TEAC AG-L800 Tripath 5.1 receiver for $200.00 at J&R

[Danny Tse]

Remember this thread (http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32932&page=1&pp=30&highlight=teac)? Here's a chance to pick up a home theater version of that power amp, except with a tuner and surround sound processing, for $200.00 at J&R (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3668123). Could be great for a small room or bedroom system.

[Zero]

GOOD lookin out! Tremendous freakin deal! I'm all over this. If its anything like the 30 wpc A700 amplifier, this is a steal. I was not planning on jumping into HT for a long time, but I can't pass this up.

[Danny Tse]

The TEAC AG-L800 is specifically mentioned by Tripath (http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/12/121527/reports/2002-ar-editorial.pdf) in its literature.

[madmax]

Looks cool!

[MSkeezer]

Looks cool!

But how does it sound?

[RuSsMaN]

Whats the attraction to this tupperware gear? At 8 lbs, my cables would pull it off the shelf I tried to sit it on.

[madmax]

Whats the attraction to this tupperware gear? At 8 lbs, my cables would pull it off the shelf I tried to sit it on.

Same as the Toshiba 3960 and home made cables. For nothing you get some really good performance. It's a best bang for the buck thing and is super affordable to play with.
madmax

Edit: The Needle Doctor still has it at $599.

[Zero]

Russ,

Funny story. I will make this a quick one. I took the vinnie rossie "clari-t" (stock) and scott nixons tube-dac + to this hifi shop about 9 months or so ago. The thick straightwire (ew) cables were actually pulling these two hand sized units straight off of the rack. I had to become creative just to keep those things anchored.

One of the guys that works there looked at the units and was not sure he wanted me to even use them on the speakers they had. Couldnt blame the guy. So we hooked em up to some VS-vr4jr's (that was hooked up by Classe Omega and Musical Fidelity A5 equipment).... I wont go on about what happened next. Lets just say, jaws were dropped, people flooded the room, disbelief set in. That whole spcheel.

Of course, Nixon and Vinnie know what they are doing and design audiophile equipment. A far cry from these "disposables" from the likes of kenwood, jvc, sony, denon, etc.. Every once in awhile one of those products 'gets it right', and typically for a very attractive price. I am not sure what this TEAC can do, but I wanna find out (you know how that goes). If it performs like the single 30 wpc three channel amp, well than for $199 you will have the *performance* that will be only challenged by those 5-6x the price from the likes of nad/rotel/outlaw/arcam. For someone who does not need that whole audiophile re-assurance, and wants to do something on the ultra cheap.. its a great alternative previously never offered even as recently as 5 years ago..

[madmax]

I'm tempted to pick one up just to play with it. Just think what this would sound like with a surround bar/sub. You could have a whole HT system for under $1K that really sounded good and took up almost no space.

[Danny Tse]

Here's a couple of pics I found on a slightly-modded TEAC DR-L700 receiver, with additional damping on the case and new power cord. It's a stereo receiver/DVD player companion piece to the TEAC AL-700P 3 channel amp (together they make a 5.1 system).

http://sapp.telepac.pt/lowrider/teac_mods.jpg

http://sapp.telepac.pt/lowrider/avriga.jpg

Yes, the TEAC is that tiny thing in the middle. Apparently, it's stable into 4 ohm speakers.

[Zero]

My unit arrived on Thursday. I put it back in the box today.

What was wrong you may ask? Well, at first.. not a damn. In fact, it sounded fantastic even right out of the box. Although a bit sterile and lacking umph to the sound, it showed tremendous promise for being one kick ass little HT receiver. All was silver and gold until the follow day when I had a chance to see how the unit would handle strutting its stuff.

It didn't. In fact, I couldn't even take her beyond 90db (with 89 db efficient speakers in a very small listening space) without some weird popping distortion entering the mix. I decided it would be in my best interest to desist with those tests.

What sealed this units fate is the noise factor. This unit creates lots of electrical noise from the tweeters of my speaks. I found it completely un-tolerable.

Its a shame, because even straight out of the box I would put its sonics against an entry level Rotel, Cambridge, or NAD any day of the week. Unfortunetly, there were too many issues elsewhere for me to justify even the minimal $199 asking price as is.

[madmax]

That is too bad. Obviously it is not performing like the DR-L700's. Oh well, just goes to show that implementation is everything. Better luck next time.
madmax