Lower end Pioneer's & Yammy's: shopping for a friend

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

I have a good friend looking to get started on a setup HT for his home. I remember reading a few months back about lower end Pioneers and Yammy's and which is better for HT setup and I cant find the threads so Im looking for some input:

Budget for Receiver: $500

Needs: Does not need hdmi...just good sound for HT and able to push some decent fronts and center ($1000-1200 budget for those).

What do you recommend at that pricepoint?

 

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

Oh and Im wanting to look at either left over models for this year or if I can find them, last year to get a better bag-for-the-buck!

 

[Seth=L]

Pioneer VSX-1016, that is my vote.

 

[Daz3d&Confus3d]

I'll check it out....any others?

 

[nhpm510]

What about Yammy 2500?

Lots if places discounting it to $499 now.
Came out around $1k.

regards from PM in VA

 

[jcPanny]

Yamaha receivers.

Checout out the AH review on the RX-V659. Look for it or the comparable HTR-5990 online for $300-350 from authorized dealers. I have the slightly older HTR-5890 and would recommend it.

As suggested above, there are some good deals on the older models like the RX-V2500 but it lacks the newer XM and iPod dock features.

 

[gmichael]

All good options so far. You can't go wrong with any of those models.