In Search of a New Receiver

[gellor]

I'm looking for a new receiver and was wondering what y'all would recommend. Budget flexible around $1000. (but not flexible enough to afford seperates or a LOT more than a grand) The system is primarily for HT.

So far, I've looked into the Denon AVR-3805 (or more likely 3806 when its released) and the Marantz SR7500/8400.

I know its kinda backwards, but I'm looking for the receiver before the speakers because my current one has...issues. I'll be upgrading the speakers later.

Any suggestions between those 3 and others around the same price?

 

[gellor]

Nevermind...

I didn't use the right search terms and just found another thread on these receivers. Nevermind.

 

[marky]

Harmon Kardon (635 or the monster 7300, can be had for about 1000 at ebay harmon site) have some excellent receivers

yamahas (2500, 4806)are great for movies

denon(3805 ir 3806) is good also.

NAD is great

Rotel also very nice.
i dont think u can go wrong with any of these

 

[Spiffyfast]

The Denon 3806 would be great choice since it adds HDMI switching. If you can add $100 to your budget you can get a Marantz 8500 refurb from www.accessories4less.com and it comes with a manf. warranty. Do you know what kind of power ratings or features your looking for?

 

[gellor]

The Denon 3806 would be great choice since it adds HDMI switching. If you can add $100 to your budget you can get a Marantz 8500 refurb from www.accessories4less.com and it comes with a manf. warranty. Do you know what kind of power ratings or features your looking for?

HDMI Switching would be nice...but not required since I don't have anything YET that uses it. Remote is not an issue since I have a harmony remote. I would like auto calibration, since I don't know enough yet to manually tune it myself. (although I wouldn't mind fine tuning it once its setup)

I'm not sure on power requirements yet, since it will start out used on a pair of 10 year old sony towers...but I plan on upgrading the speakers to a 5.1 system (doubt the wife will let me do 7.1) at around the $3000-3500 range.

One question about the HKs...is it possible to turn off the blue backlight behind the knobs? I find their backlight to be annoying since I watch movies in a dark room and extra lights like that are distracting.

 

[Takeereasy]

Here's a link to the Harman Kardon ebay site someone already mentioned. It is their official site, all warranties are valid. A little caveat though, one of the members here, coops, got a killer deal on a 7200, when it arrived it had problems right out of the box. Yes coops got it fixed for free, had no trouble with the warranty, and reported that Harman's customer service was top notch, but I like to make sure you've got all the facts. That said for the price he got I'd go through the same experience and a lot worse no questions asked. This site has two 630's up for sale today.

I like spiffy's mention of the Marantz 8500, although it does only do DVI switching I believe. That 8500 is a nice receiver at $1100. Yamaha's 4600 is about $1500 but it is the category leader for sheer amount of technology crammed into a box for under $2000 IMO. You should read the review of this receiver on this site. Very in depth and thorough.

If you'd like a brand new receiver for about $900 that not everyone on the block has how about this one: Outlaw 1070 it should stack up very well to the Marantz. Pay no attention to the 65 watts power rating. That is all channels driven and measured with a respectable .08 THD. Most 110 watts per channel receivers would have a hard time beating that. It is missing the auto EQ though, and I know you said you'd like that.

 

[Spiffyfast]

I forgot about the Outlaw, thnx for adding that one Takeereasy. I like the visual aspects of the Outlaw, its so clean looking, and I bet it puts out some killer power, wouldnt doubt they under rate it.

 

[brian32672]

I forgot about the Outlaw, thnx for adding that one Takeereasy. I like the visual aspects of the Outlaw, its so clean looking, and I bet it puts out some killer power, wouldnt doubt they under rate it.

Yea, 65x7 and weighs 40lbs. Certainly sounds beefy.
They look great IMO....

 

[gellor]

I like spiffy's mention of the Marantz 8500, although it does only do DVI switching I believe.

Since I don't have any specific connection requirements (My TV is a Samsung 5085W DLP that takes both HDMI and DVI, and I haven't upgraded other components yet) That's not so much of a problem for me, I guess.

If you'd like a brand new receiver for about $900 that not everyone on the block has how about this one: Outlaw 1070 it should stack up very well to the Marantz. Pay no attention to the 65 watts power rating. That is all channels driven and measured with a respectable .08 THD. Most 110 watts per channel receivers would have a hard time beating that. It is missing the auto EQ though, and I know you said you'd like that.

Hm...I hadn't looked at Outlaw yet. I assumed they'd be a bit more expensive. It looks very interesting. Again, only DVI but that's not too bad. Thanks for making my decision harder. I'll definitely have to read some reviews on it.

An additional question...since the Definitive Mythos speakers have so far met the WAF...any idea how well the Outlaw 1070 would work with those speakers?

 

[AVRat]

The Mythos are pretty efficient (92dB) so most receivers will have no trouble driving them.

 

[Spiffyfast]

Well since it isn't technically out yet, I dont think anyone can comment on real world experience. All that I can say is that Outlaw makes some great products. A good thing to go buy on performance/quality of a receiver is weight 30 lbs and up is a good determinant of a nice receiver (in most cases), and the Outlaw comes in around 40 lbs which is a beastly receiver.

 

[Takeereasy]

The 1070 is rated at what might appear to be a measly 65w per channel, but that is rated with all channels driven. In real world specs that most likely boils down to over 100w a channel if tested individualy. I'd say you'd have no problem with those def techs and the Outlaw if they are as efficient as they calim. Another nice thing about Outlaw is that the amp section should be able to handle a lower impedence load better than several similarly priced amps.

The specs on the 3806 seem to really fill your needs, and it has a MSRP of $1300, meaning you should be able to pick it up for a little less at a dealer. I can't see how you could go wrong with that receiver. They printed the specs for it and the new 4306 today on the main page, you should really give that one a gander.