Helping a friend with an enrty level receiver (1 Viewer)

[Rick Westfall]

Any help would be greatly appreciated. A buddy of mine is buying a new home theater setup but needs to prioritize the $$. He would like to get a receiver that is no more than about $300. Of course he needs Dolby Digital and DTS. Please give any and all opinions. Also, if you have some recommended places for online purchases that would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!
Rick

 

[Mark Dickerson]

Rick:

Tough price point, but I can make a couple of suggestions:

1. If he can stretch just a little bit, he can get a Marantz 5200 (last year's model, but a very good one) from accessories4less.com for $329.99.

2. He can get a Denon 1803 (refurbished) from eCost.com for $299.00 (MSRP is $499). comes with a 90 day warranty from Denon, but you can get a 1 year extension from eCost for $19.95.

3. Look for a closeout on a Onkyo 600--One Call (www.onecall.com) is offering a factory refurb 600 for $299.88

4. Harman/Kardon 125 from One Call. Again a bit of a stretch given his budget, but I think their asking price of $325 is reasonable and should be do-able for your buddy.

Any of these would be a nice receiver (all use discrete amplifiers on all channels) to start a HT. But they all sound a bit different, so the choice of receiver may be dictated by the speakers that he has or will have.

Good luck.

 

[Thomas Nichols]

I have the AVR125 from H/K and love it. It has more power than you would ever need and some nice features. I got mine for 299 and a local store. I have been extremely happy with it.