First HT

[Casei]

Howdy all!

I'm pretty much middle-aged, and started my first HT a few months ago with a Samsung LNT4065F + PS3.
For 2-3 months I was happy enough with the panels speakers , and at the most I was going to move a set of Logitech's Z-5500s (from a PC setup) to the PS3, for use during dvd viewing. But a week+ ago I saw a sale on Klipsch's Quintet III's/Sub10, and after a few hours of thought I said "why not". Seems a decent entrance level set, and we all have to start somewhere. This is set up in a den/study that is approx 14x16' btw. In the next year I plan on building something less modest in a larger great room, so you could say I'm experimenting.
Next comes the avr, and I'm looking hard at the Yamaha v661, after making a shortlist in that price range (and trying to educate myself on the web). The Onkyo 605 is tempting, but I read there's no audio via hdmi, and that they tend to have heat issues. Any comments/suggestions on this receiver choice would be great.

Love the website and glad to have joined the community.

 

[mazersteven]

Welcome to Audioholics

Hope you stick around and get involved.

 

[MUDSHARK]

Welcome, as well. The heat problems with Onkyo is vastly overrated. Allow a minimum of 4 inches above the receiver and you will do just fine. I have had Onkyo receivers last over ten years with no problems. These receivers are user friendly and have a good reputation for their early adoption of the new sound formats. Good luck.

 

[Seth=L]

The TX-SR605 does not have heat issues and has more audio processing features available over HDMI for some present and future products supporting HDMI 1.3 than the Yamaha. The PS3 can decode HD audio tracks internally and send them to the receiver as multichannel uncompressed pcm that should sound just as good as sending a bitstream to the Onkyo over HDMI. The only thing that would keep my from getting the Onkyo is the lack of preouts for all channels (it does have a subwoofer output). For your applications the preouts would not be necessary as the Klipsch are not difficult to drive and are very efficient. The Onkyo also has a few other features the Yamaha does not, such as Audyssey Auto EQ (which is better than YPAO IMO) and also does video transcoding. Transcoding means it will convert all inputs (Composite, Component, S-Video) all to one single HDMI output.

 

[Casei]

Thanks for the feedback, and it's good to have the Onkyo back on the short list From my attempt to research, the 605 looks feature-packed for the price, and perhaps I became paranoid reading threads on other sites, about a heat issue. Crowding the unit I don't need to do, it'd have closer to 8-10" above the unit.

So nice to have experienced advice!

 

[jcPanny]

Yamaha receivers

Only advantage of the RX-V661 is the pre-amp outputs which would allow you to upgrade to an outboard amp later. The other features and prices are pretty comparable. Either is more than adequate for the Klipsch quintet.

 

[Seth=L]

Only advantage of the RX-V661 is the pre-amp outputs which would allow you to upgrade to an outboard amp later. The other features and prices are pretty comparable. Either is more than adequate for the Klipsch quintet.

I like that feature on the the Yamaha. Unfortunately it cuts out nice features such as video transcoding (it won't convert composite, s-video, and component video for output over HDMI) and it doesn't do anymore than 5.1 LPCM over HDMI.