Receiver recommends

[Ed Mellnik]

Hello all, Well I am not happy with the sound quality of my newly purchased
Sony STR-ZA1100ES for several reasons but mainly the audio quality.
I loved that it had presets that could save the lipsync delay for each input.
The interface was great. Unfortunately going to just 2 channel stereo you lose
the Dolby Digital function. ALso no decent equalizer. My Yamaha RX-V573 has a great equalizer and sounds great but only one lipsync setting for the output.

So I thought I would see if anyone had recommendations for a receiver that
had the ability to save settings for individual inputs and had good audio quality. My budget is under $600. But good to hear about more expensive receivers too since you can sometimes find deals.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. What do you love?
Ed

 

[Punker X]

You will get better response from a different forum. You have a home theater receiver and not a tuner. Even ES HT receivers have a crappy little tuner. Going to move this to the Home Theater forum.

 

[isotopesope]

I am a big fan of Marantz HT receivers and processors. All of my dad's HT headaches went away when he dumped his "nice" Denon for a Marantz. His receiver and my processor both retain individual video and audio settings for each input. The remote is quite handy as well for switching audio modes.

If you're on a budget, have you checked out https://www.accessories4less.com/ma.../receivers-amps/home-theater-receivers/1.html? They also sell Yamaha. I have three friends running Yamaha HT receivers and they really like them. I can't speak to the features you're interested in though and don't know which models they have. I've personally heard two of the systems, and both are heavily used for music and HT duties. One with Jamo speakers and the other with Martin Logan speakers, each sounded really good.

In this day and age, I think going online and reading the entire manual of a HT receiver before purchasing it is quite important to get a fuller understanding of the features. I wish I would've done that for my dad before he bought that Denon. After setting the Denon up for him, we realized all analog video inputs can only be displayed via the analog video out. It would not allow analog video IN signals to be displayed via HDMI. I realized this "feature" is clearly stated in the manual, but ultra annoying and definitely quite unintuitive.

 

[whoaru99]

Unfortunately going to just 2 channel stereo you lose
the Dolby Digital function.

Not quite clear what you mean. Dolby Digital generally isn't a 2-ch stereo thing presuming you mean good old 2-ch analog sources. There is Dolby Digital 2.0, but that would come from a digital input from material and a source capable of delivering Dolby Digital content.

Do you actually mean some version of Dolby Pro Logic, which can be applied to 2-ch analog inputs?

If so, it may be that you have the unit in some sort of pure/direct or other mode that limits the available sound field/DSP functions.

And, maybe you know all that already, but I don't know what you know, or don't.

BTW, I've had good results with a Yamaha receiver and Marantz and Anthem pre/pros. I had generally good results from an early Sony surround receiver (relative to its time, a relic by today's standards) except for the flakey "egg" remote and Vision Touch interface.

 

[Ross6860]

FWIW, I have not been happy with the 2-channel audio from any HT receiver I have tried.

Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, Onkyo, Onkyo again. My current Onkyo was not cheap and I'm using a separate 85-pound, 5-channel power amp.

Maybe I should have tried the Anthem MRX 520 or Outlaw 7000X units. I know they are over your budget, but saving up is always an option...