Receiver for HTPC?

[nipplefish]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be putting together a HTPC sometime in the next couple months (after the Ivy Bridge i3's and Trinity chips are out) and was looking for advice/recommendations on a stereo receiver to pair it with.

Right now I've just got a pair of old-school floor speakers with 8" woofers, but I'd like the ability to add surround speakers/subwoofer at some point. 4 HDMI ins sounds about right (PC, cable box, couple extras for future expansion).

I really don't need anything super fancy; in fact I'd probably say the simpler the better. I don't need a bunch of bells and whistles like ipod streaming or bluetooth any of that crap. That will all be handled by the PC. I'm mostly interested in audio clarity, decent power output headroom, and reliability. Budget is somewhat flexible but I'd like to aim for around $200-250 if possible.

I haven't kept up with home theater tech in quite some time so any help is appreciated! :biggrin:

edit: one other important thing: ease of use. My non-techie gf should be able to operate it easily.

 

[assassin24]

Denon and the current crop of Onkyo are two of my favorites.

Might be tough for $200.

 

[Sammy2]

If you look around on the internet then CALL some of the vendors you can get a better price, trust me. Denon is clearing out the XX12 models and there's some good deals going on them right now. You will find great information on them in this thread

 

[jtvang125]

Get a logitech harmony remote too. Trust me your gf will thank you for it.

 

[nipplefish]

Appreciate the responses, guys. I shopped around and and ended up buying a Denon AVR-1712. The setup was a little cumbersome but it sounds awesome now that it's set up. A harmomy remote isn't a bad idea... you can control PCs with those too, right?

 

[Ryan_M]

Get a logitech harmony remote too. Trust me your gf will thank you for it.

Haha you would think so but I get called to the livingroom all the time because something isn't working. I dont get it, it's one @#$%ing button! If you want to watch TV press the "Watch TV" button. I walk in press the button, wait 10 seconds and all is working as it should. It doesn't matter how slick you make everything work, if you don't have a y chromosome you have no business operating a remote. j/k.... sort of

Appreciate the responses, guys. I shopped around and and ended up buying a Denon AVR-1712. The setup was a little cumbersome but it sounds awesome now that it's set up. A harmomy remote isn't a bad idea... you can control PCs with those too, right?

I have a Denon for my living room and it does a respectable job. It pushes some pretty big 4ohm speakers eventhough not officially rated for it. I agree setup isn't as straight forward as it could be but it's manageable. Yes you can use the Harmony to control the PC. I use mediaportal for a front end and tell it I'm using a WMC remote, then get the Harmony to emulate that with I think a few customizations and it works flawlessly. I can't see any other front end being any different as I think they all have the ability to use the WMC remote.

 

[wirednuts]

Haha you would think so but I get called to the livingroom all the time because something isn't working. I dont get it, it's one @#$%ing button! If you want to watch TV press the "Watch TV" button. I walk in press the button, wait 10 seconds and all is working as it should. It doesn't matter how slick you make everything work, if you don't have a y chromosome you have no business operating a remote. j/k.... sort of

its so true. people will tell me "no way man, i dont wanna touch your setup. i wouldnt know how to get it all running"

and i say "well, first you turn it on. second you are done"

then i get back "i dont even know how to turn it on"

they dont get that is just like their cable setup. you got a tv, a stereo and cable box. come to think of it, i want a used cable box now (the old big ones) and put a computer inside. i bet people could operate it then!

 

[tydas]

You will get a million opinions on best budget AVR...all the major brands have budget lines and IMO, they are all comparable...