linearity. Sorry to burst your bubble on that but there often are sonic differences even at low listening levels. Admittedly with good amps, those differences are often subtle and depend on speaker load, source material and listening conditions to flesh them out.

What is the world coming to???

And, what do I have to do to get arms like that new marketing guy?

Mark

[Kisakuku]

But wait! Apropos to the thread, in the last month or so Gene said the following to a poster at Audioholics:
What is the world coming to???

That's amazing, I wonder when he's claiming his $10K from Richard Clark. Oh wait...

[petmotel]

That's amazing, I wonder when he's claiming his $10K from Richard Clark. Oh wait...

I've always considered Audioholics, and Gene specifically to be a straight shooter, BUT when you sell stuff, I see a red flag in the form of conflict of interests. Very complex workings here, but I do wonder if these conclusions were the result of bias controlled test sessions. I would have to imagine Audioholics is in a bit of a precarious predicament when they are trying to be completely transparent as well as effectively meet the needs of their suppliers.

Jay

[eliwankenobi]

You know, I totally forgot that Audioholics is also a retailer! Makes sense what you guys are saying... But I do believe in that what they are saying regarding speaker cables is true. They another one on hdmi cables that's also very informative and effective

[petmotel]

And, what do I have to do to get arms like that new marketing guy?

Mark

Now it becomes all so clear, Hugo told Gene since he was in charge of marketing, he needed to soften his stance on a few things or he was going to break his legs (of course I'm kidding )

Jay

[Kisakuku]

I've always considered Audioholics, and Gene specifically to be a straight shooter, BUT when you sell stuff, I see a red flag in the form of conflict of interests.

No doubt, however being honest does not magically make you bias-free.

[curtis]

When you review equipment, and also sell advertising space to those same brands, the reader should always wonder about your biases.

[markie]

I'm figuring that the upcoming Emotiva Fusion 8100 will essentially combine a 'fixed' version of the UMC200 processor with a somewhat diluted version of their UPA700 amplifier, in one slim package. We'll see how it pans out in a couple of weeks.

Mark

Well I finally got to read a customer review of Emotiva's Fusion 8100

http://emotivalounge.proboards.com/t...va-fusion-8100

In short: He found it sounded noticeably better than his previous rather high end receivers: Yamaha RX-V673 and a Marantz SR6005.

Main improvements: Midrange, and (strangely enough) imaging.

However, the 8100 didn't have the headroom of his two previous receivers. He had to increase the volume of the source levels to crank his JBS's to the levels he had with his previous receivers.

He says if he was to get less efficient speakers he would use the preouts of the 8100s to external amps.

Mark