Buy new living room receiver now or wait? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

I want to upgrade my living room receiver to support 4K. Last I looked, this past spring, things were a mess. The mid-range Marantz I wanted was low stock and priced high. And then lots of people seemingly have said 2020 and 2021 receivers and processors are all screwed up with bad HDMI. I'm not in a rush but I've also got no personal / financial reason to continue to wait on upgrading to a 4K AppleTV and a 4K AVR to go with my 4K TV.

Is now as good a time as any to buy a new AVR? Or are we on the cusp of new models and waiting a month or two is advised? Or should I get what I can get and thanks the global supply gods for any good graces on buying electronics?

 

[JohnRice]

Dave, the problems are with the next generation of hdmi for 8K and VRR. If you don't do high end gaming and have no plan for 8K, which will never be a mainstream home format, then you're actually OK with any receiver from the last 2-3 years. You might look for refurb, but even the prices on those are high.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Who knew AVRs would become such a hot commodity after being hit with supply chain and mfg shortages? I’m really glad I upgraded last fall.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I am also glad I upgraded when I did a few years ago.

 

[JohnRice]

I upgraded the head unit in my living room in June 2019 and the HT in March 2018, both with recently discontinued units (SR7012 & AV7703) and even now there's no real-world reason to update from those, in my book. No need for 8K, VRR or high frame rate in my world. As long as it has immersive audio formats, 4K with HDR10 & DV, there's nothing else needed.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. I don’t need 8K or VRR for the living room.

I was all set to buy a pair of 4K AppleTV’s — to get 4K in the living room and get Atmos streaming for the HD theater. And then remembered that I still have to upgrade my living room AVR for 4K streaming to work.

I also thought maybe there would be new 2021 upgrades by now. I had been thinking of the Denon 960, which is a 2020 model.

AVRS960H - AV RECEIVER - | Denon - US

Denon

www.denon.com

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Many makers seem to normally schedule announcements for new AVRs and prepros around this time of year (in Oct or so)... w/ actual availability in the few months to follow. That's how it was last year as well (for Marantz/Denon, Anthem, et al) despite the pandemic... though not sure if that changes this time around... Might be worth waiting til early Nov to see some new announcements even if you're just buying previous year models... since new announcements tend to impact pricing on old models...

_Man_