Looking for a new AV receiver......need suggestions

[mark1101]

My Sony AV receiver lost a surround channel last night. It is around 10 years old and it's time. I am looking for something in the $500 range.

I only connect a Dish network receiver and a DVD. This is not for music at all. Only TV and movies. I have a Klipsch HD-500 5.1 speaker system.

I have looked at Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha so far. They all look OK to me. I know there are more like Denon, Marantz, Harmon Kardon, Sony, etc.

I am really just looking for really good 5.1 decoding and DSP modes, HDMI in/out..........basic features........good video and audio. RELIABILITY.

You guys over here in HT are the experts so please make some suggestions.

Thanks

[Youthman]

My previous Yamaha RX-V1800 was perfect for HT. 130 w/ch, HDMI, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-Master decoding.....great all around receiver.

[Budman]

i just upgraded my 5 yr old pioneer after reading this. been a pioneer guy for 40 years. its awesome

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/p/170000/1883055.aspx#1883055

Newegg has it for 599 free shipping down from 1100

thanks to my fellow cincy neighbor tromprof

[BigCliff]

Give this a look.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/SHERR972/SHERWOOD-R-972-Newcastle-7.1-A/V-Surround-Receiver-TrueHD-DTS-HD/1.html

I have a Harman Kardan AVR 3600 and love it, maybe you can find one used in your price range.

[mark1101]

I appreciate the suggestions. I have been doing some comparing myself. Just to give an idea of what I have looked at so far:

Sony STR-DN1030, Onkyo TX-NR616, Yamaha RX-V573, Marantz NR-1603, Pioneer Vsx-822K, Denon AVR 1913.

I have a couple of favorites........but I'm not going to say yet.

Any comments on any of these............or other units that compare to the above?

Thanks again.

[Youthman]

Onkyo makes great HT receivers. A lot of bang for your buck. I personally would scratch the Sony. Never been a fan of Sony, even their ES series. My three pics out of those would be Onkyo, Marantz or the Yamaha (not in any particular order).

[TasDom]

I had a Pioneer VSX-1021K and loved it. Worked great for both music and HT but I moved to separates. I gave my son a VSX-1022K for Christms and it works very well with HT with an Energy take classic speaker system. The 822 would be a step down from those. The Onkyo should do very well with HT but may lack a little in the music department.

IMHO, the Pioneer Budman suggested is the best bang for buck AVR

[Budman]

I appreciate the suggestions. I have been doing some comparing myself. Just to give an idea of what I have looked at so far:

Sony STR-DN1030, Onkyo TX-NR616, Yamaha RX-V573, Marantz NR-1603, Pioneer Vsx-822K, Denon AVR 1913.

I have a couple of favorites........but I'm not going to say yet.

Any comments on any of these............or other units that compare to the above?

Thanks again.

hopefully your kidding

Pioneer VSX-822K is 379 you have to step up to the 1222 to get the class D amps

[mark1101]

Well, no kidding........I set around $500 for a budget because I only have HD-500 speakers and I just can't justify paying for much more sound quality and features. I can clearly see how a few more bucks get better sound and more features. I've been studying these units for a couple of days now. It's quite tempting to "upgrade" your choice.

I have had a Sony HT for 10-12 years and if one of the surround channels didn't fail, I wouldn't replace it yet. Still gives a good theater experience.

So........I trimmed the choices down to the new Sony or Denon unit. The Onkyo does the most for the money but too many reports of failures. So no Onkyo. I've had both Denon and Yamaha in the past and Denon sounded much better with Klipsch. In fact my son is still using my last Denon AVR form the 80s, with Heresys. All the reviews I read also placed the Denon sounding much better than Pioneer. Again, at the price points and models I've stated.

So at the $400-$500 price point it's probably going to be the Sony STR-DN1030 or Denon AVR-1913. The kicker was that the Sony rated almost even in sound with Denon but had integrated wi-fi, blue tooth, and Airplay. More wireless than all the rest. I might want to use those, especially for an easy firmware upgrade at no extra cost or hardware add-ons.

[derrickdj1]

I have paired my HD 500 with a Sony avr, 100 watts, and really like the sound. Sony's don't get a lot of love on some of the audio forums, but they are decent avr's, packed with nice features, for the money and reliable in my experience.

[Mike 585]

Hi Mark,

I second Big Cliff's suggestion that you look over the info on the Sherwood. My Yamaha RX-V1600 died in the summer and I replaced it with the deep-discounted Sherwood from Accessories4less. The video quality is much better than the Yammy, it runs much cooler, and the the Trinnov optimizer is hands down vastly superior to YPAQ or whatever it's called. There's an option where you focus all the correction resource to 250hz and below; it's the best bass correction I have heard.

It does have a couple of operational quirks (like seemingly everything British) that are discussed in the links on the page Cliff's link will land you on.

I've noticed that fellow forum member Fish has one too so you could pick his brain as well.

We all know that dependability is a bit of a crap shoot with consumer electronics but I think the fact that this thing runs so cool must have a possitive effect on electronic component life.

Lot of bang for the buck IMO and worth a look IMO.

All the best,

Mike

[Fish]

I completely agree that the 972 is a fantastic avr at a steal of a price. I would however only recommend it to the well schooled in gear as I think that group can really appreciate it.

[Coleman]

I'm a Denon fan myself but have owned Yamaha and heard Onkyos and Harmons from friends systems.

[Yura]

Own a Denon, would rather go with Pioneer.

Owned Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo. Of all them - Pioneer (higher end ones) had the best sound and best remote. Onkyo had the least exciting sound and Denon has the worst remote.

If you are in the states and live close to Fry's Electronics - check out their weekly/daily ads and specials. They always have a few receivers on sale - right now a 7.1 Denon 1913 for $399 and Yamaha HTR-4065BL for $319.

If you can swing for Pioneer SC-1222-K - by all means check it out and get one if you can/like it.

--- UPDATE ---

just read original post again... if this is just for TV/Movie with a basic Klipsch 5.1 system and doesn't need to push any big speakers. Get a mid grade AVR on sale somwhere (like the Yamaha above) or Denon 1613 for $288 at Frys.

Or NewEgg.com has YAMAHA RX-V573BL for $340!

They will do great!

[mark1101]

Folks,

Thanks for all these great comments and suggestions. My birthday is coming up in March and my wife is getting me this new AVR...........still haven't fully decided although it's narrowed down as I mentioned.

I am going to have to investigate the Sherwood as has been suggested. Have not done that yet.

I'll let you know what I buy and level of satisfaction in a couple of months.

I just set up a new Yamaha RX-V573 for my Brother-in-law a couple of weeks ago. He has a nice 7.1 speaker system. That unit was easy to setup and sounded very good with movies. Excellent surround sound. I wasn't impressed with the sound of the music............but honestly, I have never heard an AVR in these price ranges sound audiophile like what I'm used to in my 2 Ch. listening. Still, my goals are not to buy for music. It's for TV and movies. So I would consider this Yamaha a very good unit and I would buy one. Actually, just the type of unit I'm looking for.

[colterphoto1]

I've been a Yamaha guy all these years RXV 850 (early Pro-Logix) continual upgrading. Have a stereo receiver in the office and one in the bedroom. Never a problem. They've worked on the YPAO setup so that now it's a multi-band PEQ and you can see and tweak the curves if you like. You can engage any of the various YPAO modules and not the others if you like (for instance letting it check phase, distance, but doing the eq yourself). I have settings for my LS that are LS 'dry'. LS with YPAO and Subs, and a couple 5.1 modes including one for night use that compresses the sound a bit. Onkyo has been rising in the ranks, when I was in Tech Support we got a lot of calls on setup, not sure how easy they are compared to the Yammie. But the Audissey setup is now multi-placement, iow you measure at several places in your listening room and it takes an average for PEQ purposes. I'd suppose that somehow you tag one of the spots as your primary for the sake of phase/distance measurments.

[colterphoto1]

One other item that might interest you, in a lot of the lower/mid models they've done away with Phono stage, so if you want that, be prepared to add outboard or jump up a couple notches. I've never used the 2nd room option but that would be fun in a multi-room basement setup or for outdoor speakers. My latest even came with a second 'simple' remote so you can fight over volume if you'd like lol. HDMI switching and #inputs is a concern to some but I'd guess your majority of sources are in the main room, this for movies mostly?

[mark1101]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday reading all about the Sherwood R972 with the Tinnov Optimizer (Audessey competition). Very interesting and right up my alley actually. I'm looking for a really god theater expereince and I never read of anything more configurable and flexible than that optimizer. I like how it can take poor speaker placement and move them spatially into a more optimized postioning. Very neat. A contender for sure. I never knew that even existed and I like to fool with stuff like that.

Thanks Mike..........I really enjoyed testing out my Brother-in-law's Yamaha. I'd own that unit in a minute. Since I only have an HD-500 in my livingroom I just can't justify going too much higher on the lines of these AVRs. Something like a 573 is perfect.

As far as connectivity..........every unit I looked at is total overkill. All have more than enough I/O and HDMI. All I have is a Dish Network receiver and a DVD player. That's it......All my electronics for music are in my basement where they make my wife most happy (out of sight). I liked some of the wireless features of some of these units because my kids (all in college) can come over and quickly stream from their phones to hear some tunes or show their pictures or videos if they want. Or if I wanted to stream music off the internet like Pandora (while we cook), several of the units could do that. I'm not overly concerned about music quailty...........they are all OK, none are great. That's actually fine for this application.

I'm just trying to get a unit that produces a really nice surround theater experience, can decode all the codecs, has some adjustability concerning being able to dial in the theater experience, and can do a little more that I probably won't even use very much. The biggest issue is reliability. We watch TV alot, long hours, lots of on/off cycles. My 10 year old SONY AVR has stood the test of time but finally coughed up its left surround channel.......that's the whole reason for all this. If it didn't fail, I'd just keep it for now.

[colterphoto1]

Good thoughts, I'd not heard any of the newer Sherwood stuff. Have an old receiver of theirs in the workshop that I use for tuner occasionally. Never failed. Re the programmability, you'd enjoy that. Look at the remote carefully and punch through some menus to see how intuitive it is. One thing I really use a lot is the ability to store programs on my processor. And the AVR follows your input source with the sound field, so at least it pops up on the right one, although you'll probably stick to an auto-seek mode or lock it in a Dolby setting to match your speaker setup. 5.1, 6.1, 7.1. I watch a lot of tv, leave the office receiver on 24/7 and play the bedroom setup for an hour every night. Never a failure in 20 years of owning Yamaha and that's 5 models, all still strong. Wattage based on your speakers and listening habits. Why buy 150/ch when 50 will do?

[colterphoto1]

Oh, all power ratings are skewed these days. They'll take the 'one channel driven at 1 kHZ' and multiply that by the number of channels and suddenly you'll have a $350 HT receiver 'putting out' 910 watts. Ain't so.