rotel tomorrow

Also, don't connect any inputs directly to your amp unless you know what you are doing. Without having your receiver yet, you might connect an input with too high of a voltage, and that would be bad.

And if you get chance to test the 976 before you buy it, test the pots (volume knobs), by slowly turning each one from zero to max, and listening for any pops or scratches. Potentiometers are often the first to go on old equipment.

Hi Scotty,

I think the Denon 5803 is a great receiver. I haven't owned one myself, but I did consider getting it as well. For $200-300, it's unlikely you will find a good set of separates. At that price-point, it's probably best to stick with the Denon 5803. If lack of HDMI doesn't bother you, go ahead and get it (make sure it's in good shape or only buy with a return policy). Unless you plan on going full blu-ray, with a sound system to match, you won't need integrated HDMI (you can always hook up the HDMI separately for video), and that way you can save a lot of money. Of course, it is nice to have it all in one place, and if you want HDMI too you can probably find a used receiver that has it for $200-300, although you will probably only get 2 HDMI inputs, and other features may be reduced compared to the 5803.

In the future, you can use the pre-outs on the Denon and buy a solid amplifier to go with it, like a Parasound A23 (2ch), Rotel 1095, or Parasound New Classic 5125 or similar quality amplifier, which will improve your sound quality a lot in the future. However, expect to pay $300 for a good used 5ch amp alone, not counting the processor, speakers (e.g. a set of Polk Monitor 70s on sale for $120/ea), etc. If you get the Denon you'll have full capability except HDMI, and you can slowly upgrade your system as you go on.

If you want to go separates, it's best to get quality separates, and that will probably cost you at least $500 used (e.g. Rotel 1066 for ~$250, plus old 5ch amp for ~$250-350). If you want new, Emotiva are the only ones that put out inexpensive separates, but they're no where near the quality in Parasound, Rotel, NAD, etc. so I would avoid them.
I would caution to shop smartly. Check out Ebay listings, they always have 5803's there, but again only buy with a return policy, and Craigslist in local areas (but inspect things first). If you want to be almost guaranteed to have high quality used equipment, Audiogon is another site but is more expensive.

HDMI: If you don't care, you don't need it. HDMI on a receiver is helpful for three things:

*High-resolution movies (720p TV shows, 1080p blu-ray) which can be done separately from your receiver if you prefer
*Consolidation of many HDMI sources into one place (example: you have a DVD player, separate blu-ray player, Xbox, PS3, and a Nintendo Wii to hook up to one monitor)
*High resolution audio from blu-ray discs (high quality digital audio from a blu-ray is ONLY passed through HDMI, not through an optical TOSLINK cable. It's not that other cables can't handle it, it's just that blu-ray wants to have control over the signal for copyright purposes). Many blu-rays are not even encoded with audio that good, and often stick with 48khz dolby or similar.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your new system!!

I don't know about comparisons between TOSLINK optical vs. HDMI (both digital), other than the HDMI connector is not that great in terms of durability. However, both are digital, and as such will effectively carry a pure signal with no noise, but they are limited to the quality you send them. Usually this is sent as 24bit, 48,000khz for Dolby and DTS off a DVD, (correct me if I'm wrong guys) regardless of whether the source was recorded as such. Analog however has effectively unlimited quality, but you will only be able to send such high quality analog signals from an original source, like a person playing into a high quality mic, or a high quality vinyl from a phono. Typically an analog-only system goes for a 2-channel tube setup, and will sound better than a digital system.

For the rest of us, we will probably either not notice the difference, or never have that much money to spend to notice the difference between the two, since CDs are 16-bit, 44,100hz. While this is not directly comparable to the numbers above for technical reasons, suffice it to say that CDs have horrible sound in comparison to vinyl, SACD, or blu-ray audio. HDMI effectively exists only to give them complete control over the audio signal for copyright issues, afaik it has no increase in audio capability. That said, Blu-Ray limits their high quality audio discs to only play via HDMI, and they refuse to play them through optical unless scaled down. That means you need HDMI support all the way to your speaker, which means the player and receiver must both have HDMI and both support blu-ray. I forget which version of HDMI that is... 1.3 maybe? Most blu-rays are not encoded to play that high of quality audio anyway, unless you buy a specific blu-ray audio disc, so I wouldn't worry about it.

In short, in terms of capability I would rate it thus:

Analog (pure, unlimited quality, but expensive to reach: tube amps, analog receivers, etc)
Optical (lossless digital, widely supported)
HDMI (lossless digital, but limited by copyright and equipment support)