Newbie Once more.

Hello,

About 14 years ago I frequented the home theater forums, I subscribed to several magazines and I considered myself quite the expert in home theater hardware and various applications.

My forum Nickname back then was Ryeman.

The highlight of my home theater journey was when I purchased a Yamaha RXV-2095 with the latest surround sound technology at the time I was in my 20's when I purchased this beast and is broke my bank account.  Back then DTS encryption was rare to find on DVD's and most main stream DVD's were Dolby Digital (AC-3).  You actually had to special order DVD's to get a DTS only copy of them.

Ok, so now I am old and so is my RXV-2095 :)  Over the past 10 years or so, I stopped subcribing to Audio Visual Journals (main stream stuff primarily) and I have been out of the loop so to speak for just as long.  Essentially, my Yamaha receiver needs to be replaced because when I switch on the 5.1 it shuts off and 7.1 intrigues me somewhat, but I don't know much more then that.

Therefore, I need some help from the experts...You guys that are regulars here as I once was.  (well maybe not this forum, the one I belonged to previously is long gone)

Anyway, any help that can be provded me here will be very much appreciated.

My Media room is roughly 10x14 feet
I am looking for a receiver as I don't believe I can afford seperates (I was broke before but now I have two kids lol!)
My Price Range is max $2000 but I can wait and save more money if needed.
I would like to explore the Yamaha's, Denon's, Onkyo's, Marantz's or others in that level.
I would also like to explore the next step above and maybe consider slightly higher end receives like ROTEL or Outlaw for example.
I would like the receiver to have HDMI v1.3, Dolby True HD and DTS True HD and 7.1 surround.
HDMI Switching from Analog sources.

What I am looking for here is a starting point.  I am looking for suggestions from the experts here to guide me in the right direction.

Any and all help here will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Craig

What are your speakers?  A receiver will make a minimal improvement (aside from features) compared to speakers.

Hi John,

My speakers currently are old too!  They are Paradigm Monitor 7's mains, Centre is Paradigm cc-350, the rears are very old Paradigm 5se MkII's

I plan to upgrade my speakers as well in the near future.  I planned to do the receiver first because my current dinosaur is acting up.

I eventually plan to purchase some In-wall speakers as my space is limited.  I am not sure what to look for in exploring this as well.  I figured I would cross this bridge when I get to it.

Your point is well taken however though and thank you.

With your budget, I'd strongly consider this Onkyo:
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-NR906-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B001AMUFG6/ref=sr_1_67?ie=UTF8&s=aht&qid=1250964848&sr=1-67
With Onkyo, you get a lot of bang for the buck. This one has the HQV Reon-VX video processing, which is one of the best, if not the best in this type application. Plenty of power and lots of features. You'll have enough change left to get a blu ray player.............. 
Good luck with whatever you get.

What about other parts of your system, e.g. display, TivoHD/HD-DVR, Blu-ray?  What do you have, and are you planning to upgrade there, or are you up to date there?

Normally I wouldn't spend so much on a receiver, I think the sonic difference (there are other differences, like video processing / network audio streaming that can be handled in alternate components) between something like a Onkyo 906 vs. say a 707 at half the price is negligible/unnoticeable and would put the money to upgrade elsewhere.  Video component(s) as above.  You didn't mention a subwoofer either, I'd rather have a killer sub + cheap receiver than an expensive receiver & cheap/no sub.

I'd look at the Onkyo 707 & 607, also the Denon 890/2310, 790/1910.

Hello,

Thank you for the input I have received thus far!

I have an Energy 150 watt RMS mosfett subwoofer circa 1996 (wedding gift from my wife, bless her little heart). 
My Video Is a Hitachi 1080i rear projection Television.  Just an aside, When I upgraded to HD it ruined it pretty much!  All the standard definition content on HD channels caused burn in on the vertical edges of the screen because I hate watching stretched TV.  And all along I was worried about the bars on the top and bottom when I watched movies! LOL!  ( want to replace with LCD)
I also Currently have a Samsung Blu-Ray Player that I got last Christmas which is consumer grade.

I am starting to realize that my room is probably too small to accomodate 7.1 as I do more research.

I think I would rather have quality VS bells and whistles as I hardly EVER use the DSP settings on my current Yamaha.  I have used the movie DSP's, but as far as the church or the sport Dsp's or the live concert dsp's (roxy theater which was on by default) I maybe turned them on once or twice and though that it was cool, but never really bought into them.







 

Well, once again I have to agree with Stephen on his thoughts. I would think any the receivers he mentioned would be fine. Crutchfield has the onkyo 806 for $680 right now. I'm sure it can even been found cheaper than that somewhere. The next part for me would have to be the TV. I just picked up a Panasonic TC-P4S1 (42") for my son's room for 700 bucks yesterday. Not that is the best TV on the market but for a 42" plasma that's 1080P I think I almost stole it. That would leave around $550 at the least to get a good sub. I don't own an SVS sub but EVERYONE on here loves them. Here's two in your budget. http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-box-pb12nsd.cfm and http://www.svsound.com/products-sub-cyl-pc12_nsd.cfm. Your speakers still work so rock them a little longer till you can spend what you want to a new set. Hope this helps.

Thank you for these suggestions.  They will be very helpful!

Craig

Don't worry about old speakers.  Speakers aren't a "technology" thing as much as some other components. Paradigm makes good stuff and you are probably much better off with them than any in-wall speakers you would replace them with.  As logn as they are in good condition (the surrounds aren't deteriorating) I would stick with them.  BTW, the (increasingly common) thought of getting in-wall speakers makes my skin crawl.  To me, and some others here, that is a last ditch effort where the only other option is nothing at all.  I go along with the idea of upgrading the receiver to something reasonable and getting a better sub.

Hi Again John,

Actually I wasn't really planning on replacing my speakers right away.  The $2000 was exlusively reserved for Audio/video processing and amplification.

In-walls are just an option I may consider.  What may make more sence when I have some more money is to maybe look at the Paradigm reference line and get a compliment of their smaller models and try to get a really good sub to team up with them for bottom end.

My wife is trying to talk me into (when I can get an LCD) to put it on the long wall of my media room instead of the short wall.  I know this will cause a hit in performance, but the room will be much more usable set up that way as their is a book shelf at the back with cupboards that have been covered up with a couch for 10 years.  hmmmmm Maybe I should convince her that form follows function eh?

Craig