Thanks for the review and this indeed quite long thread.
I own a ten-year-old SC-LX59. Although it has some well known weaknesses, I appreciate Auto Phase Control Plus and the MCACC approach to only adjust softly above the Schroeder frequency. On top, it came with Class D.
Apparently, technology hasn't got much further after 10 years. When buying a VSX-LX505, I do get Dirac Live (which is great even if I would limit it to somewhat around 250 to 300 Hz) and IMAX settings (which is to me a minor feature).
But on the dark side, I also do get hazzles with amplification - something I would only expect from a slimline AVR (remember these back in the days?) and something I didn't experience before with my current device. And that's the point.
As mains, I have low-impedance DIY floorstanding speakers with a minimum of 3.4 ohms @ 100 Hz (which is still within the 4 ohm nomenclature according to the norm).
They run fullrange when listening to stereo music, hence they are quite demanding at high volumes (while they are cut off at 80 Hz in multichannel for homogenity reasons). As bulky as the device is, I want it to feed my speakers easily within the limits of my listening situation. And the old Class D AVR can.
Center and surrounds are more "amp-friendly", so to be on the same level compared to other brands, I clearly need to add a 2-channel power amp to the cart, so losing the bargain effect of a model that is – at first sight – cheaper than most competitors.
I see the fact that most owners of the newer device are satisfied as they did not yet experience any trouble with power limitation, nanny mode or whatsoever. But it is still a downgrade even when coming from an AVR this old. Class D is literally a cool thing, but not rocket science once you had this technology already implemented in your products.
Considering it a decent pre pro demands for the power amp section to be able to be switched off. Otherwise, the device would waste energy and heat up unnecessarily (be aware that Class A/B has a notably high base consumption even when there is no or a minimal load).
As a consequence, I bought an Anti-Mode X2 for the subwoofers (hoping that the SC-LX59 will do another two or three years). The AM will replace a miniDSP 2x4 that has been programmed manually using a UMIK and REW. So this should now come close to DLBC, which the LX505 regrettably doesn't have.
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