After the untimely death of my old receiver (here:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/beginners-audiophytes/90665-i-think-i-killed-my-receiver.html ) I am in the market for a new one. The system is purely for music, all of which will be streamed through a squeezebox touch. In particular, I want to power two sets of stereo speakers in two rooms and have the speaker wire run through the walls to permit this.
Aside from the squeezebox, I currently have a set of Polk Monitor 70 speakers and a Cadence 12" subwoofer. I have been fairly happy with the Polk's, though I do not have any exposure to other tower speakers and I understand they are not necessarily well regarded here. I will need to buy a second set of speakers and would consider upgrading the Polk's at the same time if they were a limiting factor.
Thus far, I have only found two receivers that appear to support a powered zone 2, the Yamaha R-S-700 and a Sherwood RX-5502. The Sherwood does not have a subwoofer out and the Yamaha does. They appear to have similar features other than that, but the fact the Yamaha costs three times as much leads me to believe (hope) it is a much better receiver. While it is neat when the subwoofer is rattling the pictures on the wall, I recognize it is not active too very often listening to music and my wife would be very happy not to have it in her living room any longer.
Are there any other options I should be considering? There are AVR's in the same $500 or less price range of Yamaha that also offer a powered zone 2. I do not need AM/FM, so if there was an amplifier that would do a better job or cost less money I would easily consider that option as well. The Onkyo 8050 costs half of what the Yamaha costs, is there a way to run those in a series and would that be a better option (one receiver per set of speakers)? Is the Sherwood the deal of the year at $160 and I should be buying one instead of typing?
I would like to keep the receiver purchase to $500 or less. I am hoping to negotiate $1000 for the speaker/receiver budget and the less I spend on the receiver the more I can spend on a second set of towers. The Yamaha does not appear to have been discussed on this forum very much and the Sherwood not at all.
If it matters, my music runs the gamut from bluegrass to folk, to classical to classic rock to heavy metal, but it leans heavily towards the heavy metal end of things. Thank you for any input, there seems to be a lot less information on stereo receivers than there is on AVRs.
Adding: I do not foresee a need for the two sets of speakers to run two separate sources; however, it would be great if I had independent volume control and on/off control over the two sets of speakers.
