D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
Hey all, I'm new to the board, but this looked as good a place as any to post and ask for advice.

I'm looking at upgrading my Home theater from my existing Samsung HTIB that a buddy sold me after he got it thrown in for buying his TV. Having said that, I am not an audiophile by any means, but I want a system that will sound like I actually know what I'm doing.

Here's what I for hardware at the moment:
MartinLogan MLT-2 5.1 CH Premium Home Theater Speaker System Black System (I know there are certain drawbacks with every speaker, but coming from the HTIB to anything above that will sound better to me and get me where I want to be for the time being)
xbox 360 (connected through HDMI)
playstation 3 (connected through HDMI)
wii (connected through component)
as well as an xbox one coming in the future

My room dimensions are 20 X 13 feet, it would be ideal to have my surrounds mounted close to the 9 ft ceiling.

What I want is something that is going to adequately power the speakers I have, have enough HDMI inputs for me to use all of the above equipment, and future proof me for the 4K that will be coming our way.

My budget for the Receiver is around $500, but I can add a couple extra hundred if it is worth it to do so.

I have a buddy that is telling me to go with the Marantz 1604 slim or the Pioneer sc-1222k (or the newer 1223). While I don't necessarily have any problem with either of them, I would like to know if there is better bang for my buck than one of these two.

Thanks for all of your help.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
Oh, I forgot to mention. I would also like to have the receiver plugged into my router instead of using wifi. Along with that I have an Iphone and would like to take advantage of Apple's Airplay feature (it seems to be almost standard at the price point I'm looking at).

Thanks again.
 
adk highlander

adk highlander

Sith Lord
Hello dondiddles and welcome to the forum.

At your $500 price point the Denon E400 meets all of your feature requirements (HDMI, 1 component source, networking, airplay, 4K & 3d passthrough) and is reasonably powered at 90wpc. The big downfall to me is lack of room correction.

The Denon X2000 moves price to $650 keeps all of the features of the E400 and adds Audyssey XT and a bit more power. I would really consider some form of room correction a must. In fact most of my recent upgrades have centered around obtaining the best versions of Audyssey room correction to deal with multiple subs.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
After researching the basics of Home theater how-tos I've come to the realization that I probably need an automated room calibration tool of some sort as I don't have the knowledge at this point to manually correct it. Is the Audyssey a better system than say what Yamaha offers?
 
adk highlander

adk highlander

Sith Lord
Well it is somewhat debatable as to which is better but I lean toward Audyssey as it is a stand alone commercial product where YPAO some of the other proprietary system may not have as much R & D.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
Thanks, adk, appreciate all the help you have given me.
 
adk highlander

adk highlander

Sith Lord
Glad to help. Please post back what you go with and how you like it.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
At your $500 price point the Denon E400 meets all of your feature requirements (HDMI, 1 component source, networking, airplay, 4K & 3d passthrough) and is reasonably powered at 90wpc. The big downfall to me is lack of room correction.
Small correction E400 does indeed has room correction, but in the basic version of it. MultiEQ - It is limited only to 2 sample points vs XT version which measures at upto 8 points.

I'd recommend this one:
DENON AVR-3311CI 7.2-Channel Network Home Theater Receiver | Accessories4less

ac4l is denon certified seller and it carries full one year warrantly
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
So the Denon AVR-3311CI looks like it is a pretty good deal, but it seems like it might be a little more juice than I need (is there any such thing?). I think I've narrowed it down to a couple different receivers: the Denon AVR-X2000 IN-Command and the Marantz NR1604 Slim Line 7.1 receiver. Looks like the factory refurbs are a good deal - anybody have any strong opinions either way? As for the receivers, you know what I'm powering and how big of a room I am looking at (I know room acoustics come into play) are either of these receivers going to be underpowered? Would I be making a mistake getting either one of these?
 
E

English210

Audioholic
IMHO, you can't have too much power, but it is possible to have too little. Where that line is depends on the volume you want in the size space you have, and with your speakers. My room is a similar size, slightly smaller, and a 150 watt per channel receiver alone didn't cut it, but I have inefficient main speakers. I have no experience with Audyssey, but I'm not impressed with Yamaha's YPAO. If it thinks speakers are out of phase when they're not, I don't believe much else, BUT.....I am a total rookie in the world of room correction!! The rest of the receiver is awesome for me though...YMMV.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
I'm not a music junkie/audiophile by any means, added to the fact that, at the moment, I live in an apartment complex and don't want to piss off my neighbors, I don't need to listen to anything at a very loud volume. However, when I do finally get a place where I don't share a wall with neighbors, I would like to bump it up a little bit, but still not where I'm rattling pictures and all of that.

I guess my concern/point is I don't want to go overboard with the wattage/channel, but I do want to make sure that I'm not underpowering my speakers with one of the receivers I'm looking at.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
So I decided on the Marantz NR 1604. I will let you know what I think of it when it comes and I get it all hooked up. Thanks for all the insight and helpfulness to everybody that responded.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
Hooked up my marantz receiver and the Martin-Logan MLT-2 speakers and.....nothing short of amazing compared to my old system. I truly appreciate all the help this forum/website has offered me.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Congrats on the new setup! I apologize that I didn't see this thread until now, as I own the Denon E400 and Marantz 1604 (and Onkyo 626 and Marantz 1504). The E400 and 1604 are very similar with the Denon having a (in my system) noticeable advantage in power. However, at my normal listening levels, the Marantz has plenty of juice and sounds great. Out of all four of those receivers, the Onkyo has the most features/connections, and is near the top in regards to power. In shear coolness factor, that 1604 wins it for me.

I mean, the form factor on that Marantz really is cool, isn't it? :) I'm a bigger fan of Pioneer's MCACC auto calibration system (mostly because it let's you store more than one configuration, for multiple locations), so I ultimately didn't use any of those Audyssey receivers. However, I almost kept the 1604 in my system just because I liked that compact look so much.
 
D

dondiddles

Audiophyte
Adam-
Yes, I have limited space for my set-up and the Marantz (so far) has been a rock solid investment. I'm very happy with the aesthetics and the simplicity of it. I really don't think I could be happier.
 

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top