Hello all,
As of right now I have a Pioneer Elite receiver from back in 2009 when I bought my home. It was my first home and I was more into televisions than receivers, so after the salesman and I at Best Buy made a deal on a new Samsung back then he offered to give me a serious discount on a receiver that was actually on display (it was in mint condition physically as I inspected it thoroughly, and the sound was great when he turned the bad boy on). Being that I was more focused on the TV and just wanted a receiver to help with my Mirage speakers (which I think sound good, but hopefully they're seen as seme-decent on here....) I didn't even really see if Pioneer was the way to go back then. To tell you the truth, I don't even know if it was a NEW receiver on the market back in 09...maybe it was one released in 07/08. However, I DID remember seeing the Pioneer brand in a few friends' homes, so I just went with it..and it still runs great today.
Fast Forward to now. I've got all of my HDMI ports used and I was aiming for one with about 6 ports available. I also assume that new technology in terms of sound have been added to receivers. That being said, I have a few questions and I knew that this site would be the place to go for honest answers from knowledgable customers.
1) What's out between about $500-$800 right now that's pretty darn good? Am I still looking at Pioneers, or are Denons and Yamahas the way to go? I've noticed that the other two brands seem to be more discussed than the Pioneers here, and being that I'm fairly new to the sound side of things I'm not quite sure... I was learning towards these 3 makes though
2) I see alot being said about Receivers' audio quality, but are all of their video qualities equal? I understand that some may have 4K capabilities, so I'm comparing 4K to 1080p, but are two receivers with 1080p going to put out the same quality picture?
3) Are Mirage speakers "okay" for smaller rooms? I have my "Man Cave" in my basement and it's not huge.. to tell you the truth i've been extrememly happy with their quality. My basement isn't huge and sound seems to bounce off walls perfectly.
Thank you in advance!