derek_sj

Replacement for my Sony ES9000

Hi Everyone,

I need some help deciding what i should get to replace my current Sony ES9000 receiver. I need something new that has a min of 3 HDMI ports, and will push my speakers (Klipsch RF-7's/RC-7/RB-75's/RS-7's/RSW-15) at least as well as the current receiver. To be concise, i am much more interested in video features than audio features as we use the system 95% for TV & movies, and 5% for music.

Must haves:
1080p switching and(or) upscaling
min of 3 HDMI in ports / 1 HDMI out port*
min of 3 optical in ports
7.1

Nice to haves:
THX
under $2000

So far on my list (in no particular order):
Denon 4306
Marantz SR8001
Pioneer VSX-48txsi
Sony 5200ES
Sony 7100ES

*At this juncture i'm leaning towards waiting on the pending HDMI 1.3 receivers which should be out in the summer

Sony XBR Grand Wega KDF-60XBR950
Sony STR-DA9000ES
Denon DVD-1930CI
Sony PS3
DTV H20 Receiver
Klipsch RF-7's/RC-7/RB-75's/RS-7's/RSW-15
Monster Cable 5100 Power Conditioner

Nick:G

Re: Replacement for my Sony ES9000

Well if you have to have it now, an HDMI 1.1/1.2 audio capable receiver will support uncompressed PCM and Dolby TrueHD/dts-HD MA provided the disc player will decode the full stream (I don't think such a beast quite exists yet).

If you're willing to keep what you have till late Spring/early Summer, I'd wait for 1.3.

The Denon AVR-4306 is a very nice receiver. Plenty of power, all the HDMI goodies, Internet radio capability, reads music from USB devices, a REAL iPod interface, etc. It also does do 1080p video passthrough, but does not deinterlace (this feature is hard to find for under $2k).