recommended receiver under $350

Re: recommended receiver under $350

I bought thr Yamaha RXV-463 and I am very happy with it. The sound is among the best I have heard under $1000. But if you like bells and whistles this might not be for you. Steve

Re: recommended receiver under $350

Onkyo 606.

Re: recommended receiver under $350

What are your plans for this reciever? Do you plan to hook up HDMI sources, if so how many? If you have a Bluray player do you plan to bitstream lossless to be decoded by your reciever, or does your player decode everything?

Hey David doesn't the 606 sale for $599? If that is the case I think Rick should wait for the 607 coming out for the same price. The problem is Rick that when you get down to the $350 range you are not going to get much especially in the bells and whistles area.

Onkyo 506 $379 7.1 Reciever w Audyssey Dynamic EQ & Audyssey EQ
Pioneer VSX-918V-K $349 5.1 Reciever w MCACC
Denon AVR-1609 $349 7.1 Reciever w Audyssey Dynamic EQ & Audyssey EQ

Some recievers in this price range decode lossless but many do not. Onkyo offers alot of bang for the buck but suffers from horible customer service. And there receivers tend to run on the hot side so make sure you have enough ventilation to avoid possible problems. But in that price range you might want to go with a Onkyo 506 unless you can find a higher model online cheaper?

I currently own a Yamaha RX-V995 that is about 11 years old and have been very happy with it. I am not sure I would replace it with a Yamaha now as I am leaning towards Denon personally. Yamaha's do sound good but I think they have gotten cheap on the amp section as far as not being as stout as they used to be. Also keep in mind that the Yamaha 463 is only a 5.1 reciever and not a 7.1, depends on how many channels you want. The 463 also is very limited on inputs in general and only has 2 HDMI inputs. It is rated at 105 watts per channel but I am willing to bet my 100 watt rated 995 is beefier than the current 463. Also be carefull because in the low end some companies like to rate there recievers amps at 1Khz and not 20Hz - 20Khz.

Re: recommended receiver under $350

The 606 is all over the range right now. I seen it on sale for $399 (can't remember where - maybe amazon?). Or I could be wrong....

Re: recommended receiver under $350

Definitely *not* the 506, IMO. It is HDMI pass-through, doesn't handle audio over HDMI which is pretty lame.

Wait for the newer model 507 that fixes this deficiency, or get something like the Yamaha RX-V465 (4x HDMI vs. only 2x on older 463), or Onkyo 576/606/607.