Re: Seeking Receiver recommendations

Cognitive Distortion wrote:
You should start by giving a budget.


Yeah sorry about not providing a budget. A couple/few hundred for a
receiver I guess because then I have to shell out about the same for a
dvd player and I don't really want to spend $1,000 on home theatre
equipment although I have even calculated speakers into the equation
*sigh*

If you're about to get a new receiver, you should look to one that is
HDMI 1.3 compatible, as many of the new Blu-ray and HD DVD players
will now bitstream the audio across HDMI. This is more important with
the HD DVD players as only the top of the line XA2 has analog audio
outputs (RCA) for lossless multi-channel surround tracks, found on
roughly 50 HD DVD disc and over 150 Blu-ray discs.

Although most players decode TrueHD internally, which means any HDMI
1.1 receiver would do the job, you will find more discs surfacing with
dts-HD Master Audio on them, the decoding of which is not mandatory
inside the player on either HD DVD or Blu-ray.

If your budget is restricted, the Onkyo TX-SR605 is an amazing
receiver with 90watts/channel into 7 channels. It has AudysseyEQ which
allows the receiver using a mic to EQ three different listening areas.
I have the TX-SR905 and from my own measurements I can tell you that
the AEQ is extremely accurate. This allows you to not worry about
setting up speaker distances, crossover, etc. It's all done for you
the first time you turn the unit on.

It has two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, supporting 1080p
bandwidth, Dolby TrueHD decoding and dts-HD Master Audio decoding.
It's a heck of a receiver and you can find it normally on Amazon for US
$399.- Hide quoted text -


Thanks for this specific info! You're a godsend.

Is HDMI 1.3 something I will definitely notice? Remember, I'm a person
that played my movies through an offbrand 5cd changer shelf system
with average stereo speakers. So jumping from that to surround 5.1 is
probably going to be plenty of a change.

But is this something you will definitely notice if you don't buy it?
(HDMI 1.3)

Maybe if I can't afford the surround I can always get future proof
with the receiver and get the speakers later.

Well at least with your info now I can shop around and have a better
idea what to look afor when doing my homework.

FWIW, you might save some money if you get enough inputs on your display to hook up your video directly (via HDMI) and route the audio only to the receiver via coax or toslink. The downside is that you have to switch two devices instead of just one. The upside is that most good universal remotes will allow you to combine both commands to a single key.

Matthew

--
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people". Alexander Bullock ("My Man Godfrey" 1936):
.

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