The old is becoming new again!

[Deacon]

And what I mean by that is receivers and preamps are becoming 'nerd-gasmic' again. I used to love the old early HT receivers that had tons of inputs, triggers, jacks, and various other connection ports. Then HDMI came out and many of the legacy analog inputs vanished. The backs of AV receivers became neat and featureless.

This is the Denon flagship A1H and I can see with the advent of overhead channels etc. and HDMI being used for audio etc. the AV receiver is starting to look like organized chaos again!

I like it!

 

[Botch]

There's also a growing market for old 1970s receivers that you used to be able to pick up for $50.
(and Randy the CheapAudioGuy just did a video at the obscene prices ($1,400) that some prerecorded cassettes are getting)

 

[Haywood]

I'm moving away from AVRs for anything but my home theater in favor of some of the really nice two-channel gear from upstarts like Fosi Audio. I am actually a bit peeved with my AVR at the moment, because my pre-outs died off one at a time until I had to plug all my speakers directly into the receiver and could no longer use my amp. It is fine for now. I don't have the cash to drop on a new AVR and I probably won't unless something else breaks. I'm finding that even as a guy who owns a couple thousand movies, I'm spending way more time listening to two-channel audio or listening to books than I do watching movies.