Secondary receiver (1 Viewer)

[Rick Westfall]

I'll be moving my home theater setup to a different room but would still like a decent surround setup in my family room. I'm looking for suggestions on "best bang for the buck" on a 5 channel receiver. Remember, I don't need high end HT, just casual watching and music listening.

Thanks
Rick

 

[Dick Knisely]

IMHO in that circumstance there's almost no way you could go wrong with a simple Home-Theatre-in-a-Box solution. I like Onkyo gear and folks here seem to have had good experiences with their HTIB combinations. Another place I've had excellent, personal experience with is Cambridge Soundworks (www.hifi.com) and they have several packages, tho' Onkyo seems to have a slightly better bang-for-buck evaluation.

 

[Rick Westfall]

Hadn't even thought of that. Thanks for the input. On the off hand chance that I can keep my existing speakers in my family room and only need a receiver, would you still recommend Onkyo or go with something else?

 

[Dick Knisely]

Maybe... depends on the speakers, the room, your budget and exactly what specs you'd be looking for. Onkyo is a good brand, but there are lots of good AVRs out there in every price range. At the moment I own receivers by Onkyo, Panasonic and Denon. I'm happy with each of them -- they serve my purpose and the budget I set for each. Brand is much less important to me than value and I've "outgrown" the need for the best available stuff (and don't listen to anything my wife might say on that subject!).

 

[Philip Hamm]

best bang for the buck is in older used stuff. I just got an Integra DTR 7 for a little over $300. It's perfect for my 5.1 only room and worlds better than anything new or refurbished in that price range.

 

[Rick Westfall]

Did you pick it up locally or do you have a reputable source online that you used?

Rick

 

[Philip Hamm]

I put a WTB post here in the Hardware for sale forum and got a nice fellow HTFer who had it taking up space in his closet email me.