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- Aug 27, 2013
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Thanks to a heads up from a forum member here , I picked up a HK 3770 stereo receiver for a little over R4k and received it almost exactly 24 hours later.
Let's get the 1st thing out the way. Does it sound better than my Yamaha RXV659 ? Yes.
I'm typing this on my phone so auto correct may stuff me around here and I might not notice it. I hope this is is readable.
1st impression
K@K. Yes, really . A light plasticy receiver that can be lifted with just a thumb and the bird finger. I'd like to see someone try that with the Rxv659. I was disappointed when I unboxed it as it feels cheap to touch , it really does. Not nearly as solid as the 659 and unlike the 659 , it has an all plastic front plate.
pit stop at a friend's place on the way home
Connect it up to his pair of RX6's and it was like they transformed into different speakers as no longer were they bright , nor did they lack bass( they had too much bass actually) like they do with his Onkyo TXNR905. Connecting them to a pair of B&W 602 s3 brought out detail on a speaker that I thought lacked some detail at 1st when I heard them on the onkyo 905. I then bought those 602's from him.
The network port is useless , it only plays back mp3 and wma. The Bluetooth however is a bit more useful As it plays whatever I give it but not nearly As well as my Sony S490 bdp does connected to the coaxial input.
setting it up at home
The moment I have been waiting for. Connect these up to my Monitor Audio gs20's. It's 120w x2 drives them far better than the RXV659 did although I now find the speakers to be a tad brighter which I'm still trying to decide if i like or not as it's rather different. Because of the way in have positioned them , they are not too bassy like my friends rx6's were. They way he has his RX6's positioned made them bassy with this amp but no matter how you position them with the Onkyo, you will never find them bassy.
I listened to a few different songs and found that the speakers haven't gained much more interms of detail but rather that they sound more natural in terms of how music sounds live where the Yamaha tamed that and made it a bit more polite. You can here that the speakers are being driven properly now where the Yamaha would tell you that wasn't quite coping with the work load at higher volumes where this gives you the impression that high enough volumes to make my ears ring that it still has more as is sticking it's tounge out at me because it's power exceeds the listening capability of my ears , just like t be sound system did at UB40 a couple of months ago.
I have forgiven it for its plastic finish and for its lack of weight (physical) because it does so well when plugged it and called upon to do what it was designed to do, play music.
I also have forgiven it for being useless as a network capable receiver because I'm used to living without that anyway. I actually would have preferred that it rather did not have that feature.
I was surprised to find a phono input but I no longer have by tt and their frisbees.
Taking a peak into through the vents , I noticed a temperature sensor on the heatsink and am assuming that it has transistors instead of mosfets? It does also get quite warm.
I only had about an hours worth of listening time tonight and will update this as I have more time with it. This is really just myv1st impression so far of it. It's livelier than the Yamaha without being noisy and I do like it so far.
Brand new at at 4k this was a bargain because of the way it sounds. Would I pay t be list price of between 9-12 k? At that price point I would start to care about it's palsticy feel and would rather go for a 2nd hand exclaime. But maybe that's just me who needs to just ," get with the times" and accept that newer stuff Is going to have more plastic in it. What counts here is that it sounds fantastic , and for what I paid , sounds amazing.
Does this stereo receiver sound better than an AVR at the same price point? Better than the ones I've heard , yes and some that cost twice as much.
Let's get the 1st thing out the way. Does it sound better than my Yamaha RXV659 ? Yes.
I'm typing this on my phone so auto correct may stuff me around here and I might not notice it. I hope this is is readable.
1st impression
K@K. Yes, really . A light plasticy receiver that can be lifted with just a thumb and the bird finger. I'd like to see someone try that with the Rxv659. I was disappointed when I unboxed it as it feels cheap to touch , it really does. Not nearly as solid as the 659 and unlike the 659 , it has an all plastic front plate.
pit stop at a friend's place on the way home
Connect it up to his pair of RX6's and it was like they transformed into different speakers as no longer were they bright , nor did they lack bass( they had too much bass actually) like they do with his Onkyo TXNR905. Connecting them to a pair of B&W 602 s3 brought out detail on a speaker that I thought lacked some detail at 1st when I heard them on the onkyo 905. I then bought those 602's from him.
The network port is useless , it only plays back mp3 and wma. The Bluetooth however is a bit more useful As it plays whatever I give it but not nearly As well as my Sony S490 bdp does connected to the coaxial input.
setting it up at home
The moment I have been waiting for. Connect these up to my Monitor Audio gs20's. It's 120w x2 drives them far better than the RXV659 did although I now find the speakers to be a tad brighter which I'm still trying to decide if i like or not as it's rather different. Because of the way in have positioned them , they are not too bassy like my friends rx6's were. They way he has his RX6's positioned made them bassy with this amp but no matter how you position them with the Onkyo, you will never find them bassy.
I listened to a few different songs and found that the speakers haven't gained much more interms of detail but rather that they sound more natural in terms of how music sounds live where the Yamaha tamed that and made it a bit more polite. You can here that the speakers are being driven properly now where the Yamaha would tell you that wasn't quite coping with the work load at higher volumes where this gives you the impression that high enough volumes to make my ears ring that it still has more as is sticking it's tounge out at me because it's power exceeds the listening capability of my ears , just like t be sound system did at UB40 a couple of months ago.
I have forgiven it for its plastic finish and for its lack of weight (physical) because it does so well when plugged it and called upon to do what it was designed to do, play music.
I also have forgiven it for being useless as a network capable receiver because I'm used to living without that anyway. I actually would have preferred that it rather did not have that feature.
I was surprised to find a phono input but I no longer have by tt and their frisbees.
Taking a peak into through the vents , I noticed a temperature sensor on the heatsink and am assuming that it has transistors instead of mosfets? It does also get quite warm.
I only had about an hours worth of listening time tonight and will update this as I have more time with it. This is really just myv1st impression so far of it. It's livelier than the Yamaha without being noisy and I do like it so far.
Brand new at at 4k this was a bargain because of the way it sounds. Would I pay t be list price of between 9-12 k? At that price point I would start to care about it's palsticy feel and would rather go for a 2nd hand exclaime. But maybe that's just me who needs to just ," get with the times" and accept that newer stuff Is going to have more plastic in it. What counts here is that it sounds fantastic , and for what I paid , sounds amazing.
Does this stereo receiver sound better than an AVR at the same price point? Better than the ones I've heard , yes and some that cost twice as much.
