Looking for a good receiver (1 Viewer)

[Tim Kline]

Hey folks.

So, I'm moving in about a month and I will finally be building a worthwhile HT area. It's a condo, my living room is roughly 20x12. I'll be getting a new plasma, probably the 50" Panasonic VIERA G10. Been reading lots of good reviews on it. I will be probably getting a PS3 for my Blu-ray player, or a maybe a standalone one. I will also have a Wii and my DVR cable box to connect to my receiver. So, the first thing I need is something that will be good for up converting a variety of signals to play through the 1 HDMI connection to my TV. Also I guess I need a receiver that does HDMI 1.3? I don't know what the differences are in versions but I'm just assuming the higher the newer/better.

It seems like everything is 7.1 speakers now, but I don't really think I'll need all 7, 5.1 should be fine for me. If I had to get 7.1, I would probable still just have the 5 speakers going...

I have an 8 year old Yamaha 5.1 receiver now and it's been great, but the reason I want to upgrade now is mostly for HDMI, so I can have everything connected to the receiver and it'll do all the switching and converting I need.

So, on that note, can anyone recommend some good and new and halfway affordable models to look into? I can go as high as $1000, but I'd like to keep it closer to $500 if possible.

Thanks

 

[ShanonS]

I don't want to steer you to a higher price point than you want, but I recently went through the same considerations you did. I wanted to go cheaper, but after considering options for a couple of months, I went with the Onkyo TX-SR876. It has the best/newest DAC's, the best video processing and the best features for the price point. I owned a Denon several years ago and was very happy with it, but for the price I just had to give the Onkyo a try. Onkyo really downgraded the next model down when they came out with the 806 and Denon is using older/lesser technology than the 876 in both video and audio. I've only had it a week, but so far I'm very happy, and that's coming from a B&K AVR507. If you really want to go lower in price, then I would consider looking for an Onkyo 805.

Just my humble opinion after a few months and being very pleased with my decision.

 

[John Brill]

I've ordered a UMC-1 processor from Emotiva. Shipping date has now been confirmed for June 2009. At $699, it's a steal!

If your Yamaha has 5.1 inputs, you can extend it's life by adding the UMC-1 which could just be the ticket you are looking for...

Emotiva Audio UMC-1 Audio-VIdeo Processor

 

[Disbeliever]

The absolute best value for money on the market right now and it even decodes DSD direct to anlogue without decimating PCM conversion is the Onkyo 706 exceptionally easy to operate. Great sound & picture. Look no further.

 

[DelRay]

I recently bought a Pioneer 1018 for my daughter. Nice receiver. Very flexible, good sound, auto cal. HDMI inputs and she has her Ipod connected. She is only using 5.1 and sounds just great.

 

[Tim Kline]

Thanks for the info, I'll look into them

For that Emotiva processor thing..... how does that work? how would I connect my old receiver to that? I don't have any HDMI on the old one, just some optical and coaxial ports. Would I just connect all the devices and tv to that, and then have an optical cable go from that to my receiver just to cover the sound?

 

[ShanonS]

Your receiver would have to have 6 analog audio inputs in order to use that, then the processor would output each audio channel seperately. You didn't say which 5 yr old Yamaha you had, so can't look it up to tell you if you have them.

 

[John Brill]

Hmm, 8 year-old Yamaha AVR... RX-V430 and above models had the 6-channel analog inputs. If your does, you could use the Emotiva UMC-1. To hook up, all inputs would go into the Emotiva for processing (i.e. HDMI inputs) and then you would have 6 RCA cables exit the Emotiva and plug into your Yamaha. This bypasses the processing your Yamaha would have done in the past and goes straight to the amps. In the future, you could simply get seperate amps for the fronts if you wanted to add more power to your system without breaking the bank until one day you splurge and get a nice 5 channel amp and simply have to replace the processor when new features and codecs come out and not have to pay for additional amps... Basically, it's the seperates vs receivers question...

 

[Tim Kline]

here is the receiver I have

RX-V620

I'm pretty sure it has the 6 inputs in the back that you're talking of. I always thought that was for some kind of old fashioned surround sound. why would this high tech processor thing need to connect analogally (I know that's not a word). Would I just have to buy 3 sets of RCA cables to connect it?

 

[Tim Kline]

Ah.. Hmm.. well I do like the idea of receivers since it's an all in one kind of thing. I don't need anything overly hardcore, this is just a condo living room and not that big. I think it's around 20x13. I'd have the tv at the end of the room in the middle of the wall, sofa in front of it about 8-10' away kind of dividing the room in half and I was planning to have the rear speakers pointed at each other, one on either side of the sofa.

 

[ShanonS]

To answer you first question, the processor would take all of the encoded sound formats including the new HD audio and decode it and send it out as 6 analog feeds, there's no other way to get it to your old receiver, unless it recodes it to a format that your receiver can read. Then you would lose all the benefits of the HD audio if it had to re-encode it to a lower sound format.

I'm with you. For the amount of the processor, or a little more, you can get a decent receiver that will do it all in one. Unless you want to go to all separates down the line, and spend a BUNCH of cash, I would look at a different receiver. But, that's just my opinion. I don't want very many more pieces in my rack than I already have.

 

[Tim Kline]

yeah I think I'll just go with a regular receiver. I did some searching around and that Onkyo 706 one is getting real good reviews and right around my price range so I will probably look into that one.