Buying a new receiver - what brand to go for? (1 Viewer)

[NZNick]

Ok so as posted in my earlier threads our Marantz receiver is playing up.... My wife's friend's partner does home theatre / home security instillation for a job and he had a look / listen and thinks one of the resistors might be blown and it could cost upwards of $200 + (NZ$) to get fixed.
We spoke to a retail shop and they said it would cost $70 to look at the receiver and diagnose the problem - then the repair cost on top of that

So we have decided to get a new receiver and are looking at 3 different ones and wondered if any experts out there have an opinion on any of these 3 - or is there another brand we should consider

http://www.avworld.co.nz/shop/product/denon-avrx-540bt/overview - I've been told that Denon is one of the best brands to buy

http://www.avworld.co.nz/shop/product/onkyo-1-tx-sr373/overview - I've heard Onkyo are also a good brand

http://www.avworld.co.nz/shop/product/marantz-nr1508/overview - we have Marantz at the moment

We're going to this shop tomorrow morning to have a look at receivers - we just want the best value receiver that has the most / best features for the price... and we don't want to spend an arm and a leg - prefer under $1,000 NZ

We never really used all the features on our current amp and all we use it for is to run our cable TV box (Sky TV) and our Blu ray player through - not into gaming or anything

if anyone has an opinion on these receivers or another one we should consider it would be much appreciated

 

[JohnRice]

The best balance of value and quality is probably the Denon, but there won't be a big difference between it and the Onkyo. Brands tend to have ups and downs. Right now Denon is on an upswing and Onkyo in on a down. Marantz is the same parent company as Denon and is also on an upswing, but they're a higher end brand and less about best value. So, I'[d say the Denon for you. It looks like those are only capable of 5.1, in case that's a problem.

 

[NZNick]

thanks - 5.1 is fine as we only have 4 speakers, centre speaker and sub