replacement AV receiver

[beachBOYken]

How do you judge if something is "decent".... What qualifies an AV amp as such?

Something that does the job Its intended to do, personally If I blind buy I go off user reviews and positive feedback on places like here.

I consider my Denon AVR "decent" it does the job I want it to do it has lots of features, good build quality and sounds great.

 

[lude1962]

Where did I say that?

Again you haven't read what was posted and are making stuff up.

I myself bought an AVR this week for £170.

I went second hand though and I got one that was worth £550 ish when it launched iirc. It's only 4 months old (old new stock).

People who buy £200 AVR brand new imo aren't peasants but unrealistic. The quality is obviously going to be poor.

your equating quality to price there isn't always a direct comparison between the two.

For example
AV 1 £250
AV 2 £500
av2 is identical to av1 but has extra functions that dont affect the quality but is twice the price.
Under your scoring scheme av1 would be rejected 'cos it was too cheap.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

your equating quality to price there isn't always a direct comparison between the two.

For example
AV 1 £250
AV 2 £500
av2 is identical to av1 but has extra functions that dont affect the quality but is twice the price.
Under your scoring scheme av1 would be rejected 'cos it was too cheap.

there isn't always but usually there is. obviously there are exceptions to this with companies such as BOSE, Beats, Apple, etc. Who market themselves towards those that don't have a clue.

If you go into richer sounds and say AV1 is £250 and AV2 is £450 you can pretty much guarantee AV2 will be better. it won't just have extra features but better components.

I know better than most that spending more doesn't mean better. I've even been ridiculed by people when I mention that the most someone should ever spend on a pair of headphones is £150-£300, because some on here have spend up to a thousand. After that price point your paying up to 10 times as much for sometimes no improvement what so ever or slight differences or a different type of sound.

A quality DAC/AMP for a pair of headphones however can run from £120 for a cheap chinese brand to £500 for a well known american or european name.

Like I said before that is a DAC/AMP for a pair of headphones which has to deal with a fraction of what an AVR does.

I have also posted roughly what the brand new costs are for a top end AVR, a mid range AVR and anything below that would be classified as budget.

People may very well say my £200 amp sounds decent, but have they ever listened to anything better?

I personally own about £2000-£3000 worth of headphones. So you could say I am experienced in terms of real audio quality. I have also tested multiple DAC-AMP's priced from £5 all the way up to £800. Anything below £50 just doesn't sound that good tbh there is a very noticeable difference jumping up. What's the best price point for a headphone dac/amp is probably £200, you could get a schiit modi/vali combo for around £200 which would give much more expensive setups a run for their money.

Sound will only sound as good as the weakest link in the chain.

Media - Source - DAC - AMP - Speakers/Headphones

So after all my extensive testing of headphones and DAC/AMP's. I just don't see how you could get a brand new even semi-decent AVR for £200. Second hand absolutely. FYI the AVR I bought is a Yamaha 677, for £170 posted. The original owner bought it brand new from richer sounds 4 months ago for £250 in a clearance sale.

So you maybe could get a semi-decent AVR for £200 in a clearance sale but not at regular RRP but that would be the only exception.

So for £200 I would strongly suggest buying second hand. AVR's have to deal with so many different things I don't see how 200 notes will get him anything remotely as good as the second hand market will.

 

[TheVoice]

People who buy £200 AVR brand new imo aren't peasants but unrealistic. The quality is obviously going to be poor.

Not at all. I can't remember what I paid for my Onkyo system (AVR and speakers included) but it was probably around £300. That was over 5 years ago now and it's still great. Some people are actually happy with what they can get at lower budgets, believe it or not.

 

[Steedie]

Yeah to say it will be poor at that price point is daft. "Poor" in comparison to a 5 figure set up, sure. But that doesn't mean it will be poor quality and sound rubbish.

My Yamaha 679, cost £350 on offer, normally around £400. But it's bloody brilliant, sounds fantastic and has lots of features to make it future proof

 

[The Deuce]

at that budget I'd go second hand personally.

i think a decent receiver costs around £1500 ish.

a mid end one costs around £500-£1000.

£200 isn't going to go far at all brand new.

at that price I'd say 2nd hand also, but you really don't need to pay £1500 for a good receiver.

I run a sony str 1050, does the job and could probably be picked up 2nd hand around the £200+ mark

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Not at all. I can't remember what I paid for my Onkyo system (AVR and speakers included) but it was probably around £300. That was over 5 years ago now and it's still great. Some people are actually happy with what they can get at lower budgets, believe it or not.

as i said before. what have you owned or heard in comparison to say it's great? it's all relative.

i could show a £200 tv to someone in africa and they would think it's some sort of magic because they know no better. to then say a £200 tv is great would be ignorant.

on the grand scale of things a £200 avr will always be budget and basic in an overall sense not that good.

it's the same with headphones. I could show you a pair that is amazing for £20 but it's not going to blow anyone away that owns a pair of HD600's or HD650's in fact they will think it sounds terrible.

you don't know any better until you own or sample better gear. is there anything wrong with £20 headphones, nope but you would be better off spending more.

you can get nowadays a pair of high end headphones for £200. mid end for £100-£150. there are huge differences between a budget pair, mid end and high end. i mean differences so big you would notice them within seconds of listening.

i personally don't think it's worth spending money on the low end as your always yearning to upgrade. high end is also usually far too pricey and best avoided. the best buys are in the mid range stuff or mid-high end if your budget allows.

I spent £390 on my setup. Not much more than what you spent but I'm willing to bet there is a considerable difference in quality that was worth paying the extra £100 for.

I got a Yamaha 677 (google reviews) and 2 monitor audio BX6's (google them and compare size and quality to your setup) and a centre speaker for £390 all in. I spent an additional £35 on wiring iirc. I may buy a sub in future.

It's far from a £10,000 setup. It's a mid range setup which offers absolutely stonking value for money imo. I may in future upgrade to a mid-high range if I feel it doesn't match the technicalities of say my Q701's, HD600's or HD700's.

 

[NexusK]

No one cares how much you spent on your set up. The OP's budget is £200, banging on about how yours is great because you spent X on Y and how his will be relatively crap helps absolutely no one.

 

[TheVoice]

as i said before. what have you owned or heard in comparison to say it's great? it's all relative.

My appraisal is based on the fact it was £300. I'm not comparing it to high-end installations for obvious reasons. "It's all relative" works both ways, a fact you seem to be unable to actually accept.

i could show a £200 tv to someone in africa and they would think it's some sort of magic because they know no better. to then say a £200 tv is great would be ignorant.

It's more ignorant to think that someone in Africa would think a TV is magic.

I got a Yamaha 677 (google reviews) and 2 monitor audio BX6's (google them and compare size and quality to your setup) and a centre speaker for £390 all in.

I don't need to Google anything, I'm very happy with my current kit. If I wasn't I'd have upgraded before now.

 

[9designs2]

The irony is the OP and others come asking for advice, when it's given the poster gets flamed..... When he had a valid point.... Oh well ignorance is bliss as they same.... Enjoy.

 

[DustyMiller]

I've just replaced my ageing old Denon AVR 2803 with a shiny new Denon 3200W. And its truly superb. wanted a little extra power over the Denon 2200W to drive my Old Original Bose 700 Series2 speakers.

Not really helpful I know, but I'm so excited, I had to tell someone.

 

[9designs2]

To help improve the sound of my Marantz SR7005 I won a Linn 5 channel power amp on eBay last night... LOL...

 

[233]

for anyone that's interested I spent far far less than I planned and got a Sony dh550 for £105

richer sounds clearance sales ftw

does pretty much everything I require, 4hdmi 2.0 inputs 4k passthrough 2 sub outputs 145w/channel @ 6ohms, it pretty much blows my old onkyo 606 out the water,

cracking little receiver at a criminal price, very very happy and its money put by towards a 4k bluray and tv later on in the year

 

[233]

Richer sounds have teh denon avrx2200 in the sale

but it ya only running a 2.1 id go for yamaha

What whent wrong with ya 606....mines still goin strong, but im waiting for it to go

the usual onkyo problem of the hdmi daughterboard giving up the ghost,

the caps are replaceable but its a complete faff.