Best Budget Second Hand Av Reciever

ishamy

ishamy

ishamy

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Hi all looking at buying an Av-Recevier for the living room, don't have slot to spend on it budget no more than £100 so has to be second hand. Been looking at second hand Onkyo TX SR605's.

Is there anything else other than Onkyo's I should be looking at for that price. Hdmi connections are a must and 5.1, I know the 605 is 7.1 but that's not essential. I'm going to use a set of Sharpe 5.0 speakers and then build up on them. Infact will the stereo speakers be ok?

Thanks
 
The 605 was the first AV receiver in its class to have HDMI inputs and HD audio decoding at under £500. It was a good 12-18 months before the competition had anything to offer as a viable alternative. Because of its age the chances are it will be the lowest cost HD Decoding receiver you can buy second-hand.
 
Ok cool thanks for the info on that, how about the product it self, is it any good? As for the Denon going by what's out there which is very little of them, it's bait pricey :(
 
605s are generally good. There is an issue though with the occasional HDMI socket failure. It's also a problem on the 606.

Denon 1910/1911 pricey compared to what?

The 1910 is only just 2 years old as a model launch. The 1911 is last years being only just recently replaced by the 1912. These are comparable to Onkyo 608/609. It's unlikely you'll find any of these in the sub £100 s/h market unless faulty or damaged.
 
Thanks for yet, yes I didn't realize the model dates when they were recommended. So yes was comparing to the Onkyo 605 prices.

Will have to do a bit of digging around I think and try and get a good deal on something. What are Yamaha's like in term of AV? I see a few people mentioning them, what models would I be looking at around £100-£150 in terms of second hand, when I type it in the numbers are so confusing!
 
This is a quick and dirty roundup of some of the usual suspects when it comes to amps with HD audio decoding.

I've set it out in date ranges by year and in price ranges. The dates are rough guides, and the prices are List/SRPs rather than discounted typical selling prices.

The list isn't exhaustive. There are products I'll have missed off as the market became more crowded. I've also excluded niche and premium brands such as Marantz, NAD and Harman Kardon because they're much later to market with competitively spec'd product.

AmpswithHDMIHDAudio.jpg
 
If you are prepared to look away from the usual brands, Harmon Hardon is worth a look. I'm flying in the face of popular opinion here but Denon was a let down for me.

I've got an AVR255 and I chose it at the time because it was on special. It was supposed to be a stop gap before the Denon 1910 was released. I bought the 1910 and was frankly disgusted by the build quality compared to the HK - the Denon felt cheap and plasticky. The onscreen GUI for the Denon was equally horrific compared to the HK. Where the HK has a reasonably pleasing menu system, the Denons makes Teletext look sophisticated.

From the sound a vision point of view, the HK is softer than the Denon and I'm not completely sure if I didn't like the sound and vision of the Denon over the HK but the build quality and GUI had me packing the Denon away after 20 minutes.

Only thing the HK doesn't have is Net capabilities and the only reason why I'd consider looking at a newer model - I'd consider Yamaha or Onkyo. Because nobody considers the HK AVR255 its doesn't command a high price on ebay or if still available in stores but it really is a viable alternative.

I'd not consider Denon again.
 
Thanks for that, yes your right I hadn't even considered HK. In-fact I didn't even realize they did them as I haven't seen anyone speaking about them.

At the moment the speakers I have are rated as follows

Centre - 4 ohms
Fronts - 6 ohms
Rears - 8 ohms

Will these be ok to use as they have different ratings?

Also if I go for the Sony STRDH510, will I notice a huge loss in sound quality not getting HD sound from Blu Rays? If it makes any difference its a PS3 that I'll be using.
 
Well I got a little advice on AV-Forums not t ogo with my speakers as the center could cause soem problems wit hthe amp being rated at onl 4 ohms.

Think I've made my mind up, streched my budget to £200 and going to go for the Yamaha YHT294, Amp and speaker package. That way I'll get everything I need, yes it doesnt do HD audio but as far as I can tell I won't miss out as the PS3 can take care of the HD audio.

The only other thing is Zone 2 that I would lose out on rather than going with the second hand onkyo, but I have read a lot about hte HDMI borad playing up in these and I dont want to have to speand on repaires or a whole new amp after buuying.

Anyone see this as being a good option for me, or is there a better way to speand £200?
 
I don't believe you'll find a new enough s/h AV receiver with HD audio decoding and Z2 plus speakers to compete with the price of the Yamaha...but then again it's not exactly a fair fight. ;)

For HD Audio decoding amps:

5.1 Denon 1610 - £160 s/h @ AVForums

7.1 Onkyp 607 - £160 s/h @ AVForums

5.1 Sony STR-DH810 - £175 s/h @ AVForums

7.1 Sony STR-DG820 - £130 s/h @ AVForums

7.1 Denon AVR-1909 - £160 s/h @ AVForums​


Non-HD decoding amps with HDMI inputs (LPCM over HDMI)

7.1 Onkyo 576 - £140 s/h @ AVForums

7.1 SONY STRDA2400ES - £150 s/h @ AVForums​


Non-HD decoding amps without HDMI inputs

7.1 Yamaha DSP-AX757SE - £100 s/h @ AVForums​


When new, most of the s/h amps above sold for £300 - £500 and all are a step up in terms of quality and performance compared to the basic Yam kit.
 
Nice one thank you very much for that wee list, every day I still get a smile on this forum with the sheer helpful ness of the people on it.

I now have no need for zone 2, just got a gear4 house part 2 for nothing with no psu. Had one of those multi adapters that has worked with it so the kitchen now has some good tunes going on :)

Hmm now to decide on what to go for amp wise.... :D
 
Cool well the Yamaha has gone out of stock since last night :( so I've managed to find an Onkyo HT-5305 package at well above my original budget £250 but think I'm going to go with that now.

This has turned into an almighty strumash lol hopefully this will go down good and as far as I'm aware it comes with cables needed :)

Anyone on here with this package?

Edit: Just ordered :) hope its worth it! Will get pics up of before and afters soon aswell!
 
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Just took delivery and opened the box at lunch time, everything looks amazing. However the sub is nearly as big and my PC :eek: did not expect that! Now I now what the true meaning of 'Items not to scale' really means.

Can't wait to get this up and running tonight! :D
 
I know you've bought now, but I'll say it anyway...I got an Onkyo 605 for ~£120 a while back from AV Forums Classifieds. It's got two HDMI inputs, decodes Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA, has Audyssey microphone signal adjustments, and has been faultlessly reliable so far for me with plenty of power for a moderate home cinema system. It also allows you to bi-amp the front two side channels as an alternative to using 7.1. I'm very pleased with it.

Downsides are that it is very big and hot.
 
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