Q I am in the market for a Denon receiver. I have a Denon AVR-1700 which doesn't have DTS or any of the other newer formats so I am looking to upgrade. My question is what is the difference between the Denon AVR-4800 and the AVR-4802? I know that the 4800 is discontinued but, I can get a new one for less that $500 with all factory warranties. Is the AVR-4802 $2000 better?

A The 4802 has THX Surround EX (Discrete 6.1), DTS Discrete ES (6.1), Dolby Pro Logic II, and seven channels at 125 watts per channel. The 4800 does not have these things. If I were you, I would get the 4800 for $500. That is a terrific bargain.

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Q Help! I think I caught the bug! Last year I bought the first audio gear of my life, a Kenwood VR410 receiver, a pair of Paradigm Atom loudspeakers, and a Paradigm PDR10 subwoofer. I was amazed at the quality that this sub-$1,000 system produced, and said to myself, "What more do you really need?"

That feeling lasted for all of two days, and I spent the next 10 months planning the now urgently needed upgrade to my system. I recently purchased a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 40s and Studio CC center channel, and I moved the Atoms to the rear. WOW! I am blown away by the ability to pick out each instrument, to visualize the locations of various band members. But now it’s starting again! I feel like my receiver is now the ‘weak link’ in my system. Understand, I think it sounds great, but I’m becoming umm…obsessed?... with making it sound better.

Sorry to throw a ton of questions at you, but: how would you allocate your budget in a relatively low priced system? Is it ‘reasonable’ to pair ~$1,600 in speakers to a sub-$400 receiver? Also, what is your opinion of the ‘class’ of receivers in the $800 - $1,200 range? Do you think there will be a substantial quality increase from purchasing something in this range (e.g. – Denon AVR-3802, Sony STR-DA3ES)? Or am I better off dealing with what I have, and saving up for a $2,000+ receiver (or separates???)

And finally, does it ever end? Can I get to a point where I can say to myself, "There, you have a balanced system, you don’t have to touch it for five years"?

A The difference between the $400 receiver and $800 receiver is not going to be that much. I would suggest waiting until you can afford either a $4,000 receiver, or going with a dedicated processor that has software upgrade capability, along with big power amplifiers (200 watts per channel). And, sorry, it never ends. You are stuck like the rest of us. But, if it were not fun, we wouldn't be doing it, and you wouldn't either.

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Q I have a Sony STR-GA8-ES Receiver system with two Energy XL speakers for the rear, two Polk 250W for the Left and Right, Polk CS275 center channel, and one Energy ES Active Subwoofer. I am getting a lot of distortion when in Pro Logic mode and when listening to 5:1 sound in DVD playback mode. I can't understand the dialogue in the DVDs and have to switch to stereo mode. The regular surround sound only works when I set it to "direct" mode. I have checked to make sure it is not the speaker and the cable. Any suggestions or should I just take it in to a service center?

A If it were the analog connections that gave you distortion, I would have said it is probably an overload on the input, but since it is the digital connection, the decoder in the Sony receiver is probably at fault. Time for the service center.

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Q I'm a budding audiophile, but I know very little technically. Recently I was given, by two different people, within days of each other, a Sansui QS-400 4 channel rear amp, a Sony CDP-C325 CD changer, and a pair of NHT 2.3A's. Now I don't know anything about the amplifier, I've just simply run some speaker wire and hooked up the RCA cables. I looked the speakers up on the NHT site and discovered that they're really nice, and as far as I know the CD player is adequate. Lately I've been getting 'static' sounds out of the speakers, and occasionally one or the other doesn't make any sound. The 'static' seems to come from the tweeter, though having blown a pair of speakers in my youth it doesn't sound like it's blown, because it will sound just fine later. I'm worried that my lack of info on the amp my be detrimental to these nice speakers. If you could fill me in on the amp, offer suggestions for set up of the system, and lend me any other knowledge you have on the matter I'd be very grateful.

A With old preamps and receivers, the volume controls can have dust in them, with the wiper blades not making full contact, and this can cause the sound to be scratchy or drop out all together. I have experienced it myself. What I did was just turn the volume control back and forth a number of times to clean the blade contacts. The RCA jacks on the back can be oxidized as well, not making good enough contact with the plugs. Clean the jack surfaces. You might have to take the unit in for a good cleaning, which should not cost you more than $50.

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Q My HT system consists of a NAD T751 receiver, NAD T550 DVD/CD player, PSB Mini Alpha front/rear speakers, PSB Alpha Center, and PSB Subsonic 6 subwoofer. I think this budget system is very hard to beat for the $1500 I  paid for it and am very pleased overall, but I am considering upgrading the cables and wires. Currently I use a mishmash of cheap Radio Shack 16 gauge wire and patch cables and a $20 AR Toslink connection. Can you recommend speaker wires, Toslink, and Subwoofer cable that would represent a meaningful upgrade for my system while not breaking the bank? In other words not spending more than 20-25% of my sytem price? (I need about 120 feet of speaker wire.) Also, do you recommend using a Y adapter to connect from the LFE output of my receiver to the subwoofer? There is an audible 6 dB gain in the signal, but I wonder if making yet another connection results in some loss of fidelity as opposed to connecting to just one jack.

A Let's assume a cable budget of 10% ($150). I would suggest a 100 foot roll of 13 gauge speaker wire that you can get from places like Fry's or Home Depot ($15). Your Toslink cable is fine as is. For the subwoofer cable, measure the length that you need, including a few feet of slack so you can pull your receiver out of the rack, and then order an RCA-RCA audio cable from BetterCables.com. I have given up on the Radio Shack interconnects due to some faulty ones that I bought over the past year or so. You don't need to use a Y adapter to carry duplicates of the same signal to both RCA line-level inputs on your subwoofer, assuming that the sub pre-out on your receiver delivers enough signal to get satisfactory volume at about half way up on the subwoofer volume control.

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Q  How do I know when a receiver is running at exactly its rated power? Is that when the volume setting is at 0 dB? When I tried various receivers, each had a different scale (e.g., Denon had around -40 to +16; HK had -80 to ...).

A Those scales are only relative, but in general, the 0 dB setting is near full output. It all depends on the incoming source voltage and the impedance of your speakers. In general, turning the volume control about a third of the way up should give you a satisfactory volume, with room for the dynamic peaks during the action scenes.

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Q I read, with great interest, your review on the BPT balanced transformer product. I saw that Monster now offers a balanced power product, the Home Theatre Power Source HTPS7000. It would be nice to see how these two products compared.

A If it is just balanced transformers, they are all pretty similar as long as you get one big enough to supply the current you need, i.e., 2,000 watts. One that is too small would saturate and clip the AC 60 Hz sine wave, producing what you are trying to get rid of in the first place. Other things in the package, such as surge suppressors, meters, and heavy chassis, alter the final price.

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Q Is it better to buy a two-channel amp and a three-channel amp, than a five-channel amp?

A A five-channel amp gives you everything in one chassis, with one on/off button, but two and three-channel amps let you have more power in the front (three channels) than in the rear (two channels), if that is your preference.

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