First Time Poster - NEEDS Help - Which Receiver?

Toxix

***SORRY FOR THE LONG POST BUT I NEED HELP***

Hey guys,

First time poster on this forum, new account and all and I NEED your help.
I'm real noob, wanting a little more than decent audio quality from my Home Theatre system.
When I say real noob, I mean real noob, I've never touched speaker wire in my life nor do I know how to fine tune these devices.

Let me tell you a little bit about my setup, I'm hoping everything I got works well with each other and the setup is "Forum approved"

Front Speakers - Polk Audio RTiA3 x2
Surround Speakers - Polk Audio RTiA1 x2
Subwoofer - Polk Audio PSW110 x1

So far, it remains a 4.1, it already sounds 100x better that my Bravia TV (Of course)
I'm looking to turn this 4.1 into a 7.1 within the next year or so...

Centre Channel - Polk Audio CSiA6 x1 (Soon)
Front Towers - Polk Audio RTiA9 x2

This being said, what do you guys think of this setup? Please provide opinions!

The main reason for me posting here is because I need help picking a Receiver/Amp for my setup...I temporarily own a Yamaha receiver, but am open to other options.
With the items listed above, which would you guys go with? My options are a Yamaha 7.1 or an Onkyo 7.2...

Yamaha RX-V573 or the Onkyo TX-NR515

Yamaha:
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/rx/rx-v573_black_u/
Onkyo:
http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/products/tx-nr515-76085.html

They are both approximately the same price.

I AM OPEN TO OTHER OPTIONS (Harman Kardon / Pioneer / Denon)

I want to make sure I give you guys all details and future goals. The setup will be mostly used for Movies, sometimes music when I friends over and such...I probably won't have any interest in adding a second sub in the near future.
I just want to make sure that the Receiver I purchase will not be underpowered for the speakers I own.

The Onkyo seems like a good route to go as it is:
7.2, has 7 HDMI In as opposed to 4 on the Yamaha

But on the other hand, I look around at Onkyos reviews, customer feedback, support forums and I keep seeing that people need to RMA the devices due to the HDMI board going bad, on more than one occasion...so right now, I'm wondering if I should return my Yamaha and trade it in for the Onkyo (Or others). I have no issues updating firmware on my devices to get everything functioning.

Please let me know, I'm open to opinions and feedback and I am seeking your help!

Thank you in advance.

SugarmillMan

Welcome to the Polk Forum. Can you tell us the size of your room and your listening habits, music or movies?

Without knowing more, I can tell you that MY biggest mistake when starting out was purchasing a receiver that did not have preouts.
Preouts are connections on the back of the receiver that will allow you to add external amplifiers at a later date, if you decide to. This feature is found on Onkyo receivers starting with the TX-NR 7XX series and higher. It might be important to you someday.

Toxix

SugarmillMan wrote: »

Can you tell us the size of your room and your listening habits, music or movies?

Without knowing more, I can tell you that MY biggest mistake when starting out was purchasing a receiver that did not have preouts.
Preouts are connections on the back of the receiver that will allow you to add external amplifiers at a later date, if you decide to. This feature is found on Onkyo receivers starting with the TX-NR 7XX series and higher. It might be important to you someday.

Thanks for the response, I will be as detailed as possible.

The room is medium sized room, when I ran the auto configuration on the Yamaha, the distance between my speaker and my couch is approximately 10 feet, not much I know, but will have to do.

I will be watching mostly movies on this, current gen Blu-Rays and such, music not so often, but maybe once a week.

I don't know anything about a Preout ports, will have to see if the receivers I mentioned above (Yamaha RX-V573 or the Onkyo TX-NR515) have that feature.
I might actually step down my front two towers to RTi A5 or RTi A7. This being said, can you recommend a receiver?

SugarmillMan

Many people here like the Onkyo or the Denon line. I believe the Onkyo's current model with preouts is Onkyo TX-NR717. This model has many features that are very desirable and cetainly has enough power to run your system. It will allow for any future expansion you may want later.

Most here will probably advise to look for a better subwoofer too. You can spend a lot of money on many things here but the biggest bang for the buck will be to concentrate your funds on your front three speakers and give them plenty of power to run.

chumlie

Amazon has Onkyo TX-NR809 on sale now at $481.11. Has preouts for future upgrades if you need/want. I prefer the Pioneer SC series but thats a good deal IMO.

seabeerob213

the onkyo 709 is available for 450 on accessories for less and has pre-out and is a 7 channel, the yamaha doesnt and wont till you get one that retails around 1K, unless you find a good deal used

Toxix

Do I absolutely need pre-outs? Will the two receivers I provded in the list above not suffice?
Again, I might be downgrading the said Polk Audio RTiA9s to RTiA5s or RTiA7s...

seabeerob213

i dont know really, i know that i have a tiny room with small speakers so my yamaha works, but you have a bigger room and much bigger speakers even if you go with the a-5's, also if youre running smaller surrounds, try and find one that at least has pres for L/R and maybe the center, if you can get those on an external amp you will be sending more power to the other speakers than if you had all 5 or 7 running of the AVR, as i am finding out and many on here learned years ago, dont settle now for less than you want, because the itch to upgrade is always there and you may regret that "budget receiver" you bought that has no upgrade options, look on onkyo's refurbished page or accessories for less, they have awesome deals on factory refurbished gear with warranties, and good luck with whatever rout you choose to go, i know i would much rather have the 571 than my 371, i didnt know about any of this when i bout it, and that one has a lot of good feature for someone who may use a smaller speaker set up, such as the blackstone series or monitor bookshelf speakers

seabeerob213

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/ONKTXNR709/Onkyo-TX-NR709-7.2-Channel-3-D-Ready-Network-A/V-Receiver/1.html

pitdogg2

Toxix wrote: »

Do I absolutely need pre-outs? Will the two receivers I provded in the list above not suffice?
Again, I might be downgrading the said Polk Audio RTiA9s to RTiA5s or RTiA7s...

OK you have started 2 threads and in BOTH more than one poster has mentioned pre-outs ...Do you need them NO...Would you take advise that is tried and learned by most of us the hard way doesn't look that way..Sooner or later you will need to upgrade as you'll more than likely want more power. So ask yourself do you want to buy a new receiver AND AN AMPLIFIER or would you just like to get an amp for the power? Sure you can just get a new MORE powerful receiver but your in the same boat as most every receiver lacks in the power supply to make room for all the other stuff in the receiver. Amps do not have that problem as they are for one thing POWER..

seabeerob213

also, most speakers are damaged or broken from being under powered, as it introduces distortion into the system, protect your speaker investment with a good source driving them

Toxix

pitdogg2 wrote: »

OK you have started 2 threads and in BOTH more than one poster has mentioned pre-outs ...Do you need them NO...Would you take advise that is tried and learned by most of us the hard way doesn't look that way..Sooner or later you will need to upgrade as you'll more than likely want more power. So ask yourself do you want to buy a new receiver AND AN AMPLIFIER or would you just like to get an amp for the power? Sure you can just get a new MORE powerful receiver but your in the same boat as most every receiver lacks in the power supply to make room for all the other stuff in the receiver. Amps do not have that problem as they are for one thing POWER..

Good info here, now I'm not sure if any of the receivers I mentioned above has pre-outs.
I do see that the Onkyo has SUB PRE-OUTs but I don't see any regular pre-outs.

The Yamaha and the Onkyo are both priced at approximately $380.00, I'm assuming any reasonable 7.1/7.2 Receiver that has Pre-outs will be significantly more expensive?

seabeerob213

the onkyo i list is 70 dollars more, and back with a facury warranty, neither on does, onkyo has them in the 700 series and higher and i believe but am uncertain, you need an avantage series with yamaha to get pre outs, and it will be close to 1k, ive been doing a lot of shopping around for these but i keep choosing to buy for my 2 channel instead so i havent got around to buying one either, but i have been told about the 709 and 809 onkyo enough times to know it's definitely about the best bang for the buck with the entry level AVRs

chumlie

See post #3. For $100 more than your $380 . Hard to beat at that price.

seabeerob213

chumlie wrote: »

See post #3. For $100 more than your $380 . Hard to beat at that price.

number 5

leftwinger57

At the time when I got my seperates I also knew nothing of pre-outs.Luckily the avr I chose the Yamaha rx-v665 has them and
many inputs and outs that you could use.I did eventually go 2-channel but before I got my dedicated pre amp I used the Yamaha
as many have suggested here. It's a must if you want to push most speakers cleanly w/o your avr going into protection mode or clipping because of lack of power.For suggesting an avr higher up on the Yamaha chain rx-v667 and better,SC Elite or the Onkyo line.

Syndil

Or, if you know you'll want an amp later, skip the AVR entirely and get a HT preamp + amp.

http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/975.html