Recommendations on Recievers under $400

[thejammy]

Any one?

------------------
Most People Don'T Plan To Fail, They Just Fail to Plan

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[stevevt]

We definitely need more info.

You don't even say if you are looking for a DD/DTS receiver (I guess I'd assume that you are).

* What other equipment/speakers do you have? What do you plan to get?
* What's the room size?
* What are your priorities (movies vs. music)?
* Have you looked through this forums archives? Been to www.audioreview.com (http://www.audioreview.com) ?

-S

[nabster]

Making common assumptions for all the relevant questions mentioned above .. my recco would be to go with the Denon AVR 3300 refurb'd from Ubid... currently available between 369 and 469. Regularly priced over a $1000

[drmoze]

I would strongly recommend one of these brands: Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo. You can probably find a 'refurbed' unit from an auction site in your price range. These receivers have high-current amps and will sound a ot cleaner and more powerful than many other receivers that have bigger "watts per channel" specs. I have a refurbed Denon and love it! Upgraded from a Yamaha Pro Logic receiver (aso great), which was an upgrade from a 'high-powered' Sony Pro-Logic receiver (hated it!).

[PoorBoy]

I can reccomend the Harman Kardon AVR - 65. It's $350 factory direct from www.harmanoutlet.com (http://www.harmanoutlet.com) and is one hell of a deal. DD/DTS 75 Watts per channel (high current) and preout for everything. Great receiver. Is refurbished though, used to be a $1000 receiver, they made TONS of these though and are giving them away practically. I've always liked the sound of Harman's products.

[grindliner]

Home theater just gave outlaw audio an excellent review on their model 1050 6.1 channel reciever. I'm highly considering it. ftl http://www.outlawaudio.com/

Quite nice for $599



[This message has been edited by grindliner (edited November 29, 2000).]

[TruTerrapin]

Definitely need more info, but as far as brands Onkyo, Denon, HK, & Yamaha. Those refurbished receivers looks to be great deals, as long as you get a "regular warranty"

[drmoze]

Whoops, forgot to mention, but yes the H-K receivers are also very good, with excelent power amps and decoders. The Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, and H-K rceivers perform much better overall than the "consumer" brands like Sony, Panasonic/Technics, JVC, etc. The H-K AVR sounds like a great deal.

Most 'refurbed' units have been checked over carefully, and often never had anything wrong with them. (Just the result of store returns for whatever reason.) And even with shortened warranties, modern solid-state receivers (with no moving parts!) have every little that will go wrong. I've had SS receivers for well over 10 years, and never had a problem with any of them. Receivers are much more 'bulletproof' than other components, like VCRs, DVD/CD players, etc., which have moving parts that are more prone to problems.

[PoorBoy]

A lot of the mass refurbs you get like with the Onkyo and Harman receivers mentioned above are because of problems found in a significant percetnage of the units. This percentage could be as much as 90% of as little as 1%, what ever HK considered large enough to recall and fix the problems inquestion. I've heard of TONS of people that have been getting the HK refurbs and found absolutely nothing wrong with them. Early on I heard of LOUD AVR-65 units that hummed, this could have been what was tested or fixed either way you're getting a hell of a deal on a DTS/DD receiver if you decide to go with the Harman.

Good luck.

- The Harman Kardon AVR-65 DOES come with a full manufacturers warranty!

[grindliner]

I have an AVR25 mkIII right now and Its awesome! I paid around 600for it about 3 or 4 years ago, I now need to upgrade to DD + DTS,

My suggestion is to take your favorite cd to a B+M and do a side by side comparison of recievers, using the samc CD player and speakers, to hear the differences between the recievers, I used Live's "Throwing Copper" at the time, comparing the HK against an Onkyo in the same price range, the HK had far superior tonal quality over the onkyo.

Bottom line buy what sounds best to you!

[buzzdalf]

I would have no problems buying a refurb of these brands.
I got a Denon 3200 when U-Bid was offering those and love it. never had a single problem.
If I could find someone to buy my 3200, I'd get one of the 3300's they are selling noe in a heartbeat.