• Welcome to The Audio Annex! If you have any trouble logging in or signing up, please contact 'admin - at - theaudioannex.com'. Enjoy!
  • HTTPS (secure web browser connection) has been enabled - just add "https://" to the start of the URL in your address bar, e.g. "https://theaudioannex.com/forum/"
  • Congratulations! If you're seeing this notice, it means you're connected to the new server. Go ahead and post as usual, enjoy!
  • I've just upgraded the forum software to Xenforo 2.0. Please let me know if you have any problems with it. I'm still working on installing styles... coming soon.

New Receiver needed

jamhead

jamhead

Well-Known Member
and I haven't looked to see what was out there for a long time. This is for my family room. Very imperfect, casual viewing / rare movie watching room. Back ground music listening. (I have my dedicated room for the serious stuff). I have a 2.1 setup, with Klipsch Reference and SVS sub and currently an older 1080i RPTV. When the time comes for a new TV, may go 4K if prices are good, but knowing my cheap ass, will go 1080p since it's the family room.

Anyone have a receiver they like a lot, or that has been reliable? My current Onkyo bit the audio bullet and is no longer producing sound. Refurbished unit from Accessories4less.com and lasted maybe 2-3 years and cost 250 bucks.

If i decide to buy a different unit, would like to keep the cost down as much as possible. 4-6 HDMI inputs....that's about it.

I would appreciate any suggestions or opinions on units that have worked well for you. Thank you.
 
I have an Onkyo Pre-Pro that's been in have shop twice and certainly don't have any plans to buy another Onkyo product. I retired an old Pioneer VSX-816 to the garage where it's still going strong despite being in dusty and humid conditions. I've also had a Pioneer VSX-1018 in the living room for four years or so trouble free. I'd certainly have Pioneer on my list if I were shopping.
 
Xgm3 said:
I would check Yamaha receivers.
Click to expand...
My current is an RX-V 765, 5 HDMI inputs (iirc) and it gets clicked off and on at least 3 times a day (the most stressing thing electronics see), for 6, 7 years now.
It replaced a Yamaha integrated amp/tuner/cassette deck that I've had since 1979 (and still do, and they still work).
 
I have a very inexpensive Yamaha receiver in my secondary system and absolutely love the thing. It sounds way better than it should for the roughly $200 I spent on it and also has a very respectable feature set, including auto-calibration.

When it comes to TV sets, 1080p is disappearing very quickly and 4K is getting really cheap. This is happening incredibly fast, so I highly recommend making sure that your new receiver supports HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2. If it doesn't, you will end up having to replace it. Fortunately, that is pretty much standard in all of the new receivers.
 
I'll echo the praise of Yamaha. I have 2 Yamaha AVRs and a Denon. The Denon is the highest up the food chain but the Yamaha's are less finicky and they sound great too. My Denon runs into HDMI handshake issues and neither of the Yamaha units have had those issues. I eventually want to get a higher end Yamaha for my basement PJ setup.
 
Thank you for your input everyone. As of now, I'm leaning towards the Yamaha RX-V481, which is $400 at amazon. It's 300 at accessories4less, but would take a week to show. So, for 100 bucks, I can get it by the weekend, and have an extra year of warranty. I never buy new, but may this time. It has 4 HDMI inputs, all of which are HDCP 2.2 (thanks Haywood) and seems to have more than what I need. The Music cast thing is interesting, but not really relevant. I was hoping to pay 250 bucks or so, but for that coin, looks like I'd be upgrading again if I go with a 4K TV (I hope this won't happen for many years, but my RPTV is almost 12 years old now).

I looked at Pioneer and they look good, but the Yamaha may win out.
 
So, how many HDMI 2.0a connections do you think are needed? I'm looking at two receivers now, one is last year's Yamaha RX-V679 with 3 HDMI inputs that are HDCP 2.2 and one output (with 6 total HDMI inputs) and can upconvert to 4K. The other, this year's lower end Yamaha has 4 HDMI inputs with HDCP 2.2. Same price for both. A Denon has 5 HDCP 2.2 inputs. I'm thinking, potential future, TV Subscription box (if I go back to obtaining a subscription one day), a Streaming device (Roku), a Blu ray player.....what else is there that I would want to hook up? If I upgrade to 4K one day, I could just buy a playstation or similar to take care of Blu ray/gaming piece (I don't "game"). Am I missing something? Thanks.
 
I'm thinking a minimum of 3-4 HDCP 2.2 compliant inputs plus 1-2 extra. We already know what's out there now and who knows what may come out that will appeal to you.
 
Thanks guys. Overall thoughts: it's nice. I have not had time to play with it; calibrate, etc., but first thought is that is has nice functionality and seems easy to use. I'll try the YPAO calibration just to see what it does, but will probably end up setting the sub up manually.
I don't know if the Onkyo was defective from the start, but the Yamaha does have a less aggressive sound. Could be one of their DSP programs working in the background too. Like I said, I haven't had time to really look into it. The sub is currently waaay too low., but I may calibrate this weekend and see overall what I think. What I do like: 1) It's not the Onkyo 2) The DSP modes may be nice for certain movies as my system is 2 channel 3) On the fly adjustments, trim levels, etc. The Onkyo had no trim levels and had to go into the menu to deal with that.

So, overall nice. Have not had time to really play with it. Will like the functionality and it actually sounds better than the Onkyo, for whatever reason. Good buy for $400 bucks.
 
I had a similar experience with the calibration on my Yamaha. The speakers were dead on the money. The sub needed a little tweaking. Mine also replaced an Onkyo and also sounded better.
 
Yamaha has a rich wealth of DSP programs, but I've actually disabled the feature for the most part; I figure the high-paid mixers, producers and mastering Lords will provide the right amount of sweetening for me.
One exception: I've applied cathedral 5.1 settings to stereo recordings of male monk choirs, and the effect is great. YMMV.
 
Botch said:
Yamaha has a rich wealth of DSP programs, but I've actually disabled the feature for the most part; I figure the high-paid mixers, producers and mastering Lords will provide the right amount of sweetening for me.
One exception: I've applied cathedral 5.1 settings to stereo recordings of male monk choirs, and the effect is great. YMMV.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing when I was running my Yammie. It had a plethora of processing, not to be confused with a plethora of piñatas, but I generally deferred to direct mode (I think that is what it was called) when listening to music, or straight Dolby 5.1 or DTS for movies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top