Ok I have an older Sony surround sound system with the 5 DVD charger acting as the receiver. We have a Blu-Ray player and 54" TV so the sound system is kinda a let down but being the cheap bastard I am, I don't want to upgrade the whole thing at once. I figured I would start with receiver so that I can use surround sound and blu-ray. How much will a decent receiver set me back? I would really like to stay under $350. Can most receivers have a record player plugged into them?
From what I am seeing I don't really need a 7.1 channel setup since it is going in a smaller room is this correct?
ONKYO or a nice YAMAHA receiver will suit your needs. 7.1 is pretty uch the norm nowadays, especially if you want to plug in blu-rays. You might find one of these that have several AUDIO inputs that can be used to plug in the record player, if not, there is an adaptor.
I've dissasembled all my gear because the wife didn't want speakers all over the place. I settled for a Bose Sound Dock that fits our music needs as we are not much of movie people.
Good Luck!
I'm an Onkyo fan myself. Mine is a bit older, it can be configured for 5.1 or 7.1. I'm using 5.1 at the moment. Its only drawback: it predates HDMI. Since my TV has component input, that handles the picture end of things nicely and it's not so bad having 2 remotes.
HDMI-era Onkyo stuff doesn't seem quite as solid as the older offerings. Yamaha seems to be good value & quality for the money. Sherwood also seems like good bang for the buck but I don't see much of it around.
Explain the ratings to me. Where it says something like 75W/Ch RMS into 8 Ohms at .08% THD. What does that mean? I know the Watts per channel is the power. Isn't THD something about the clarity of the sound?
I like Yamaha's equipment, but it's a bit pricey. My Onkyo stuff was not all that much more than Panasonic (which is complete crap) and it has given me zero problems. I have a 5 disc DVD player but it won't play blu-ray (tells you how old my stuff is), so I need to add a blu ray player soon.
Everything Sansui that I have ever seen is good quality and reasonably priced but man it's hard to find.
93EXCivic wrote: Explain the ratings to me. Where it says something like 75W/Ch RMS into 8 Ohms at .08% THD. What does that mean? I know the Watts per channel is the power. Isn't THD something about the clarity of the sound?
THD= Total Harmonic Distortion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_harmonic_distortion
Basically, when you amplify a signal there is a chance the amplified signal will vary from the source (that's the distortion). Cheap stuff will allow more distortion of the signal than good stuff.
RMS is the total power available to drive a speaker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_power The problem with using only RMS to rate an amplifier is a given amp may be able to deliver a huge RMS number but it may be just plain distorted at that level. That's where the THD number comes in.
Also bear in mind that most receivers are rated with "two channels driven." Don't worry about power in a receiver much. At $200, you won't be getting a powerhouse of a receiver. Just worry about which one has the features you want.
Bonus points if it has pre-outs so you can add external amplification later.
Look also at the rated bandwidth, i.e. 75 watts/ch. (20-20k Hz, 0.08% THD). Cheaper units with weak power supplies will not advertise bandwidth, and if you dig deeper, you will find that they are rating based on 40-20k Hz, meaning that the power supply is insufficient to reproduce well in the deep bass region.
Look for a good clean amp with ratings at 20-20k Hz, not just for one with a big watt rating. If your speakers are reasonably efficient, even 20 clean watts will play plenty loud unless you are a heavy metal party animal.
Curmudgeon wrote: I like Yamaha's equipment, but it's a bit pricey. My Onkyo stuff was not all that much more than Panasonic (which is complete crap) and it has given me zero problems.
Maybe some of the lower end Panasonic stuff is junk, but the lower end Yamaha stuff is nothing special either. Panasonic (Technics) equipment is very reliable, and they have produced some decent stuff over the years.
Buy from a stereo shop, not a box store. There is a difference in the equipment. The box stores get lower end (at least they used to) models so they can play the price game.
For the real low bass notes such as with surround sound, a powered sub is the way to go. That takes the load off of the amp so it's not trying to shove a huge amount of power at a very low Hz rate. Mine has a subwoofer preout, the real low bass notes go out as a weak signal which is then bumped up by the subwoofer's internal amp.
Lower end is kind of... lower end. I think Yamaha's build quality is decent and I think they rely less on gimmicks & funky graphics to move gear vs, say, Sony or Pioneer.
(also, when did Sony kill the ES line, what's going on there? Seems like they've exited the mid or higher end markets recently, what what?)
Denon has some gear that, while maybe lower end for the brand, would probably make for a nice unit for the question at hand. $300 to $350 actually gets some decent hardware into play, much below that and it's hard to get too impressed.
Denon is definitely good stuff.
My overall philosophy: I don't think that mixing different brands of equipment is the way to a good quality system. I know it's done all the time, but I prefer to let the engineers do all the matching for me, y' know?
Having said that, since I have a Sony TV (fantastic picture quality from a 60" DLP) I looked into their surround sound equipment. I honestly was not impressed with its sound and that's why I went Onkyo.
In reply to Curmudgeon:
You're dealing with industry specs though... mixing brands of hardware usually isn't a problem as long as you aren't trying to deal with proprietary data buses or other nonsense like that.
Zomby Woof wrote: Maybe some of the lower end Panasonic stuff is junk, but the lower end Yamaha stuff is nothing special either. Panasonic (Technics) equipment is very reliable, and they have produced some decent stuff over the years.
Let me qualify that by saying most of the big Japanese stuff, like Pioneeer, Technics, Sony, etc., and Yamaha to a slightly lesser degree are throwaway type audio equipment that's really quite low end. You can get OK sound for little money these days, but it's not "good" equipment.
In reply to pres589:
Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. I did go with Bravia DVD/Blu ray players and TVs for me and the kid, they are HDMI and that cuts it down to one remote for most (not all) functions.
What is the cutoff point for a non-low end audio receiver? Basically what budget am I looking at to get something decent? I would like to upgrade to something like Polk Monitor speakers someday.
In reply to Zomby Woof:
Heh, I've been using the same Sony STR-350Z receiver for about 16 years now. Low end model. I imagine I'll be dead before it is.
Maybe that's old Sony vs. where the company is now but they're not as bad as people seem to believe, from my experiences.
I'll cast a vote for Denon stuff also. I have a 3-head, dual capstan Denon cassette tape deck (remember those?) that I bought new in 1986. It still works great today.
1988RedT2 wrote: I'll cast a vote for Denon stuff also. I have a 3-head, dual capstan Denon cassette tape deck (remember those?) that I bought new in 1986. It still works great today.
The DRM1, IIRC. I have one and loved it until one of the heads lost a channel. Unfortunately, as if from Mission Impossible, Denon disavows any knowledge of that unit. So, no new tape heads.
Personally, I'd bump my price up by a little and step up to a used higher-end unit like Rotel, Adcom, Denon, or something like that.
I've never liked the sound of a Yamaha, Onkyo is ok but didn't seem to have the depth I wanted, or the nuts to drive a good sub. But I take my home theater a bit more serious than some (not saying anything about you if you own those brands, just a very general statement).
I look at this like I do a car. I can buy a new Yaris or something like that, or an older car that I actually WANT to own for the same or less.
triumph7 wrote:1988RedT2 wrote: I'll cast a vote for Denon stuff also. I have a 3-head, dual capstan Denon cassette tape deck (remember those?) that I bought new in 1986. It still works great today.The DRM1, IIRC. I have one and loved it until one of the heads lost a channel. Unfortunately, as if from Mission Impossible, Denon disavows any knowledge of that unit. So, no new tape heads.
Mine is a DR-M22. IIRC, it was $300 back in '86. I was fresh out of college with my first real job. Paid cash! 
The old Marantz receivers are interesting and apparently hold up pretty well. I've got an ancient one out in my garage serving up tunes, which it still does reasonably well.
93EXCivic wrote: What is the cutoff point for a non-low end audio receiver? Basically what budget am I looking at to get something decent? I would like to upgrade to something like Polk Monitor speakers someday.
My rule of thumb is that anything that has pre-outs is going to be at least decent.
I don't know that you'd be able to do it for $200 unless you're open to the used market. New... i'm not even sure to be honest. Haven't really shopped for a receiver in a while.
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