Help with new Receiver Selection...
 

Hi Guys,

Following the discovery that my Sony STR-DE925 receiver doesn't play nice with my HD-A1's DD+ bitstream, I've come to the grim conclusion that I need to find myself a new receiver. I would have perferred to wait until the HDMI 1.3 eqquiped receivers hit the market, but the performance of my current receiver is dismal with DD+.

I guess some of the major factors at this point are HDMI interface (passing of HD-A1 audio via HDMI), 5.1 analog input (Dolby TruHD from HD-A1). All my video componets are already at 1080i so upconversion isn't a requirement. Component video switching would be nice.

Could somenone please recommend a brand/model that you've had luck with including any that may be on the horizon.

Thanks!

I'm in a similar situation. My 6 year old JVC receiver and the A1 doesn't get along if I try using optical with a HD DVD, so I'm heavily leaning towards an Onkyo from Circuit City. After rebates, the price is $339. It comes with 1 HDMI connector.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onkyo...oductDetail.do

EDIT: Actually, I think that receiver doesn't have any HDMI connections. CC's page is wrong. Looks like the SR604 series is the one to get. It's $499, has 2 HDMI inputs and 1 output. I think this is what I'll purchase.

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=...s=Receiver&p=i

Give the Yamaha RX-V2600 a look. HDMI upconversion across the board, 2 hdmi inputs, multichannel, XM Radio, etc.
It is more expensive than $339 though, but the original poster was talking about HDMI 1.3 receivers, and those will probably start at 2 grand when they come out. Still a cycle or two away for most people. The Yamaha above is available for less than $900 online I think. All the best.

Circuit City is going to start selling Denon. My Brother in law can get the $1200 Denon for around $550 with his discount. That may be my new receiver purchase. I like my Onkyo, but would love to have everything hooked up through HDMI instead of the 6 channel analog. I want to wait for HDMI 1.3, but don't know when those receivers will actually show up.

Anybody have any experience with the Onkyo SR604 AVR? I'm seriously leaning towards this one due to price and HDMI/Analog inputs. Thanks Mr. Cinema.

*Spits coffee all over monitor*

What kind of discount is he getting that he's getting over half off the price of the machine?

I actually dont have much experience in the field of recievers but recently aquired one that has left me speechless with how many options and the overall performance the model displays. Its the Sony STR-DA7100ES/B. I was lucky enough to buy this from a buddy of mine who was hard up for some cash and got it for only 500 bucks and less than 2 months old. The brand new price from Crutchfield.com is around 1100 which is a little pricey for a Sony, at least in my experience with Sony. Anyways this is the first Sony reciever I have ever ownder and I am very impressed, as I guess one should be with a 1100.00 reciever.

I am still reading the manual as it has more hookups and more modes than anything else I have ever owned. In the end it soounds much richer than my 600.00 Pioneer reciever did and has ample hook ups to support everything I own and still have enough for future purchases. If 1100 is a price range you can go with and Sony was one of the companies you were looking at then hop over to Crutchfield.com and at least give it a look. Its a damn nice reciever.

PS...

I need to get more info from him, but I know when he got Monster Cables and the center channel for me he used a special website for employees to order the stuff and the discount on those was something like 60% as well. I may go ahead on the Denon. The A1 does all the decoding so HDMI 1.1 will be fine.

Were the Monster cables still overpriced? :)

The Panasonic SA-XR57 is a pretty good gig. The setup options aren't as flexible as some more expensive receivers, but it has HDMI, 7.1, and analogs. I've had mine for about 2 weeks now and am really liking it. You can get it from Amazon, for about $300.

Yes. I think it takes something like a 99% discount to get those reasonable.

Are any of these HDMI upconverting? Anyone have any good recommendations?

I can answer this. A dealer/salesguy can usually get these at cost for personal use, which is likely 45% off MSRP. That is more a store decision than Denon or other mfgrers. Once a year (not a specific day, just only once) they can often get a larger discount, which Denon will allow. Up to 75% depending on the agreement for that store.

And the only deal I want to hear about for Monster is 100% discount. Otherwise I'll make my own, thanks.

Hey guys,

I picked up the Onkyo SR604 AVR based on Mr. Cinema's advice. Not only did the Receiver fix my DD+ decoding problem that I had with my precious receiver, but it's HDMI connection also fixed the Black Crush issue I was having when connecting HDMI to my DVI only TV!! I haven't fully examined all the features of this receiver, but I truely feel it was $400 well spent!

Glad it's working out. This is one of the models I'm thinking of getting. Did you try out the optical/coaxial connections yet? I'm just curious if using that with the Onkyo also fixed your audio distortion.

I'm going to research a few of these before I buy. I'm not sure I need a HDMI receiver right now. I just want one that offers the best sound under $500. These are the ones I'm thinking of. I hope someone on here owns one:

Onkyo TXSR504
Denon AVR587
Panasonic SAXR57K (AVS owners rave about this one)
Denon AVR687
HK AVR140
Onkyo TXSR604

There's a couple of Sony's as well, but I never hear people mention them that often.

My TV has 1 HDMI and 2 component inputs. I have the Toshiba HD-A1, and Xbox 360, and HD Cable. Those are the only HDMI/component items I have. Also, I keep reading about component video switching being critical. Is that a must have feature?

I had the Panasonic SAXR70, which I think is the model previous to the SAXR57. It was great for watching movies, but if you are planning to use it for music listening, especially vinyl, then forget it. The all-digital make-up, imo, does not make for great music playback.

I sold it and got the Onkyo TX-SR604, which is a beautiful machine.

While I'd like to have a little more control over things than this one offers, the sound is excellent. For someone on a budget, I'd definitely recommend it.

Does it support multi-channel PCM (5.1) over HDMI, or is it limited to 2-channel?

Where did you find it for $400?

I'm picking one of these up pretty soon. I'm sold on the digital units.

This receiver does 5.1 PCM.

Well, I decided to go with the Denon AVR587. Ordered it for $300. Should be arriving Friday. Never have owned a Denon product but I've read nothing but good things.

My roommate used to work @ Best Buy, and he was my source for all my HT gear. He could usually get hardware at about 15-25% off. I'd guess more like 15% for a quality brand like Denon or Onkyo. For software, like DVDs, he got next to nothing. We're talking a buck, if that. For accessories, like Monster Cables, he practically got them for free. They were usually 60-70% off. Those types of items carry the high margins, and they are the only ones with a decent employee discount. I'd check with your brother in law for Circuit City's policy before you start assuming you can get a quality receiver for the same discount as your HDMI cables. You don't want to be disappointed later.

I have the Denon 4806 and it is actually making me forget about the two Yammy flagships I had before. They are good stuff.

Good to hear. I picked the base model. I was wanting a HDMI receiver, but I'm going to wait a few months and see how this one does. I'm no audiophile, so listening to DD+ or full bit rate DTS sounds just fine to me. I'm upgrading from a 6 year old JVC. It's been great, but I want to see if the Denon works better with the A1.

I'm going to find out this weekend for sure. However, if I can get the AR-987 for $550 I will order one. Despite the fact that the remote on the 987 looks like a dinky $5 wal-mart remote.

My new Denon receiver is on the FedEx truck and will be delivered today. I hope this thing gets along with my A1. My previous receiver only had DD/DTS decoders. Will I notice a difference with the EX and DTS-ES decoding? I have plenty of dvds to try out with those mixes but also We Were Soldiers has a DD EX mix on the HD DVD that I'm anxious to hear.

I'm contemplating picking up the Pioneer Elite VSX-84TSXi - http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...985784,00.html and was wondering if there is any reason I shouldn't?

it has 4 HDMI inputs, 7 composite ins, 5 s-vid ins, 3 component ins, 140W x 7, 7 digital inputs(5 optical + 2 coax), 8 channel multi in and 8 channel preouts, it does upconversion through HDMI and more.

I have a Pioneer VSX1015TX, which I was using before updating to my new Sony model. It was an awsome reciever especially with the price point it had. With the experience I have had with my Pioneer reciever and with what I have read on the net regarding thier Elite line, You should absolutly feel no hesitation when purchasing those models. They are decked out with inputs for future expansion and sound great. Just do some searches on the net and read some of the feedback from people with that current model. I myself was thinking of updated to the Eite line and did a lot of reading on it. They are awsome hands down so purchase away!! If I didnt get such an amazing deal on a basically brand new Sony reciever I would have gone that route by the end of the year, as it is I am now with Sony until its time to buy again :-)

PS...

Chris, if you have the money for a Pioneer Elite, go for it. IMO, they're the only receivers that consistently rival Denon's.

I dug out my old Denon AVR-1507 for my move, and was very happy to see that it had 5.1 analog inputs. I was afraid I was going to have to buy a new receiver for the interim period of the move.

Just out of curiosity does anyone else here have a stack of aged audio video equipment somewhere in thier house? I just went into my storage room to find my Monster Sub cable and I happened to glance over at the section of the room that had all my old equipment which my fiance was kind enough to stack all of them up all neatly for me and was blown away. I didnt realize how much crap I have from the past that has just accumulated and I never got around to trying to sell. I have 3 recievers, a dual tape deck, 2 VHS machines, 3 old DVD players, a very cool digital EQ that used to be the highlight of my stereo system (I wonder if this would still be of any use?) along with like 3 different sets of old speakers. I need to get rid of this crap, funny thing is that all of it is in fully 100% working order. I always end up upgrading well before a piece of equipment gives out.

PS..

I also have 2 receivers, 2 VHS decks, and 1 old DVD player. I gave away 2 old DVD players, 1 cool digital EQ, 1 VHS deck, and 2 sets of speakers, and 2 TVs. But this is nothing compared to my computer junk and parts pile...

lol, dont even get me started on the computer stuff. I am currently up to 5 Apple computers that I currently use including 4 different scanners, 3 different photo printers and over 12 external hard drives spaced out amongst them. Also have a few Iomega drives, zip drives and misc input devices like drawing tablets etc.. I have a room that is strictly dedicated to my computers and my fiance swears its going to start a fire and burn our house down from all of the cords plugged in. This is the equpment that is in use and not incuding the stuff that is out of date like old CDRW drives, old DVD drives, old printers etc. I have 6 old epson scanners that are in perfect working order just like my AV equipment. The technology kept improving so fast over the last 6 years that I upgraded every year. What needs to happen is I really need to sell this crap. I am sure alot of it would sell on eBay as most of it is really good gear.

Anyone need a scanner or some old AV gear, lol.

By the way what model digital EQ do you have? does it have a huge digital readout face where words stream across from left to right? I used to love this thing. You could start a test program and it would go through all of the different types of settings you could use while a song was playing and it would just warp the thing out of control. Was very cool back in the day. Its actually really not that old, maybe 5 years and was like 450.00 when I got it. Its still in perfect working condition and I have wondered from time to time if my system would actually benefit from me hooking it up again.

PS...

thanks for the replies. my current receiver is a Pioneer VSX1014 which is why I was looking at the Elite line. I have been doing the "cheap" upgrade(receivers in the $350.00 range) every few yrs. and figured it's time I step it up a notch.

of course this just means that I'll have to upgrade my speakers now too if I get this receiver which my wife will just love. ;)

something I just thought of - if you have both an HD-DVD player and a BD player with only 1 set of analog ins, what is the best way to connect in order to take full advantage of the new surround formats?

should I go HDMI for my XA1 and analog for the Panasonic?

(you know, I just had a déjà vu moment in asking this. did I ask this before?)

I'd go with HDMI for the Panny and analog for the Toshiba for now. Once Panny offers the TrueHD/DTS-HD MA firmware update, then you can re-evaluate.

Excuse me if I sound uneducated on this here, because I am, but are there are receivers that have HDMI inputs but do not pass audio? My friend just got a new Pioneer VSX-1016TXV, and he swears by the thing. He's almost got me convinced to get one, but when I asked him how the HDMI connections were doing, he said that this unit doesn't pass the sound, only the video. He said that's what it said in his manual, so he doesn't think it's busted or anything. If that's true, what the hell is the point of HDMI over DVI? I was just about to put an order in for this and now I'm all confused. I know to get TruHD out of my HD-DVD player (without using the analogs) I need to have an HDMI receiver. Little help here please, this is now driving me nuts.

I believe that many recievers do not pass audio over HDMI as most people would not need it too. If you are sending audio to the reciever you want it to proccess and/or play the sound not send it to the TV. The advantage of HDMi over DVI is that many people have HD TV's but no reciever, so they can connect their player to their TV with one cable and get audio and video.

You should be fine with that reciever. I don't see why you would need to pass that adio just accept it.

My fault, I explained that poorly I think. For example, he's got an HD-DVD player as well. So I would have assumed that hooking up the HD-DVD player to one of the HDMI inputs would be the only connection necessary for both sound and video through the receiver for that input. Instead, he's got it hooked up through HDMI for the video and optical for the sound (which we'll be changing to analogs this weekend). And maybe I'm just confused here, but I was under the impression that an HDMI receiver could play TruHD (the reason I'm most interested in upgrading my old Panasonic) through the HDMI connection. Not true? Does the receiver need to explicitly state that it can accept audio and video through HDMI?