Audio Gurus Fix Me Up

[tgillespie]

I have a friend who is in search of a receiver. The one he has is slowly dying and a replacement is near. He asked my opinion on what would be a decent system for his money, but in all honesty, I don?t have much experience in the receiver area.

His price maximum is $300. Some of his preferences would be 6 or more channels for surround sound. The primary focus of the receiver is to watch movies and listen to music.

If anyone could recommend brands and possible models that are under $300, he would appreciate it.

 

[ShadowBlade]

our resident soundman must be on break

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What does he have now? Does he like the sound of that one?

Refurb ok?

 

[suicidalpigeon]

Originally posted by: ShadowBlade
our resident soundman must be on break

nope, he's here.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup

Originally posted by: ShadowBlade
our resident soundman must be on break

nope, he's here.

I was taking my gf's rat out of its cage because it was looking at me and seemed lonely

 

[ribbon13]

Denon AVR-1905
Denon AVR-1705

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Denon AVR-1905
Denon AVR-1705

*waves* (I stole your title while you were away)

 

[tgillespie]

He has a Pioneer receiver and believes it to be decent. I guess he really does not have any brand or sound preference.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Some other options:

HK off of the ebay seller Harman Audio (I got an AVR-325 from them a while ago and it was like new)

example

ecost has several refurb receivers in the pricerange too (onkyo for example)

 

[tgillespie]

Thanks for the suggestions. Any more chime ins?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Some other options:

HK off of the ebay seller Harman Audio (I got an AVR-325 from them a while ago and it was like new)

example

ecost has several refurb receivers in the pricerange too (onkyo for example)

Yikes, that 330 shot up in price right at the end. When I linked to it, it had 40 minutes left and price was $204 or something.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: tgillespie
Thanks for the suggestions. Any more chime ins?

Oh, floor models is another thing. I got my current receiver (Pioneer 1014) for $287.

It's the weak point in my system, but it was quite a deal.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Pioneer makes some decent affordable receivers. Maybe check out some of the new digital receivers from Panasonic, etc.

http://www.avsforum.com

 

[DarkKnight69]

ig you go HK or denon, you will be happy. Period.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Now is a pretty good time to buy because new models are hitting the shelves for the holidays. A couple years ago, I grabbed my reciever in October, floor model. New = $800 Me= $550. And that was from an actual store. HK, Denon, Onkyo- they are pretty evenly matched performance-wise, and have the same features at the same prices.

 

[svi]

The Pioneer 1014 and 1015 are excellent receivers if you can get them for that price (floor models, refurbs, stolen...). IIRC, the 1015 is practically a rebadged Elite 52 (altered specs, but same components, so same performance) for something like half the price. Your speakers must be really, really power hungry for the 1014 to be the weak point in the system. The VSX-815 is also good, although it's in a bracket filled to the brim with other worthy competitors.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: svi
The Pioneer 1014 and 1015 are excellent receivers if you can get them for that price (floor models, refurbs, stolen...). IIRC, the 1015 is practically a rebadged Elite 52 (altered specs, but same components, so same performance) for something like half the price. Your speakers must be really, really power hungry for the 1014 to be the weak point in the system. The VSX-815 is also good, although it's in a bracket filled to the brim with other worthy competitors.

My speakers are 4ohm and 6ohms so that's a bit of a concern. I'm more talking the quality than the power output necessarily.

 

[PurdueRy]

I bought a HK 435 to replace my receiver. Its quite a bit higher than your budget. For a budget like that I would go with the Denon 1705 and Denon 1905

 

[svi]

My speakers are 4ohm and 6ohms so that's a bit of a concern. I'm more talking the quality than the power output necessarily.

Don't worry, I understand that more wattage != better. However, given the 1014 and 1015's performance under minimal load (never mind the booklet specs, which are fudged-- benchmarks show them at Elite 52 level, and a Pioneer rep actually confirmed this), I think the only thing you'd have to worry about would be how performance decreases under increased load-- meaning, yes, hard-to-drive speakers. Nothing that can't be remedied with a good stereo amp, of course, since the 1014 and 1015 have good pre-outs.

Are AV123's sensitivity specs in-room or anechoic? If the latter, I'd think no half-decent receiver would suffer any real quality degradation driving the things... if the former, still, shouldn't be too much of a problem given the electronics inside that thing. Unless, of course, you're just saying that your receiver is the weak point in your setup because it's a moderately strong link in a very strong chain.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: svi

My speakers are 4ohm and 6ohms so that's a bit of a concern. I'm more talking the quality than the power output necessarily.

Don't worry, I understand that more wattage != better. However, given the 1014 and 1015's performance under minimal load (never mind the booklet specs, which are fudged-- benchmarks show them at Elite 52 level, and a Pioneer rep actually confirmed this), I think the only thing you'd have to worry about would be how performance decreases under increased load-- meaning, yes, hard-to-drive speakers. Nothing that can't be remedied with a good stereo amp, of course, since the 1014 and 1015 have good pre-outs.

Are AV123's sensitivity specs in-room or anechoic? If the latter, I'd think no half-decent receiver would suffer any real quality degradation driving the things... if the former, still, shouldn't be too much of a problem given the electronics inside that thing. Unless, of course, you're just saying that your receiver is the weak point in your setup because it's a moderately strong link in a very strong chain.

I'm happy with it... just saying that the next thing on my list of things to upgrade will be the receiver.

(oh, and it gets hot as hell driving them )

 

[svi]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: svi

My speakers are 4ohm and 6ohms so that's a bit of a concern. I'm more talking the quality than the power output necessarily.

Don't worry, I understand that more wattage != better. However, given the 1014 and 1015's performance under minimal load (never mind the booklet specs, which are fudged-- benchmarks show them at Elite 52 level, and a Pioneer rep actually confirmed this), I think the only thing you'd have to worry about would be how performance decreases under increased load-- meaning, yes, hard-to-drive speakers. Nothing that can't be remedied with a good stereo amp, of course, since the 1014 and 1015 have good pre-outs.

Are AV123's sensitivity specs in-room or anechoic? If the latter, I'd think no half-decent receiver would suffer any real quality degradation driving the things... if the former, still, shouldn't be too much of a problem given the electronics inside that thing. Unless, of course, you're just saying that your receiver is the weak point in your setup because it's a moderately strong link in a very strong chain.

I'm happy with it... just saying that the next thing on my list of things to upgrade will be the receiver.

(oh, and it gets hot as hell driving them )

Heh, fair enough. And what's after the receiver?

On a side note, you haven't truly seen a hot and unhappy receiver until you've seen a junked stereo Onkyo (TX 2 something) try to drive 80-82 dB SPL (in-room) DIY speakers. Receivers really are meant to take a lot of abuse... speakers, too, apparently, since they still played fine.

 

[tgillespie]

I think the Denon 1905 it is. Thanks guys.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Denon AVR-1905
Denon AVR-1705

welcome back ribbon, where have you been? you can pm me if it is personal...

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: tgillespie
I have a friend who is in search of a receiver. The one he has is slowly dying and a replacement is near. He asked my opinion on what would be a decent system for his money, but in all honesty, I don?t have much experience in the receiver area.

His price maximum is $300. Some of his preferences would be 6 or more channels for surround sound. The primary focus of the receiver is to watch movies and listen to music.

If anyone could recommend brands and possible models that are under $300, he would appreciate it.

what size room? what speakers?

imo, 5.1 is the way to go, and is also recommended by many of my friends that are into ul high end stuff - ~$20,000+ for a ht and even most installers that i know that install stuff in the ~$50,000.

 

[Nohr]

There's a huge thread at avsforum about the Panasonic SA-XR55
7.1, digital amplifier, Pro Logic II, etc. Amazon has it for $230.

I got mine yesterday. I'm only using it with the 2 front channels at the moment but so far so good. Sounds great with the speakers I bought. Mind you this is my first receiver so I don't have much previous experience to compare to.