need advice on new receiver for my IL30s (1 Viewer)

[Tom Barbieri]

(To make this long story short, jump to my final paragraph). I'll be using my Christmas bonus this year to upgrade my receiver. The last time I bought a receiver, I didn't do any research. I just jumped right in and bought a Sony STR D2090 because I liked the overall appearance, the multiple sound fields, and the specs were what I needed. In retrospect, I spent too much paying for extra bells and whistles that I never or no longer use (the aforementioned sound fields, and a whole bunch of video editing features). I was using the receiver to drive a pair of Bose Series III and some generic rear speakers. The sound was enough to get me through grad school, but occasional distortion and muddled sound increased my distaste for the speakers.

A little over a year ago, I expanded my system by shifting the Bose over to the center channel and purchasing IL30s for the mains. They sounded so good in the showroom, and my research indicated they would be an excellent purchase for me.

Of course, they did not sound as good at home with the Sony Receiver. My first test was "Men in Black" vhs, and they could not handle the scenes inside the main door of the MIB building with the giant fan. The bass provided distortion. I also noticed distortion on some audio CDs. I called Infinity customer service, and they informed me that there has been instances of Sony-Infinity incompatibility in the past. This bothered me for a very long time until I discovered that the crackling was actually encoded on the CDs, and just couldn't be heard as clearly on inferior speakers (my wife's JBLs, for example).

Anyway, as I have just purchased my first DVD player, I need

to upgrade my receiver to enjoy DTS and Dolby 5.1. I would like some recommendations on the best receiver for driving those IL30's. I am looking to spend no more than $500, as my wife does not understand the need to pay anymore, and I'd also like to get away with buy a sub!

Thanks, Tom

P.S. If any home-movie makers would like to purchase the Sony, I'll be posting it in the marketplace forum.

 

[JohnRice]

Tom,

I just love those Customer Service people. That "Sony-Infinity incompatability" line was good for a chuckle. Personally, I doubt it. CS rule of thumb. Always blame problems on the other guy.

You can get a pretty nice receiver for up to $500. Infinity speakers tend to be a on the brighter sounding side of the scale, so a warmer sounding receiver is probably a good choice. Personally, I would probably go with a Denon. At retail they start at $400 for the 1602. If you are still having any of the bass problems you mentioned, a good sub will do a lot. SVS is an excellent choice for that. I also would make a serious effort at getting a matching Infinity center channel speaker ASAP. Ideally, you would want to get matching surrounds as well, but the center is more important and the sound from Bose speakers is radically different than Infinity and the sound across the front will not be very smooth mixing those two brands.