CHUD.com Community › Forums › DVD, HOME THEATER, & GADGETS › Chewer Tech › Help me find a new Receiver
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Help me find a new Receiver

post #1 of 14
9/14/09 at 6:03pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks to everyone for the help in choosing a new television. Now, I think it may be time to update ye' old receiver, but am not sure. I have dolby digital 5.1, dts, and a myriad of optical inputs on my current set-up, but no hdmi. I typically run music through either bypass mode .. maybe once in a while I'll use a sound mode ... but basically everything else is dolby digital or dts. Have receivers come a long way in the last 8-10 years? Am I missing out without 7.1 sound? Sometimes I get the feeling that receiver technology is often 2 steps forward, one step back. Some Denom stereos I heard back in the mid 90s offered the best "bypass" sound for CDs and records I'd ever heard.

**Having to replace my speakers is a nightmare I never want to consider. Those cost enough they were considered a near-lifetime purchase at the time I bought them.
Reply
post #2 of 14
9/14/09 at 6:34pm
What's your price range?
Reply
post #3 of 14
9/14/09 at 6:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by donteatnachos View Post
what's your price range?
$1.99-$999.99.
Reply
post #4 of 14
9/14/09 at 7:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord View Post
$1.99-$999.99.
I like my Onkyo 606. The Onkyo 600-800 series (whatever they are this year) generally offer a pretty good price/performance ratio, and people over at AVS Forum were generally happy with them back when I was looking 18 months ago.

Mine has an intermittent buzz/hum that was pretty bad when I bought it, but has pretty much gone away. I think that problem may be gone with this year's models.
Reply
post #5 of 14
9/14/09 at 8:26pm
My Pioneer VSX-1018 is a wondrous piece of machinery. Highly recommended. I think a new version 1019? is avlb these days for around $500. It has great power, 7.1, decodes the new DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD masters, HDMI passthru, etc. In all honesty though, you can't go wrong with any $400-$800 Pioneer, Onkyo or Denon receivers. Just make sure it has the features you want. For example, Pioneer has a fantastic little microphone included that will auto-set your speakers. The Denons have a great feature that limits volume when commercials try and jack it up. The Sony ES has a great GUI.

If you have a BR player the new audio codecs on modern receivers are incredible.
Reply
post #6 of 14
9/14/09 at 9:14pm
I'll second/third most of what is being said. When I researched this a year or two ago, it really seemed like Onkyo was considered top of the line with many Pioneer, Denon, and even some Sonys coming in right behind it.

I ended up not wanting to spend too much at the time (figuring I'd upgrade later when I had a real job, and this receiver would be attached to my secondary system), so I went with a Sony STRDG720 7.1 for $200-250. I've had a great experience with it, but I'll have to admit not knowing much about the "bypass" sound issues you are worried about, but if you are looking for a cheaper option, I'd recommend it (or the 820/920 which are in the same line but with more/better features).

It seems that price isn't a huge issue, though, so I imagine you'll find more of what you need in the $500-1000 range.
Reply
post #7 of 14
9/15/09 at 5:34pm
I've been looking into the Onkyo HT-S6100 system myself. Being able to handle all the newfangled codecs + upconverting is a must for me.
Reply
post #8 of 14
9/15/09 at 6:35pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all the info.

Seems like I don't know about this "DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD masters." I must research. Are dolby digital and DTS now obsolete? If so, I really need to upgrade.

Onkyo, Denom, and maybe some Sony's. Hmmm...is there much difference between a 300-500 receiver and a 500-700?
Reply
post #9 of 14
9/15/09 at 6:36pm
Overlord, sounds like you've got some high end speakers, the biggest issue you'll probably have to deal with is that the receiver has the power supply to drive your speakers. As you get lower impedance (and with nicer speakers they're usually 4 ohm) it takes more current to drive them. Lower end receivers won't have the power to push those speakers to their full ability and they'll end up sounding worse than they should. I'd look up on a site like AVS Forum or whatever what people would recommend as the required wattage to drive your speakers and start there.

The only other thing you'll really want to worry about is with HDMI it's much easier for lag to be introduced into your video setup (which I generally only notice in Rock Band) so you might want to see if you can find a receiver that has decent reviews indicating that.

ETA: DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD are both lossless formats. This means all 5.1 channels use compressed audio that maintains all of the original PCM wave data (unlike traditional DTS and Dolby Digital which use a lossy compression like MP3, AAC, etc.).
Reply
post #10 of 14
9/15/09 at 6:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Overlord View Post
Thanks for all the info.

Seems like I don't know about this "DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD masters." I must research. Are dolby digital and DTS now obsolete? If so, I really need to upgrade.
Well... if you're going to go Blu Ray and all that, there's a whole other/newer set of codecs required to play the best formats. So... yes, might as well upgrade.
Reply
post #11 of 14
9/15/09 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dontEATnachos View Post
ETA: DTS-HD and Dolby Digital HD are both lossless formats. This means all 5.1 channels use compressed audio that maintains all of the original PCM wave data (unlike traditional DTS and Dolby Digital which use a lossy compression like MP3, AAC, etc.).
Well, that sounds really important. I didn't realize that DTS and Dolby Digital were compressing the shit out of my sound.

**The STRDG720 sounds like a pretty good player on a budget, though it feels weird to "upgrade" to a system that costs about 40% what the one I'm replacing did.
Reply
post #12 of 14
9/15/09 at 8:20pm
I'd actually recommend not getting the Sony. No receiver that is sub-$300 new will have the power to drive a nice set of speakers well. I'd recommend something closer to the Onkyo 607 (which I have and am generally pretty happy with). Replacing a $5-600 receiver with one of those Sony's will not sound better even if it can handle lossless audio simply because the receiver will be struggling to drive your speakers.

Like I said before, if you have a genuinely good set of speakers driving them with a crappy receiver will just make that money wasted. Even my crappy old Bose speakers sound a ton better with my new Onkyo compared to the old HTIB Yamaha receiver I had them hooked up to. I can't wait until next year when I can actually afford to buy an entire set of nice speakers.
Reply
post #13 of 14
9/15/09 at 10:23pm
I concur with nachos. I forgot you already had a nice set of speakers. I use smaller speakers that don't require as much power (probably a smaller room than you are in) so the 720 works great for me. With much nicer speakers you might need more power to drive them.
Reply
post #14 of 14
9/16/09 at 2:10pm
I'm quite impressed with my Onkyo. The speakers they came with aren't the greatest, but the sound quality is very good. I got the bottom of the line HTIB without HDMI but the audio quality coming from the PS3 is fantastic.

DTS-HD and Dolby Digital-HD use the same audio standard to pump out higher quality audio. Its basically invisible to your receiver, if it can handle either of those formats. Its similar to the difference between a 128 KB mp3 and a CD audio file.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Chewer Tech
CHUD.com Community › Forums › DVD, HOME THEATER, & GADGETS › Chewer Tech › Help me find a new Receiver