What receiver do you recomend???

langrish

Ok need some help
For the money what is the best bang for the buck. I have the RM 6600 with the 250 sub(Don't play my stuff crazy loud). Looking for a receiver that covers the basic 5.1 at least maybe logic II but not sure if I really need it. I would love to get away with only spending around $300 though. Looking for one that plays digital music (digital cable) CD's, DVD but this is for a condo and don't want to drive the neighbors crazy. Also looking for S-video for the TV and DVD player. Would love some basic suggestions of where to start. Option 2 is hold off and spend more later but as I said not really sure what the best route is. Have an old Sony with dolby pro logic but feel it just isn't worthy of the speakers. Not so much the power as that is fine but for listening to the Digital CD music from cable I have to use simulated souround t sound decent and that doesn't even use the center at all. Also should I go for a 6.1 or is that still bleeding edge????


Thanks

trubluluc

Welcome to the forum langrish.

I think you have a good speaker system.
One that deserves a good receiver, since that's
where it all begins.
Rather than dump $300. into a so so receiver, wait a little, until you have $5oo. or so, then start lurking at circuit city or goodguys.
Find an open box deal on last years receiver, then talk them down somemore, and voila, you'll have
a $1000. receiver for .... a song, or a song and a half.
This is definitely my strategy.

-luc

Firerider58

Retailing at 299 clams, the Onkyo 494 is a hell of a bargain. I've had mine for about two months now, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Dolby Digital, DTS, and Pro-logic II for any VHS stuff you still look at. Only 55Wper channel, but I find that this is more than adequate for anything that I look at or listen to. Might be a good unit for you if 300 is what you're budgeting.

Ron

mjk91383

i, like yourself, was always on the hunt back when i was trying to find a good receiver. i ended up going with onecall.com since they had their old h/k receivers on sale.

i picked up the avr-310 for $400 shipped. i'm posting a link below where you can take a look at an avr-510 at a great price:

http://sql.onecall.com/PID_10337.htm

...and here's the link to their selection of receivers:

http://sql.onecall.com/About_00001000_17_51_0_0_0_0.htm

onecall usually has their stuff 10% cheaper than what you'd pay at your local circuit city.

you owe it to yourself to check them out. not only do they have great prices, but also free online customer support.

good luck!

joe

(and firerider is right, the onkyo 494 is a killer deal!)

juice21

langrish, first, welcome to the forum...

if you are dying to have a reciver right now for under $300, i would also suggest the onkyo494, i can actuall be had here - audiosound - for less, you get the 595 for $80 over your mark. however, if you have the will power to resist the upgrade bug for a while longer, i would agree with luc and hold off until you can scrath up 5-600 for the upgrdae, the selection will really open up...

phd500

Save up the money and buy the Outlaw audio model 1050 reciever for $500. It is said that there isn't a beter sounding reciever out there for under $1,200.00. It is also built good to, weighs about 36Lbs! I am going to buy this reciever as soon as I can sell my Sony. Check it out at www.outlawaudio.com
good luck on the serch and stay amay from sony

gidrah

I've posted a few time on this receiver. For the money spent I don't think I could be happier. Reasonable price with features and amps of a much higher priced receiver. Look for the reviews.

langrish

This has been a huge help in narrowing down what to go with. I'm leaning towards either the outlaw or Onkyo. I hate messing with switching between formats. The ultimate is to turn on the TV and the receiver figures out what to do as far as what mode to go into. Looks like the 595 Onkyo (not the 494) does that and also the Outlaw. Not sure which is more important though. Pro logic II or 6.1 from the outlaw. Any additional opinions of which way to go would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

izafar

I had Onkyo 595 which is an upgarage from 494. I would suggest that you should go with the 595 as it sounds much better and you can get it for $80 more.

I got this Onkyo 595 after going through a similar process. My budget was around $400 and I was looking at Denon avr-1802, Yamaha RXV-620 and Onkyo TX-DS595. I didn’t opt for Outlaw (despite very favorable reviews) as its not available for auditioning and its 6.1 decoding is based upon their propriety algorithm ( no DTS ES or THX EX) and Dolby PLII is really a big improvement over Dolby PL.

I auditioned the three (Denon & Yamaha on side by side using KLIPSH) and Onkyo using POLK RT35i (I wasn’t able to do side by side on all three as no one has all of them at one place). I ruled out Yamaha due to it remote and its being too bright (IMO).

Denon 1802 and Onkyo 595 both sound great and it was a tough decision to choose between the two.
I then chose Onkyo due to the following reasons:
- A much better remote
- It is available at an authorized Onkyo dealer for $380 (J&R)

Denon on the other hand has more bells and whistles (pre outs for front three speakers and additional settings for PLII mode) but its remote sucks and it is not available at an authorized place within my budget.

juice21

the 595 for $380 from J&R is probably your best bet for your budget. the outlaw 1050 does have the 6th channel, but it is matrixed, not discrete (not true dts-es/thx-ex as mentioned above). pre-outs for every channel is really nice though, if you are thinking about getting a seperate reciever, but in your case there is really no need until you upgraded to larger speakers (if you ever wanted to), the 595 seems like a pretty solid value.

TroyD

I, personally, would not discount the importance of having pre-outs. I actually would consider that a deal-breaker. Nothing better than being able to add on a real power amp to drive your speakers.


Troy

fabian1

Gday mate, the new Yamaha RXV 2200 does the lot and has DD 5.1 DDES 6.1 DTS 5.1 DTS 6.1 Prologic 2 and heaps of grunt, I dont know if you have it in the States yet, as its only been on the Australiam market for 2 months and can be bought for less than 1k US, it is very smooth for both music and home theatre, I have listened to it With the polk 6600, and wow was it nice Regards Fabian:)

langrish

Ok, Finally decided to go for it and went with the ONKYO 595 series, which I got for $350. Should have all the bells and whistles I'm looking for and keep me happy for years with any luck. Thanks for the advice given it was very helpful.

Pete

scottvamp

Great choice! have fun it:)