So been planning my new system for while now and getting some great advice from the people here. Still having difficulty with choosing the receiver though. The advice has been to spend as little as possible on a receiver that has the options you want, because the receiver is the one piece that will upgraded most often. My problem has been understanding the different options that are available.
(In no specific order) Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo and Marantz are the more recognized/established ones. At any specific price point they have comparable quality and features. It really boils down to personal preference, trusting opinion/experience sited by others in forums like AH and (best) trying different receivers at your home. The reason AH forum members regularly recommend spending less on electronics and more on speakers is that the speakers and room contribute a majority of what makes a good or bad system and to perceive the gains from improving the quality of electronics, you first need to have all other aspects of the system optimized. These factors being, speakers and their placement/calibration for room acoustics. You can have great electronics, but, a bad speaker/room will limit how good they sound. Therefore, only when you feel these 'macro' aspects cannot be improved should you look to electronics as being the limiting factor in your system for those 'micro' aspects. Otherwise, it is simply money wasted in a futile effort trying to counter a mind thing
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Now some people have said certain brands are more "warm" and others more 'bright".
This is a holdover from the tube days and a common misconception for current solid state (semi-conductor) electronics. In tube based electronics, the design and implementation of the circuits plays a big role in the sound. Consequently, it is very true that some speaker+pre-pro+amp combinations sound better and this is because the electrical load presented by the speaker matched the electrical design in some instances and not in others. Further, more often than not, the older tube based amps did not have flat FR. This meant, a speaker with bass heavy sound would work well with a tube amp that boosted treble end.
When it comes to solid state electronics, a good pre-pro or amp or receiver MUST NOT add any sound of its own. This is indeed tested and verified in the benchmark results by verifying Flat FR, IMD and THD being below the threshold of perception, auto setup correctly measuring speaker distance, etc. The ability to create accurate electronics has increased drastically and the speaker manufacturers have answered this by making more accurate speakers. The bottom line is, (room effects aside) an accurate speaker if pared with an accurate electronics stack will not sound any different when the same speaker is paired with a different but equally accurate electronics stack.
In my price range the Onkyo is the only brand that is THX Ultra certified. Does that mean alot?
Rather than considering it an absolute guarantee of performance, consider it a “proof of adherence to THX guidelines for the certificate level”. For example, in THX mode the cross over must fixed at 80Hz with specific filter roll off and all speakers set to “small” or sub pre-out must be Purple. It also means that the pre-pro and amp sections (and speakers) meet ‘minimum’ criteria for performance. For example, the THX speakers must be able to achieve 105dB at the listening position. This typically means, when all parts of the system (including speaker placement and room acoustics) meet THX standards, you have a setup that has the makings of a good performer. Not having THX cert does not mean a receiver is no good. On the contrary, a lot of the big name/highly regarded brands do not have THX certification to save on cost. For example, Yamaha.
Is there a thread that explains that all the DTS and Dolby Digital certifications are?
These certifications are inconsequential in today’s mainstream receivers. If they can process HD audio over HDMI (HDMI 1.3a or later) you an be sure that all the bases are covered. Here is a good article on AV formats,
Understanding Surround Sound Formats
I am using it as a pre/pro, … and I don't need multiple zones.
3ch amp like the XPA-3 is a good compromise between the pre-pro + 7ch amp vs. receiver. The front and center speakers consume most of the receiver's power. By contrast, the side and rear surround channels and speakers perform considerably lighter duty (some multichannel music and using floorstanding speakers for surrounds being an exception). By adding the dedicated 3ch amp for the front and center speakers, any mid range receiver will easily drive the 4 surround speakers. You can even get a slightly less powerful receiver, say 100 Watts/ch instead of 125 or 140 W/ch. So, the amp section of the receiver is not a complete waste.
I plan on eventually having multiple subs, so a 7.2 would be nice but then i read that the 2 subs will be getting the same signal which confused me a bit.
I believe any receiver with MultiEQ XT32 will give you 2 sub equalization.
