Looking for a budget A/V receiver (1 Viewer)

[Jim517]

I'm looking for a 5.1, 4K ready receiver. This will be used only for movies. I would like to keep price under $300.

I've read good things about the following 3 receivers. What do you guys think?

1) Denon AVR-S530BT, $267

2) Onkyo TX-SR373, $249

3) Yamaha RX-V383

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Osato]

I'm looking for a 5.1, 4K ready receiver. This will be used only for movies. I would like to keep price under $300.

I've read good things about the following 3 receivers. What do you guys think?

1) Denon AVR-S530BT, $267

2) Onkyo TX-SR373, $249

3) Yamaha RX-V383

Thanks for any advice.

I love my denon!
I had onkyo in the past and they were ok. My 2nd onkyo died on me.

I tried a Yamaha as a replacement but I didn't care for it. The sound was off with it to my ears.

The denon has been fantastic though.
I have the avr-2112ci
It's been a number of years since I bought it.

Good luck!!

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I own that Denon and *love* it!!
Just be sure to pair it with a decent active subwoofer.

The ”Quick Select” options (sets inputs, outputs, custom levels) are great for switching between the Blu-ray player, cable/satellite box, ROKU, and iPhone/iPad (via the included Bluetooth). It makes setting up something like the Logitech Remote simple as pie! And it has plenty of 4K HDMI inputs.

 

[Jim517]

Thanks. I'm down to the Denon and Yamaha.

This will only be used for movies and football games in our theater, if that matters(as far as which one you would recommend) ?

 

[Jim517]

I own that Denon and *love* it!!
Just be sure to pair it with a decent active subwoofer.

The ”Quick Select” options (sets inputs, outputs, custom levels) are great for switching between the Blu-ray player, cable/satellite box, ROKU, and iPhone/iPad (via the included Bluetooth). It makes setting up something like the Logitech Remote simple as pie! And it has plenty of 4K HDMI inputs.

Would you say the Denon is easy to set up for the average person? It should have more than enough power for a 13' X 17" theater room, correct?

Thanks.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

It’s fairly easy to set up: Like most modern A/V receivers it comes with a calibration microphone and an internal automatic setup routine for the room’s speaker configuration. After it’s finished with the calibration you may want to slightly tweak the settings which it easily allows you to do.

For that size room you should have adequate power, assuming that you have efficient surround and center channel speakers complimented with at least a 10” 150 to 300 watt (peak) powered subwoofer. The receiver is not going to give you the bass you want for today’s modern action movies without a good powered subwoofer. But this is true for even higher powered A/V receivers.

My room is close to yours in size. My speakers are “mix-and-match” with a Klipsch center channel, Polk 10” 300 watt (peak) subwoofer, and 4 Bose surrounds. I have the surrounds mounted near the ceiling in each corner and they give me a nice “pseudo Atmos” effect from most 5.1 mixes. (This receiver, of course, is 5.2 and is not capable of true Atmos.) The built-in speaker calibration circuit on the Denon did a very nice job in optimizing the levels on the four surround speakers for my preferred seating position. In this configuration the Denon volume control usually sits around 65.5 and the output is distortion free on modern soundtrack mixes.

 

[Jim517]

Thanks. I do have a nice powered sub, the BIC F12.

Is there anything you don't like about that Denon?

 

[Joseph Bolus]

For the price, I have no complaints.

It lacks the fancy DSP modes of the Yamaha, but my previous A/V receiver was a Yamaha (purchased in 2010) and I found I rarely used any of those modes. On the other hand, I use the Denon’s “Quick Select” modes daily.

Just keep in mind that this is a budget receiver. I purchased it as the first hub of my slow upgrade to UHD. The fact that it is fully UHD compatible – including HDR and DV support right out of the box - was more important to me than wattage specs.

(BTW, that *is* a very nice sub you have there!)

 

[Jim517]

Thanks. I assume you have no problem with the spring clip speaker hookups ?

 

[Alf S]

Thanks. I assume you have no problem with the spring clip speaker hookups ?

Curious as to why that would be an issue?

 

[Malcolm R]

Would you say the Denon is easy to set up for the average person? It should have more than enough power for a 13' X 17" theater room, correct?

Thanks.

That's the exact size of my room and I've used a Denon 2310 for the past seven years or so, with both 5.1 and 7.1 setups, and was quite happy with it. I've recently upgraded to a Yamaha 681 with 4K/Atmos/DTS:X capabilities. I kind of think the Yamaha sounds better, but that may just be a function of the more modern technology (7 yrs newer) than anything to do with the brand.

 

[Jim517]

Curious as to why that would be an issue?

I don't know if it would be. As long as the wire stays secure, that's all I care about. Some people have complained about them.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Thanks. I assume you have no problem with the spring clip speaker hookups ?

For the record, it was not an issue. I could see it being a problem if the receiver had to be moved from time-to-time, but I rarely have a need to pull the receiver out of the rack once everything is connected and working.

 

[Jim517]

Joseph, I need help. I bought the above Denon today, and I'm having trouble setting it up. I get up to the "Speaker Setup" part, and click the "enter" button and nothing happens. When reading the online manual, it says if my TV is not ARC compliant(which mine is not, it's 1080p) to use an optical digital for sound? Is that correct? If so, I'm returning this and buying a model that's not 4K ready.

Thanks.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Jim,

Sorry for the tardiness of this response. I only just now saw this.

You should be fine as long as you are using a compatible HDMI cable between the Denon and the HDMI input on your TV. (HDMI 2.0b compliant.)

If your TV truly cannot receive audio via HDMI, then yes, you would require a separate optical digital run for the audio; but that would be true of any A/V receiver. When it says it needs your receiver to be ARC-compliant it’s referring to the audio return; it has nothing to do with the resolution. It’s possible, though, that you could be having handshaking issues due to incompatible HDMI cables and that is what’s triggering the ARC error.