Whaddabox...
Written: Oct 25 '99
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Pros: Great amps, just the right featureset
Cons: Can't upgrade a component at a time.
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| benha's Full Review: Nakamichi AV-10 |
I've got a pretty good ear, and in general, I believe that for reasonable sound quality, you need to buy separate components. This was the attitude I took with me to my local high-end audio place. When I got there, I explained that I wanted a solution which would serve double duty as both a good quality Home Theater system, as well as giving me really good Stereo playback.
It should be noted that the latter is significantly more important to me than the former. I can "survive" without tremendous fidelity in my home theater environment, but I quickly become annoyed by low quality music.
The guy asked me how much I wanted to spend - I gave him a number that allowed us to start with separate components - he steered me straight toward the cheaper AV-10 anyway. I made it clear that I thought I'd probably rather go the separates route and he said "fine, but try this first". I listened through the speakers we'd selected earlier (B&W CDM-7SEs) to the Nak and was very pleasantly surprised. I then proceeded to listen to several separates systems, some costing more than 5x what the Nak cost. Now, while I could tell a difference, I really had to listen closely to make out the variation.
The biggest thing you get as you spend more money is a tighter base. Important, to be sure, but the Nak's is really tight anyway - certainly not $3000 sloppier than anything else I heard.
I went with the Nak and haven't regretted it at all. It's not loaded with features, but it has the ones you need. It's been my experience that most of the junk they put in "fancy" receivers is pretty useless anyway. You're spending your money on higher quality parts for the ones that are included.
One perceived downside might be that you can't upgrade piecemeal the way you can with componentized systems, but this wasn't an issue for me since I figured that the whole thing cost about what any one component I might upgrade later would cost. If I outgrow this unit, I can sell it and start over with stuff matched at the time I buy it.
I wholeheartedly recommend this unit.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
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Epinions.com ID:
benha
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Member: Ben Mitchell
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 52 members
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