Good, Basic, Receiver for my new SurroundBar?

Chris88

My wife bought me a new SurroundBar for my birthday to go w/ our new flat panel TV.

Reading over the directions, it looks like I might need to upgrade from my current receiver (which came packaged w/ a Sony surround sound set up I bought 5 or 6 years ago). The set up screen doesn't have all the options I need to set up the SurroundBar the way the directions reccommend.

Can anyone suggest a good, basic (i'm not an audiophile) receiver to couple w/ the surround bar? I don't want to buy more than I need.

I'll use it for watching movies and TV. Maybe down the road we'll upgrade to a Blu-Ray, but for now I just have a standard DVD player.

Is HDMI input important? I have an HDMI cable running between my DirecTV HD tuner and the TV (1080) - will I need that to go to the receiver as well?

Any help would be great!

Tollaksen

Chris88 wrote: »

My wife bought me a new SurroundBar for my birthday to go w/ our new flat panel TV.

Reading over the directions, it looks like I might need to upgrade from my current receiver (which came packaged w/ a Sony surround sound set up I bought 5 or 6 years ago). The set up screen doesn't have all the options I need to set up the SurroundBar the way the directions reccommend.

Can anyone suggest a good, basic (i'm not an audiophile) receiver to couple w/ the surround bar? I don't want to buy more than I need.

I'll use it for watching movies and TV. Maybe down the road we'll upgrade to a Blu-Ray, but for now I just have a standard DVD player.

Is HDMI input important? I have an HDMI cable running between my DirecTV HD tuner and the TV (1080) - will I need that to go to the receiver as well?

Any help would be great!

May I say that the sound that is produced through the HK high current amp in the HK AVR347 ($350.00 Ebay) $700.00 at BB is nice and should be a great evntry level AVR. The Unit has on screen menu, HDMI and muti Room. Solid AVR.

ben62670

Tollaksen wrote: »

May I say that the sound that is produced through the HK high current amp in the HK AVR347 ($350.00 Ebay) $700.00 at BB is nice and should be a great evntry level AVR. The Unit has on screen menu, HDMI and muti Room. Solid AVR.

What he said;)

eeagle

Chris88 wrote: »

My wife bought me a new SurroundBar for my birthday to go w/ our new flat panel TV.


Can anyone suggest a good, basic (i'm not an audiophile) receiver to couple w/ the surround bar? I don't want to buy more than I need.

I'll use it for watching movies and TV. Maybe down the road we'll upgrade to a Blu-Ray, but for now I just have a standard DVD player.

Is HDMI input important? I have an HDMI cable running between my DirecTV HD tuner and the TV (1080) - will I need that to go to the receiver as well?

Any help would be great!

First off Welcome to the Polk Club....you'll find lots of useful information and informed folks here.

You will enjoy the SurroundBar; you've stumbled into Polks only existing SDA line of speakers which has a long and loyal following (check out the Vintage sub forum). I use a Harman Kardon AVR-347 receiver for my home theater (HT). I think that HK will come highly recommended here for providing not only nice clean high current output (not to be confused with others bogus power ratings), but excellent customer service (like Polk) and great value. Another big plus with most of the HK line is they have Preamp outputs so one can easily add additional big league amps later on down the road if desired.

Regarding the SurroundBar though, please realize it will need to add a subwoofer to provide needed response below 80Hz to get full enjoyment from your HT....it does give a surprisingly nice surround effect for a single enclosure.

A big yes for HDMI especially if you plan to add Blu-ray and get full audio enjoyment from your HT. My favorite addition to my system is a PlayStation 3 (and I'm not even a gamer). Use it mostly for movies, and SACD....both of which require HDMI.

dorokusai

The SurroundBar is easy to drive and I would suggest the Onkyo TX-SR575. It's got a warranty, has everything you need and is ready for the near future.