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Entry level HT receivers, which to choose?

voltcontrol

voltcontrol

Fizheuer Zieheuer
I'm helping a friend buying a new (his wish) entry level HT receiver.
He has already bought the Jamo S 426 HCS 3 speaker set.

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He'll connect his PC, an XBOX 360, a record player (I'm aware there are no choices with phono in in this price range.. Or are there?) and possibly an Ipod to the HT receiver..

His budget is +-300$ which will get me a;
-Yamaha RX-V367,
-Pioneer VSX-519V
or
-Onkyo TX-SR308/SR307
here (EU)

Which of these would you choose or is there an other, better contender in the low price range? Which one of these sounds the best?

The Yammie '3D ready', you guys reckon that that is an advantage?
 
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I'm pretty sure the 308 is 3D ready too. I was going to buy one (or a 508), before I got into turntables/vinyl and older audio equipment.

Honestly I'd probably get last years $400-500 receiver you won't really be missing any features (except perhaps 3D) in refurbished/used condition. Or perhaps the Pioneer 820. 519 is last years model, replaced by the 520. They are all Chinese and fairly light, but they do the job.
 
If you are not opposed to used gear, you could look on CL and pick up a 3 or 4 year old 7.1 receiver for @ $200. It would open up your options too.
 
If you can find one, a Panasonic SA-XR**, the latter ones had HDMI-1080p pass through. These Panasonics give up a lot of bells and whistles but the amplifier is very good and there is a "Stereo Front" option that combines power to two channels for music. Panasonic gave up HT receiver production so these are no longer being made.
This was probably caused by my purchase of a Panasonic Viera screen and not by the lack of quality of the receiver.:D

Edit: No used, not a viable deal, then.
 
Choices

westend said:
If you can find one, a Panasonic SA-XR**, the latter ones had HDMI-1080p pass through.Edit: No used, not a viable deal, then.
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I know it's no longer applicable here, but I have one of the Panny's. It's been repurposed as a regular receiver in another room and does OK in that role, but if anyone else is tempted to pick one up, there's some show stoppers as an AV receiver. The biggest problem is the infamous "LFE bug" for which there is no good workaround. It sets the subwoofer out 10db too low.

As far as the OP goes, I think all the mentioned receivers are worth considering. Check the specs and see which one has the most number of features you're looking for. I bought the big brother of the Onkyo, the TX-NR808 and have been impressed by its performance. It's also been reliable.
 
Marantz NR1501? No 3D, but all the HD audio formats... 50WPC, so not the most powerful, but a nice slim form factor. $400 MSRP, deals can probably be had.
 
Onkyo is a great option - very good reviews and many great features at the price. I bought my Onkyo TX SR 507 @ 2 years ago - one of the few HT receivers at the time that carried both video and audio over HDMI for the price range - my second Onkyo - very happy with it.
 
DougMac said:
I know it's no longer applicable here, but I have one of the Panny's. It's been repurposed as a regular receiver in another room and does OK in that role, but if anyone else is tempted to pick one up, there's some show stoppers as an AV receiver. The biggest problem is the infamous "LFE bug" for which there is no good workaround. It sets the subwoofer out 10db too low.

As far as the OP goes, I think all the mentioned receivers are worth considering. Check the specs and see which one has the most number of features you're looking for. I bought the big brother of the Onkyo, the TX-NR808 and have been impressed by its performance. It's also been reliable.
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Subwoofer 10db down, I guess I never noticed that since I set the sub with the volume control and have an overkill solution for a subwoofer, separate pro-audio amp and a BAW. Does the Panny do this in all audio formats?
 
costerdock said:
Onkyo is a great option - very good reviews and many great features at the price. I bought my Onkyo TX SR 507 @ 2 years ago - one of the few HT receivers at the time that carried both video and audio over HDMI for the price range - my second Onkyo - very happy with it.
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A friend of mine picked up an Onkyo a couple weeks back. After using the auto setup feature for the surround sound, the amp had a hum or buzz. It was driving us nuts because it came in subtle. It took us a while to figure out it started after we ran the auto set up. Popped back into the menu and set it back to factory and the hum 'nearly' disappeared. It is only audible at high volumes now.
 
Everybody that owns a Yamaxa RX series is very happy, and there are very good reviews and opinions on that RX series .... I would go for that.

It seems that you need to listen to them....
 
sxty8goats said:
A friend of mine picked up an Onkyo a couple weeks back. After using the auto setup feature for the surround sound, the amp had a hum or buzz. It was driving us nuts because it came in subtle. It took us a while to figure out it started after we ran the auto set up. Popped back into the menu and set it back to factory and the hum 'nearly' disappeared. It is only audible at high volumes now.
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It could be the source - could be many things - I'm not having that issue. I just turned my volume up to MAX and I cannot hear any difference - dead silent - I do not even hear hiss. I've done the auto configuration etc - my source is a blue ray player. I would not have bought it if I read a bunch of reviews claiming this.
 
Status;
After reading many things online, I'm steering towards the Onkyo TX-SR308.
It's supposed to have an excellent on-screen gui, decent format support and a reasonable reputation.

The Yamaha RX-V367 supports less formats (dts etc)
The Pioneer VSX-519(/520)V has some setup issues and operating it is not that logical, some users report.

As stated in the OP, used is not an option and there is a budget.

The Marantz NR1501 is twice as expensive as the options mentioned in the OP
the Pioneer VSX 820 1,5 times.

Other new options witin ~300$ budget?
 
I would go for Onkyo.
We bought a Yamaha 7.2ch receiver and it is WEAK! Every time there was an explosion in a movie, the receiver would shut completely off and you would have to manually turn it back on. Adding power amps and running the receiver as a multi-channel preamp seems to do the trick but I shouldn't need to do that.
So for that, I say Onkyo.
 
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