Help choosing an entry level av receiver.

khrall

khrall

khrall

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In the next few months I'll be looking at moving over from my old 32" CRT to a 42" Plasma (Probably the Panny G10 unless the V10 prices lowers by then).

Now whilst this part has been approved by the misses, the BD/DVD player front is still open to discussion.

Currently we have a Panasonic all in one home theather system, whilst that has been great, the boy in me wants new toys and I want to start down the seperates route. I've looked at the all in one BD packages and I don't overly like any of the 5.1 setups that I've seen available.

What I'm after is AV receiver, Speakers and BD player. I would like the AV receiver to have HD audio, although currently it would only be the BD player that would use it. (Keeping Sky+ until more HD channels available, then will upgrade that.)

I also might upgrade my 360 to an elite, so it would require at least 3/4 HDMI sockets as I'd like to keep one free for futher purchases.

I've been checking avforums the last few days, but most of it is over my head, having never been down the seperates route before, there is an overwhealming amount of information to take in.

So can anyone help me find what I'm looking for?
I'm looking at £500-600 (£150 speakers, £100 BD player, £250-£350 receiver) although cheaper is always better especially as I won't be compairing it to anything I have had before!
 
The 606 is hard to come by and you'd probably need to get one second hand since Onkyo have just released the 607 model.

For speakers do you want floorstanders or bookshelf speakers?

Only other thing to note as well, with your amp would you prefere to have only one HDMI cable going out, but use alternate input sources?

If your 360 doesn't have HDMI then you'd need to connect via component.
I presume you're connecting Sky+ via component as well?

If you want to have two component sources in, but have HDMI out. You'll need to get an amp that does HDMI up conversion.

This is a deal breaker for me, and means that my budget is damn near instantly £499 as there are few amps below that budget that do this.

I'll be doing the following in future months.
Plugging into an Onkyo 607
Sky HD (HDMI)
Xbox 360 (component)
PS3 (HDMI)
Media Centre (HDMI + Optical Out)

From the Amp into a Panny G10
1 HDMI cable.


Speaker wise I was looking at getting a set of Wharfedale Vardus VR400's
http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/product_id/4207
£150 and they've had decent reviews for the price - not the best speakers in the world of course but a decent budget entry.
 
nikebee said:
For speakers do you want floorstanders or bookshelf speakers?
Click to expand...

I'm looking at bookshelf speakers due to size limitations and positioning.

nikebee said:
Only other thing to note as well, with your amp would you prefere to have only one HDMI cable going out, but use alternate input sources?

If your 360 doesn't have HDMI then you'd need to connect via component.
I presume you're connecting Sky+ via component as well?

If you want to have two component sources in, but have HDMI out. You'll need to get an amp that does HDMI up conversion.

This is a deal breaker for me, and means that my budget is damn near instantly £499 as there are few amps below that budget that do this.
Click to expand...

Single HDMI cable to the TV would be the preferrence.
Although my current 360 will be in "my office", the addition of an Elite would be later on. My current 360 would only be used for drunkern party nights (e.g. Lipz/GH/RB etc) not a permenant feature. So I can live with the extra cables going to the TV and receiver for a night/weekend.

I would like my Sky+ connected via the receiver to the TV though, so only 1 component source in. However, if I can save a big pile of cash by just having the optical out connected to the receiver and having the video via scart to the TV, so be it, as I am intending to upgrade to Sky HD at some point anyway.

Having finally convinced my girlfriend that we need a ~£1000 TV was hard enough, I just couldn't justify spending an extra £500 on the AV receiver without some serious hard work in the relationship department or lying and hiding reciepts ;)

Her: "Whats wrong with the current one? It still shows a picture"
Me: "Buuuuuttttt it's new and shiney"
Her: "Ok, but after you decorate the whole house"
Me: <Smile> <Grimble> <Smile>
 
Haha I'm in entirely the same boat mate don't worry.

It's taken me long enough to convince my girlfriend that we should move from out 26" LCD TV to a Panny G10 (was looking at the Z80 before).

I keep telling her that on my list of gadgets to own, I only have...
42" Panny G10
Onkyo 607 Amp
2.1 Speaker System (possibly 5.1 in the future)


And that's all I have left to buy (plus Sky HD+ ;))
 
nikebee said:
Problem is that his budget is £350, the 607 is £499 - if you can see it somewhere for that price then let me know as I'm in the market for one myself :p
Click to expand...

Opps sorry was scrolling fast and caught the £500-600 of the opening post. Take a look at the Sony STR-DG820 it has four HDMI in and one out, seen it as low as £242.72 try ebay.
 
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^TANK^ said:
Opps sorry was scrolling fast and caught the £500-600 of the opening post. Take a look at the Sony STR-DG820 it has four HDMI in and one out, seen it as low as £242.72 try ebay.
Click to expand...

I've seen the Sony STR-DH800 Receiver recommended on more than one occassion over on avforums.
Does it look any good? What features would I be lacking?
 
I've got an 820 hooked up to MA BR5's with a sub and Ma centre and it sounds great. Only feature it misses IMO is pre-outs. But at the price, there is nothing better you can buy new IMO.
 
chad said:
yamaha rxv 465 £299;)

new model just out last week
Click to expand...

Ive just bought one of these to replace my aging Sony STR-DB1080 which its self was a 5 star £500 receiver in its day and I'm very happy with it, one you get past the spring
clips on the surround speaker terminals in ain't bad at all.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I've been looking more at the technical aspects of it (with limited knowledge!).

I can't justify spending an extra £200 on a receiver with has analogue upscaling, even though I would like it.

So I'm looking at the following:
Sony STR-DH800 (soon to be released upgrade to the STR-DG820).
Yamaha RXV465.

Any other sub £300 recommendations? As it possibly won't be for a few months yet (due to the whip and thumb print in my head) are there any future releases I should consider?
 
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