Panasonic SA-XR57 Multi-channel Receiver Review

[Dougey_Jones]

One of my favorite systems ever was a simple 2ch comprised of Polk LSI-7 bookshelves and SA-XR55 fed by an M-Audio USB > Toslink interface. Room was heavily treated and the imaging was shocking.

 

[dsprito]

This receiver is full digital class-d, aka power DAC implementation based on the original Toccata technology bought by TI. The gear got quite an unfavourable review here on ASR.
It used to have very warm reception by the audio community back then (mentioned 70+ pages user threads).
Don’t you think the measurements performed here are too loosely correlated to the collective although subjective user impressions ? (which still has a lot of value & power as e.g. James Surowiecki showed in his nice book … )

 

[dsprito]

And generally it is technology-wise a very interesting piece which probably escaped the attention.
As someone's mentioned it is open loop. The main question here is is it fair to put 57's ranking bar straight against the probably 100% of CL competition ? Including class D amps which (somewhat controversially IMO) thanks to Bruno Putzey have gone all CL analog since early 200x ?

 

[Dougey_Jones]

This receiver is full digital class-d, aka power DAC implementation based on the original Toccata technology bought by TI. The gear got quite an unfavourable review here on ASR.
It used to have very warm reception by the audio community back then (mentioned 70+ pages user threads).
Don’t you think the measurements performed here are too loosely correlated to the collective although subjective user impressions ? (which still has a lot of value & power as e.g. James Surowiecki showed in his nice book … )

Agree, something doesn’t quite add up between the objective measurements Amir obtained and my subjective experience with my XR57, which is that when fed a digital signal it’s ABSOLUTELY silent. Completely black background. I can spin the volume dial up and put my ear directly to the woofer/tweeter and there is nothing, nada.

The $10,000 SOTA Technics integrated amplifier uses the latest iteration of the “Full Digital” topology, I imagine its awesome:

Stereo Integrated Amplifier SU-R1000

Equipped with the next evolution of our full digital amplifier technology, the SU-R1000 produces an ideal sound that conveys all the richness and life of the original without any loss of fidelity. The SU-R1000 breaks through to a new world of sound, with superior sound quality and functionality...

us.technics.com

 

[dsprito]

I believe ASR goes significantly too far in drawing quite strong qualitative conclusions using limited and rather straightforward frequency domain measurements.
I understand it is a website aimed at advanced hi-fi measurements and quality assessment so I think it is an important, interesting and advanced technical question for amps - does ASR leader and numerous enthusiasts think it is OK to compare THD irrespective of the O/C feedback loop topology ?
It seems to have been a very important question for amp designers for years - why is it not taken into account in ASR measurements and technical analyses ?

 

[dsprito]

I like the fact that Panasonic used the currently marginalized power DAC topology for SOTA Technics.
But Panasonic has not revealed anything for this amp line that would bring real progress for key challenges of open loop class D technology. What they have said was mainly secondary technical improvements.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

I like the fact that Panasonic used the currently marginalized power DAC topology for SOTA Technics.
But Panasonic has not revealed anything for this amp line that would bring real progress for key challenges of open loop class D technology. What they have said was mainly secondary technical improvements.

The SOTA Technics line were almost universally well received by reviewers, especially the phono stage, which is surprising.

Panasonic Holdings (formerly the Zaibatsu known as Matsushita) have access to some of the best engineers in the world, maybe they (like Sony) decided measured performance wasn’t all they’re after.

 

[dsprito]

>Panasonic Holdings (formerly the Zaibatsu known as Matsushita) have access to some of the best engineers in the world, maybe they (like Sony) decided measured performance >wasn’t all they’re after.
Judging by the way how they engineereed SA XR57 (using external know-how) they would not have internally top audio R&D.
Even if they had the challenges to achieve in OL frequency domain parameters comparable to CL are next to impossible no matter who sits at the workshop

 

[Hopper146]

Bought my 57 new. Latest configuration is with focal chorus front and center, focal sibs surround, svs pb1000 pro sub. Still enjoying the heck out of it. If I could find anything slim and class d to replace it with I’d sure try it out. Just never come across anything realistically priced or sized. Custom cabinet constraints and all that. Hopefully i will find something interesting before this unit dies, or i do. Lol. Not sure which will last longer.