New AV reciever

Wizzfizz

Wizzfizz

Wizzfizz

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Hi all,

So my Onkyo 876 went pop this morning and lost all sound (house stinks). It was on its' last legs for quite some time with the random freezing of picture and clicking it was making, not to mention the volume knob not working.

So I'm in the market for a replacement, budget is ~£500

I understand Onkyo are no more? So looking at alternatives. Would like some decent features including including DLNA and 6 HDMI inputs and other bells and whistles. The receiver will be used in a 5.1 setup. What should I be looking at for this budget?

Speakers that i'll be using:

Monitor Audio RS6 (L&R), RSLCR (Centre), RSFX x 2 (rears)

Will be using on an old Kuro 9th gen (1080p) until later in the year, then will be upgrading to OLED


Cheers
 
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Wizzfizz said:
Not much at all but might try in the future when I upgrade the TV. Not gamed for years on the current setup
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So your options are either a second hand HDMI 2.0 receiver, as you’ll get better value for money, or wait until a bug free 2.1 based receiver shows up in your budget.


Since you seldom game, I’d be tempted to go for something like a second hand MRX 520 or a NAD T758 V3 :)
 
MrRockliffe said:
So your options are either a second hand HDMI 2.0 receiver, as you’ll get better value for money, or wait until a bug free 2.1 based receiver shows up in your budget.


Since you seldom game, I’d be tempted to go for something like a second hand MRX 520 or a NAD T758 V3 :)
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The other thing I'd consider is that I'd guess the next gen ie the x800 series of denon or whatever yamaha do will have more than just one 2.1 port (they should as there must be a growing number of people with more than one device now).
 
Wizzfizz said:
My budget is around ~£500, you're recommending a £1000+ receiver...
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To be fair, whether you bought the 876 new, or on clearance, or second-hand, it doesn't change the fact that this was originally a £1000 receiver (roughly £1400 in today's money), and pretty much at the top of its peer group at the time (140W/ch, THX Select Plus2, ISF video calibration etc).

In the 14-or-so years since its launch technology definitely hasn't stood still. HDMI has gone through several evolutionary steps. Audio has changed to include sound from above. Streaming and app control are now common.

In the same space of time some things have almost vanished: The most significant of these are pre-outs and multichannel inputs. They were common on £600 amps back in the day and even on some cheaper units.

The other thing that has vanished is choice. Of the mainstream brands, Onkyo and Pioneer have evaporated. Sony is in hibernation. Marantz has shifted even further up the price scale. Yamaha and Denon's ranges are much smaller than in previous years.

You have speakers capable of great resolution. Do you think that today's £500 AV Receiver can hold a candle sonically to your 876 when it was running properly?

Maybe now @hornetstinger's suggestion makes more sense?
 
Yeah that Onkyo was a stonking AV amp, when they used to make amps properly.

That Denon 2700 is a low tier model. To get similar performance of that Onkyo you'd be looking at the 6700
 
lucid said:
snip
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I understand what you're saying and that. But in 2008 I paid £550 for the 876 new with 5 years warranty from Richer Sounds. It certainly wasn't being sold in a lot of places at £1000, even if it was an amp in that price range. Not sure where to start looking really, but I'm not in the market to spend a grand on an amp, just close to what I outlined in the OP.

Doesn't seem like a lot of choice really these days, or it's just a bad time to buy.
 
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Wizzfizz said:
I understand what you're saying and that. But in 2008 I paid £550 for the 876 new with 5 years warranty from Richer Sounds. It certainly wasn't being sold in a lot of places at £1000, even if it was an amp in that price range. Not sure where to start looking really, but I'm not in the market to spend a grand on an amp, just close to what I outlined in the OP.

Doesn't seem like a lot of choice really these days, or it's just a bad time to buy.
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Bit of both I suspect.
 
Wizzfizz said:
I understand what you're saying and that. But in 2008 I paid £550 for the 876 new with 5 years warranty from Richer Sounds. It certainly wasn't being sold in a lot of places at £1000, even if it was an amp in that price range. Not sure where to start looking really, but I'm not in the market to spend a grand on an amp, just close to what I outlined in the OP.

Doesn't seem like a lot of choice really these days, or it's just a bad time to buy.
Click to expand...

Are you mixing up your years? Did you buy the Onkyo in 2008 or 2009? In 2008, the 876's were £1000. They dropped in price pretty fast due to a overheating issue. But, they were still £600+ in 2009. So, even if you did buy in 2009, you did very well to get one for £550 with a 5 year warranty.

I only remember the prices because I was bought a receiver in 2009 from Richersounds and I picked a Pioneer SC-LX71. One of my choices was the Onkyo 876. £650 was the cheapest they would go with a 5 year warranty. EDIT: But I am pretty useless at negotiating!! :p

What Lucid said is right, the Onkyo 876 was released as a high end receiver. Same as the Pioneer SC-LX71. The receivers that are available now in the £500 range aren't close to been as good as those. Features like Music Streaming, HDMI 2.1 etc. have become more important than sound quality in todays's mid range receivers.

The reason I am posting, is that I went through this just before Christmas when I decided to upgrade my Pioneer SC-LX71 to something that supported HDMI 2.1. My budget, the same as yours, around £500. I tested receivers from Yamaha, Marantz and Denon that were in my price range, including the 2700H that was suggested already. They all sounded like crap compared to what I had already. I was kind of shocked at how poor they were. In the end, I had to change my budget, and I purchased a £1000 receiver, the Denon X3700H. And it still doesn't sound as good as the Pioneer I had.

If you don't care about 4K, gaming or anything like that and just want as good as sound quality as you can get for £500, then your only option is the second hand market. But, I see you are going to be buying an OLED TV later this year and gaming might be on the cards, and maybe you might want to add two dolby atmos speakers down the line. Then, your £500 budget isn't going to be enough. You might get something at that price second hand next year. Not sure you can wait that long though.
 
melmac said:
Are you mixing up your years? Did you buy the Onkyo in 2008 or 2009? In 2008, the 876's were £1000. They dropped in price pretty fast due to a overheating issue. But, they were still £600+ in 2009. So, even if you did buy in 2009, you did very well to get one for £550 with a 5 year warranty.

I only remember the prices because I was bought a receiver in 2009 from Richersounds and I picked a Pioneer SC-LX71. One of my choices was the Onkyo 876. £650 was the cheapest they would go with a 5 year warranty. EDIT: But I am pretty useless at negotiating!! :p
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Yes I bought it in 2008 from RS for £550 with the 5 year, as I bought my Kuro 9th shortly after :)
 
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Wizzfizz said:
I understand what you're saying and that. But in 2008 I paid £550 for the 876 new with 5 years warranty from Richer Sounds. It certainly wasn't being sold in a lot of places at £1000, even if it was an amp in that price range. Not sure where to start looking really, but I'm not in the market to spend a grand on an amp, just close to what I outlined in the OP.
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IDK the circumstances of your individual purchase, and it's not really important. All I'm saying is where this was in the pecking order, and where you need to be in today's market not to go backwards too far.

If £500 is your budget today then £500 is your budget.

Working the numbers backward 14 years, that's like spending something around £350 on an AV receiver back then. Would you have put a £350 AVR with your MA Silvers?

Wizzfizz said:
Doesn't seem like a lot of choice really these days, or it's just a bad time to buy.
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The market has changed a lot. In 2008 it was still riding the crest of the wave from DVD and the beginnings of HD with Sky, BD and HD-DVD. Aside from Yam YSPs, soundbars as a market didn't really exist because tellies still had some space for reasonable speakers. Streaming didn't exist.

The economy was just feeling the early tremors of the Sub-Prime crash but the full effects hadn't really filtered through.

Contrast to today; more that a decade of austerity plus Brexit chaos and on top of that 18 months of Covid as a massive financial bombshell.

Yeah, not much product choice because the whole world is somewhere different than anyone imagined in 2008. This is our reality.
 
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melmac said:
Are you mixing up your years? Did you buy the Onkyo in 2008 or 2009? In 2008, the 876's were £1000. They dropped in price pretty fast due to a overheating issue. But, they were still £600+ in 2009. So, even if you did buy in 2009, you did very well to get one for £550 with a 5 year warranty.

I only remember the prices because I was bought a receiver in 2009 from Richersounds and I picked a Pioneer SC-LX71. One of my choices was the Onkyo 876. £650 was the cheapest they would go with a 5 year warranty. EDIT: But I am pretty useless at negotiating!! :p

What Lucid said is right, the Onkyo 876 was released as a high end receiver. Same as the Pioneer SC-LX71. The receivers that are available now in the £500 range aren't close to been as good as those. Features like Music Streaming, HDMI 2.1 etc. have become more important than sound quality in todays's mid range receivers.

The reason I am posting, is that I went through this just before Christmas when I decided to upgrade my Pioneer SC-LX71 to something that supported HDMI 2.1. My budget, the same as yours, around £500. I tested receivers from Yamaha, Marantz and Denon that were in my price range, including the 2700H that was suggested already. They all sounded like crap compared to what I had already. I was kind of shocked at how poor they were. In the end, I had to change my budget, and I purchased a £1000 receiver, the Denon X3700H. And it still doesn't sound as good as the Pioneer I had.

If you don't care about 4K, gaming or anything like that and just want as good as sound quality as you can get for £500, then your only option is the second hand market. But, I see you are going to be buying an OLED TV later this year and gaming might be on the cards, and maybe you might want to add two dolby atmos speakers down the line. Then, your £500 budget isn't going to be enough. You might get something at that price second hand next year. Not sure you can wait that long though.
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Out of interest, what's the difference between lower and higher end relievers? I always assumed the features were the main difference (I know the whatage tends to go up a bit), but I thought it was stuff like 7.1, 9.1 or higher. I know the higher end ones get better adussessy but I though that was mainly how much resolution there was for the sub.
 
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