Help Needed in A/V Receivers (1 Viewer)

[John Brill]

Not surprised. Answer these questions:

1) How big is your room (width x length x height of ceiling)?

2) How much TOTAL money can you spend? (How much is in your bank account???)

3) Where do you live? (Are you comfortable ordering online?)

Unless we know this, we can't really help.

 

[djdownfawl]

1) 18L x 13.4W x 8H
2) I want to buy the best A/V receiver and probably stick with some low price speakers like may be i wanna use the onkyos for now then later on upgrade to good speakers. I realized after buying the ONKYO 9100THX that it only upscales to 1080i so i am not happy with it anymore. I want to get the best DVD player.
3) NJ, i am very comfortable ordering online.

 

[Chris Bedard]

Wow.....

John, I feel your pain here, it's like pulling teeth..... Maybe he needs more people asking the same question over and over.

To OP:

How much total budget do you have for EVERYTHING. Not just a receiver (which frankly, based on the equipment you have, won't really be much of a help or improvement if you plan on keeping the same speakers anyways)... This is not a difficult question. However, until you, or anyone else for that matter, knows the answer, no amount of help is really going to be useful to you.

I mean, basically, you've said... I want the best sound money can buy, without really upgrading the most important parts of my equipment, and without really spending any money, and I want a pre-amp that's not a receiver and some new cables. Really? The best could cost hundred's of thousands of dollars (even millions). Something you don't appear to have available to spend.

There are answers in this thread already you should have taken notes on, like ... Speakers make the biggest difference... Don't spend $ on useless cabling... the Denon AVP-A1HDCI is not a receiver.. buy a modest receiver and better speakers...

Until then, here are some recs for equipment if you want the very best. I'll even provide two price points, high end and highest end.

Audio/Video Processor
Mark Levinson Nº 502 Media Console www.marklevinson.com/products/details.asp $30,000
Classé SSP-800 www.audioholics.com/reviews/processors/classe-ssp-800-preamp-processor $8,000.00

Amplifiers
Edge NL Reference Monoblocks x5 (or 7) www.audiofederation.com/dealership/edge/index.htm $140,000 each
Krell Evolution 900 x 5 (or 7) hometheaterreview.com/krell-evolution-900-monaural-power-amplifiers-reviewed/ $20,000 each

Speakers:
Kharma Grand Enigma gizmodo.com/photogallery/outrageousaudio/2821426 $1,000,000.00
B&W Nautilus www.e-hifi.com.au/b-w/PrestigeSeries/nautilus.aspx $60,000.00 each

 

[djdownfawl]

At this moment i am not happy with my PS3 anymore too!!!! This thing doesn't play PAL DVDs!!!!!
So now i need to get a new DVD player..
Earlier, John said i should get one of these DVD players...
Blu-Ray
A) Panasonic DMP-BD55K
B) LG BD390
C) Samsung BD-P3600
There are more models in panasonic .. like the BD60K and BD70K, 80K and more.. which one is the most advanced one?
And are there any other BETTER ones than these three DVD players?

Ok so back to the topic now..
So now i am realizing that speakers make the most difference, and that even if i buy the Denon 5308i i am not gonna hear much of a difference in audio, because the speakers are still crappy.
So then what should my first step be.... Buying the speakers? If yes then which ones? Lets say i want to spend like $4k
Also by reading the posts i understand that the speakers should cost about 5 times the A/V receiver's cost.

You say i should get a 'modest' receiver, what does that mean and what is your suggestion, i still for some reason want the best receiver .. which seems to me the Denon AVP-A1HDCI and i have to buy a amp if i buy that. Or i should just buy the AVR-5308CI(A)..

 

[Jeff Gatie]

No offense, but your priorites are screwed up. 99% of home theaters have no need for a 5808CI. A home theater with crappy speakers has absolutely has no need for a 5808CI. So why the obsession with having the "best" receiver? Unless you are powering very inefficient speakers to reference levels in a concert hall, your money is best spent where it will do more good for your sound - speakers, room treatments, soundproofing, etc. I understand the bragging factor here, but you are truly looking at $5-8K vs. ~$1000 for the more than capable (and top of the line for most companies) 3808CI. That's a 4-6 thousand dollar difference, and no one, and I mean no one, would notice any sonic differences between the two.

 

[Stephen Tu]

PAL capability is a very specific item that not everyone needs, and not every player supports, you should have mentioned that earlier. Go with the Oppo BDP-83, it has PAL support (still subject to region restrictions, there may be a hack) and is considered one of the best upscalers for DVDs. A lot of the others won't do PAL either, particularly if you get the U.S. model.

Definitely find speakers you like first. "5x receiver cost" to me is a silly rule, because once you get beyond the smallest+cheapest sets, and are spending $1.2k+, there is little correlation between price and sound quality. Cost only constrains which speakers you will consider & audition, but you shouldn't pick solely based on price, for after all a set that only cost 2x your receiver might sound better to you than one that cost 5x. Of course if the 5x sounds better, pick it if you can afford it. To me the rule is "get the speakers that sound best to you, which may or may not be the most expensive you audition", along with "if funds are limiting speaker+receiver total, first put it all to getting the speakers you like best".

IMO you shouldn't even bother replacing the receiver, unless you are getting a professional calibration + installing room treatments and want a new one with the Audyssey pro calibration compatibility. Just plopping in one receiver in place of the fine one you already have is going to make practically zero difference. If you do go for pro calibration, I think the 4310CI is a lot cheaper and you won't miss anything significant vs. the 5308CI.

 

[djdownfawl]

So if i understand correctly.... the speakers that came with the ONKYO 9100THX are ''crap" ?

 

[djdownfawl]

I can't get the TRUEHD symbol to light up? What do i have to do to activate TRUEHD on my onkyo 9100thx?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Originally Posted by djdownfawl ">[/url]

So if i understand correctly.... the speakers that came with the ONKYO 9100THX are ''crap" ?
[/QUOTE]Yes, the speakers in a HTiB are more often than not the weak link in the package. The Onkyo AVR that comes with the 9100 is a very servicable receiver, with all the bells and whistles of Onkyo's main receiver models.


[QUOTE]Originally Posted by [b]djdownfawl[/b] [url=/forum/thread/288871/help-needed-in-a-v-receivers#post_3580863]

 

[Stephen Tu]

I wouldn't call the speakers "crap"; they are better than the stuff you get in cheaper HTiB, but you can get better speakers. TrueHD only lights if you bitstream the codec directly, which the PS3 doesn't. The PS3 decodes internally, thus you get the "multi-ch" lightup. *It doesn't matter in theory whether you decode in the player or the receiver, the end result is the same*. The only thing you are missing is the "TrueHD" light itself, you are still getting TrueHD performance.

 

[djdownfawl]

Yes i am still using the PS3.
Now i know, TrueHD won't light up with PS3 because of the internal decoding, and it doesn't play PAL DVD's anyways.
So i definitely need to get a DVD player for now atleast, and very soon BETTER speakers than what i have.

I was recommended to get either of these DVD Players...
A) Panasonic DMP-BD55K
B) LG BD390
C) Samsung BD-P3600

After researching i found out that the BD55K has been replaced witht he BD80K.. Is that true? Does the BD80K have all the features/specs that the 55K has?
And which one should i go for... the Panasonic, LG or the Samsung?

I will be getting the TiVo HD XL very soon also.

 

[Stephen Tu]

The Panasonic & Samsung I don't think do PAL either. LG 390 or Oppo BDP83 will supposedly do region 0 PAL. If region free is important to you then look into a separate DVD player. There may be region free hacks for the Oppo but I don't know the details.

 

[djdownfawl]

I heard the BD80K is region free.. can you check please.

 

[Stephen Tu]

North American BD80, definitely not. Hacked Euro model, possibly.

 

[djdownfawl]

Is the OPPO BDP83 one of the very best players?

 

[gene c]

Is the OPPO BDP83 one of the very best players?

In the $500-700 range I'd say it is. Denon, Pioneer Elite and others also offer excellent players in that range but the OPPO is probably the best. It also does SACD and DVD-A if your interested.

Since several excellent members have tried and failed, the best advice I can give you over-all is don't do anything (well, maybe get the OPPO) for at least 30 days to give you time to learn a lot more about all of this. Going from an Onkyo htib to a "best of everything" at your level of knowledge can only lead to disaster. Particularly with speakers....and electronics...and wires/cables...and (you get the idea). Don't mean to sound like a Jack*ss (but I did in your other thread-sorry )

But really, you need to educate yourself a little bit more before you start to throw your money around. Keep asking questions and before long all of this will start to make sense. Then you can either make better decisions or better understand the advice your given.

 

[djdownfawl]

I just ordered the OPPO BDP83!

 

[David Willow]

Originally Posted by djdownfawl /forum/thread/288871/help-needed-in-a-v-receivers/30#post_3581281

 

[djdownfawl]

Can you please provide me with a link, so that i can go ahead and purchase that.

 

[David Willow]

Found it quickly on Amazon - searched for DVE....

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-Essentials-Basics-Blu-ray/dp/B000V6LST0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1246985994&sr=8-1