I maybe crazy....help me pick out another reciver please..

[JOD]

Well, i just bought a $500 pioneer 1017......and i started to think...maybe its just not good enough. So i started looking around and to my horror, the type of receiver that i would like to have is in high hundreds to low low thousands. One of the things that made me decide to get a better receiver is this Audyssey auto Eq XT. I have heard that it is significantly better than the pioneer MCACC or any other auto EQ. I feel i have a acoustically challenged room, so a better EQ seems like it would be a must. I shopped around and found a possible candidate. The Denon AVR-2808CI This maxes out my budget, if it were $100 more i would not get it. I originally planned to upgrade to a $800 receiver but i could not find one with this Audyssey EQ XT. To tell you the truth I dont need 90% of the connections that these AV receivers come with. I just need 1 optical port, 1 component, 1 s video or composite, 1 or 2 sub pre outs, 2 HDMI in ports, 1 or more out, and of course the speaker connections. I dont need all those fancy 2 room zone deals and so on. Also the receiver needs to have all those new formats like Dolby HD. Most receivers around 800 or so will have everything i need and more, like the
Denon AVR2308CI Now the 2308CI doesnt have the Audyssey XT only the regular Audyssey multi EQ. Also the 2308CI lacks one or 2 features that the 2808CI has. So do these extra features and better EQ warrent the extra $300? Is there anything else you guys would recommend? What do you guys think?

 

[Seth=L]

To be honest the Onkyo TX-SR805 would fit the bill perfectly. It can be had for around $700 and would put the two Denons you mentioned to shame in terms of power and flexibility. It of course has HDMI 1.3 with all the fixins (short of the scaler, and I will tell you why thats not what it is all cracked up to be in a minute). It also features the newer Audyssey Multi EQ XT along with THX Ultra II certification.

Scalers on receivers is a frivilous feature for most applications because most TVs have decent ones already if not great ones, and HD sources are more common place as well (Blu-ray and HD DVD players can upscale regular DVDs pretty well too).

I would get the Onkyo TX-SR805 long before either of those Denons.

 

[JOD]

Well i swore i would never buy another onkyo product after having my first customer service encounter. But frankly I would agree that this onkyo you recomended delivers. Still, there are a few things that set me off, the mic used for the audyssey looks...well cheap, theres no point in having a great sofware with out having a mic which can match its quality. THX ultra II certification is also very tempting.....I havent owned a Receiver that has not been THX certified yet, and i would like all the goodies that come with THX certification.

 

[fmw]

Me too. They failed me on a warranty issue as well.

Personally, the only problem I had with my Pioneer 1017 was that the HDMI was a pass through rather than a repeater. That just means an extra digital audio connection per HDMI device - I have a lot of HDMI devices. I liked everything else about the 1017 and preferred the MCACC to the Audyssey I had on my Onkyo. I now have a Pioneer 92. It is a pretty spectacular receiver but the differences in features and performance are nowhere near the difference in price between it and the 1017. If it hadn't been for the HDMI pass through, I would still be using a 1017 as happy as a clam.

Perhaps there are different versions of Audyssey and MCACC but, to me, everything about MCACC is better than the Audyssey I had in my Onkyo 605. I know the MCACC in the 92 is quite a bit different than that in the 1017. It is far more flexible and accurate than the Onkyo 605, but the 605 doesn't have a very good digital processor so Audyssey doesn't work all that well with it. I absolutely hated the Onkyo 605 in comparison to the 1017.

If you want a new receiver, help yourself. But it doesn't make much sense to me to do it because of MCACC.

 

[rnatalli]

What speakers are you driving?

 

[Seth=L]

The Pioneer VSX-1018 will be out soon, it looks great so far.

 

[Bluesmoke]

The Pioneer VSX-1018 will be out soon, it looks great so far.

Soon meaning June 2008. Still a long while.

The receiver I'd recommend is Denon 788 or 1908 for the budget connoisseur. It's got good power, ZERO issues and accepts 7.1 via HDMI 1.3. It sounds great for music and HT. The Yamaha V661 is a great one as well with awesome reliability.