New Reciever Time! (1 Viewer)

[Eddie Clark]

It's time for a new reciever but I haven't really decided how much I want to spend yet. What types of recievers mix well with JBL's?

The current speakers are...

Center: N-Center
Fronts: N26II
Surrounds: N24II
Sub: Sony 8" Sub (yes that should probably be replaced)

What brand of reciever would you recomend, what brands are bad ideas.

Cheers,
-Eddie

 

[Matthew-K]

Well, I'll start if off with a recommendation for Harmon Kardon. I got my avr325 at onecall for 460 including shipping. Very happy with this receiver.

 

[Ernest Yee]

You'll probably hear a ton of recommendations for:

HK
Onkyo
Denon
Sony ES
Marantz
Pioneer Elite

Just do some prelim research and figure out what features you want at whichever particular budget.

 

[ChrisLazarko]

Don't forget Yamaha Ernest.

I vote the HK though. I love my HK (even though it just broke tonight). They are great recievers and will put out more than enough power to drive anything.

It also depends on your budget, for an entry level you might want to look at a refurb. AVR-125, for something a little better, the AVR-225, 230, 325, 330, etc. it keeps going up.

As for a bad reciever, the only think I can think of off the top of my head is the Sony line. There ES line is alright but there normal line is just plain awful. I've had those recievers and they constantly have annoying problems that drive you nuts...

Good luck with your decision.

 

[Eddie Clark]

I there much of a difference in sound qualitly as you move up the HK line (ie. 125 to 225)

Cheers,
-Eddie

 

[ChrisLazarko]

No not really. It's basically some extra features and some extra power as well.

 

[Evan M.]

This is a very difficult question to answer. You need to first figure out what you NEED in a receiver ie.. How many inputs, size of your room, type of sound you want, will it be for music or home theater or both, if both, what percentage for each, do you need second zone, or vidio up-conversion, would you want to eventually move up to 6.1 or 7.1? etc, etc....
We can give you suggestions of what we have heard or what we prefer but ultimately you need to ask yourself what you want the receiver to be used for, what features you want and don't want. Once you come up with that go to some websites to see which receiver has what you are looking for, then ask us if we have any experiences with those. Take a lot of what we say as maybe a bit biased because we all have our preferences. Then listen, listen, lesten and listen some more. Let your ears be the judge. Good luck to you.

 

[Eddie Clark]

I went out and listen to the HK AVR-125 and the AVR-230

I liked both a lot. Typically how is HK for music and theatre? Is it better for one than the other? My usage is 60% music 40% theatre. My living room is kind of open... but it's about 16x24
Will there be any power issues with the avr-125 running 125 watt speakers?

Cheers,
-Eddie

 

[JamesGL]

For a fairly large room like that, the AVR 230 conservatively honest 50w pch maybe just barely enough.