Advice needed - Monitor 70's

nolec5

Hi everyone,

I currently have monitor 70s in my home theater setup and I'm using an Onkyo 607. After setting up the system I quickly realized that my receiver really limited me in upgrading speakers due to no pre outs.

Overall the system has served us well as we really enjoy watching movies. I also love listening to music and I feel this is here the system falls really short. I'd like to start with a new receiver as I think this would give me better sound in the short term and provide many more options down the road.

However, I have no idea what to look for? Do I stay with onkyo? Or go to another brand? I'm working on a budget (would like to keep it under 1k). I've seen some posts about accessories4less, which I'm open to but would really like some suggestions.

Thanks in advance!!

Upstatemax

Marantz sr7005 is right at the top of your budget. I love the Marantz/Denon sound with Polk.

Another line to look at is the Pioneer SC line.

SolidSnake1988

Same thing happened to me. I also have the monitor 70's with a yamaha rx v671 with no pre-outs. I've been thinking with sticking with yamaha because with 90 watts running 2 channels it sounds amazing! Been thinking of upgrading my avr to aventage series with a emotiva xpa3. Plus im also planning to replace my monitor 70 with some lsi25.

ravaneli

THey are all very much alike at the same price point. Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, Yamaha all have great receivers at the high end.

My advice is determine your budget, say 500, and go to A4L and just buy the one with the biggest discount. Sometimes there are 65% discounts which is amazing.

jaf09

hi i have pioneer sc35 and i am very pleased, i wanted denon but at the time of my purchase i did extensive research and found a lot of issues with the models i wanted. I think onkyo sound is good but don't like there appereance, and marantz seems nice but dont know much about. The reason i went with pio is i always used pio in my cars and always sounded good to my ears for the money and good in quality and i feel the same way with the elite.

RodneyWoodford

I'm running a Harmon Kardon 254 with pre-out into a adcom5800 .I find that really good with RTi10 's

nolec5

I went and listened to pioneer sc, yamaha aventage and denon today at best buy. My ears really settled on the pioneer and yamaha Units. I was really bummed to see that the pioneers don't have 4k until you get to the very top of the line. I was really leaning towards the yamaha aventage 1010 until I made the mistake of listening to the 2020 (which I fell in love with). It does seem a little on the bright side but we were not using a sub when comparing receivers.

The other bummer is that I haven't really found anywhere like a4l that carries refurb yamaha. Any thoughts? Would hate to pay full retail at best buy.

B Run

I absolutely love my Pioneer SC, and if I had to get another one it'd be between the SC and the Yamaha. I think they got it right with the Aventage series, between the two the pioneer sounded better to my ears.

jbooker82

$549 for the newst Onkyo TX-NR717 that has pre outs and 4k upscaling. If you go with the TX-NR818 for $799 you also get the new DTS NEO X surround sound decoder.

cowtrimmer

That 717 would work great coupled with a 282 amp for the 70's I would imagine. That would be a pretty decent setup for 750 bucks total.

nolec5

I actually just read through the 818 thread on avs forum and it seems like a great option (actually towards the top of my list now). I'm still a newb so there are a few things I'm not sure of...

My current sub is powered (polk, but not sure of the model). Any issue with this and the 819?

The 818 with no additional amps wouldn't be overkill for my current 5.1 setup, would it?
For networking, I'd really like to be able to stream pandora to zone two with just two speakers for outside use. I'm assuming I could set this up and control pandora via the onkyo app for iPhone??

People seem to really like the video and audio quality of the 818. Is going from the 607 to the 818 considered a pretty big step up? I've been happy for the most part with movie sound (blue ray for most part) but have always questioned the video. I'm using a ceton Infiniti cable card (USB) to stream Comcast cable throughout my network and access it via WMC (boxes for most part). I've pretty much hated the 607 when listening to music (mostly through Apple TV and pandora)

nolec5

So I'm back to two options, Onkyo 818 (was able to listen to one at Fry's this week and was really impressed) or possibly Denon 4311 (mainly for quality as I have a Denon 3801 which has been flawless for over 10 years and would like to do 9.2 but this is probably well down the line for me).

In re-reading this thread, I just saw Cowtrimmers recommendation of using an amp with the 717. Can you elaborate more on this? Would it make sense to use the same amp if I went with the 818? Planning on setting up a 7.1 for mainly movie watching. I see that the 282 is only two channel. Would it make more sense to use an amp that can power all three of the front channels?? Thanks for all the help and suggestions...I've never used external amps for a home setup so this is all new to me.

Geoff4rfc

nolec5 wrote: »

My current sub is powered (polk, but not sure of the model). Any issue with this and the 819?

Generally, Polk subs are not the "preferred" sub, but the 819 will accommodate any sub.

nolec5 wrote: »

The 818 with no additional amps wouldn't be overkill for my current 5.1 setup, would it?

On the contrary, the 818 plus amps would be great for your M70's. With these AVR's, the rating is for "2 channels driven". Once you start adding the rest of a 5. or 7. set up, the power per channel drops and sometimes significantly.

nolec5 wrote: »

So I'm back to two options, Onkyo 818 (was able to listen to one at Fry's this week and was really impressed) or possibly Denon 4311 (mainly for quality as I have a Denon 3801 which has been flawless for over 10 years and would like to do 9.2 but this is probably well down the line for me).

In re-reading this thread, I just saw Cowtrimmers recommendation of using an amp with the 717. Can you elaborate more on this? Would it make sense to use the same amp if I went with the 818? Planning on setting up a 7.1 for mainly movie watching. I see that the 282 is only two channel. Would it make more sense to use an amp that can power all three of the front channels?? Thanks for all the help and suggestions...I've never used external amps for a home setup so this is all new to me.

If you can swing the 818, jump on it. The 717 is perfectly fine due the the "pre-out" availability. With the features and extra power of the 818, you can provide yourself with years of functionality.

I still have the 807 with no real need to upgrade for my system doing 70% HT and 30% music, okay, maybe 60/40.

nolec5

Current sub is a psw125. Any suggestions for an upgrade down the road?

Also, any suggestions on amps to look at? I really have no idea of brands to look for.

Geoff4rfc

nolec5 wrote: »

Current sub is a psw125. Any suggestions for an upgrade down the road?

Also, any suggestions on amps to look at? I really have no idea of brands to look for.

There's a lot of great stuff out there, subs and amps both. It always comes down to preference and budget. I had a crappy sub and added a second crappy sub. Finally, I splurged and picked up an epik empire, MADE my H.T. liked it so much, when I had the room, I picked up a second.

For amps, I totally went budget and went with the emotiva brand, there are much better amps out there, but for the money I feel like I did pretty well. I'm very happy with the sound of my set up.