2010 $500 A/V Receiver Comparison Guide

[admin]

We love a good comparison so you'll forgive us if we got a little exuberant with this one. The ~$500 price point is a popular one for A/V receivers and just about every manufacturer has a receiver around that price. Instead of leaving out manufacturers that had a receiver a little under or over the price point, we just included everyone's offerings.This year's models range in price from a low of $479 to a high of $599. While that's only a $120 variance, it's an over 20% difference. If you'd paid 20% more for your car, you'd expect a serious improvement. Hitting the ~$500 price point means that the convenience features are going to be key since manufacturers will have to pick and choose what is most important to them. Read on for our take on the receiver offerings around $500 from Denon, Pioneer, Onkyo, Harman Kardon, Sherwood, Marantz, Yamaha, and Sony.

Discuss "2010 $500 A/V Receiver Comparison Guide" here. Read the article.

 

[Bryce_H]

I recently purchased the Onkyo (first foray with an Onkyo) and have been very pleased with it. Now I am not maxing it out or stressing it in any manner - it is the 4th receiver in the house (Denon 4310 in the dedicated HT, and a Denon 3805 in the living room, old Yamaha DSP-A3090 going to power a 2nd zone off the 4310 for patio speaker in the spring). The Onkyo is currently in our playroom/exercise room and configured as a 3.0 system with wall mounted left and right and the center mounted under the TV. I did a fair amount of comparisons prior to my purchase and given the anicipated use, went for the feature set. I have a Wii, Blu-ray player (HDMI), and DishTV DVR (HDMI off a splitter with the 4310). Receiver has been good so far and am happy with my purchase.

 

[Tom Andry]

This article was published prematurely. I'm not quite done with it. It'll be live again in a few hours. Sorry about the confusion.

 

[anamorphic96]

This article was published prematurely. I'm not quite done with it. It'll be live again in a few hours. Sorry about the confusion.

The weight quoted for the HK 1600 is not correct. The actual product weight is 20.5 pounds.

This comes directly from the manual on the HK website. However in typical HK fashion they have it listed incorrectly on the product page.

 

[3db]

Nice compariosn chart. I noticed that Yamaha and Sony are the only receivers with HDMI pass through. Another feature I know that Yamaha incorportaes on this model that doesn't seem to get mentioned is Adaptive DRC (Dynamic Range Control) with Adaptive DSP Level . I thought I toss that fact in there.

 

[gene]

The weight quoted for the HK 1600 is not correct. The actual product weight is 20.5 pounds.

This comes directly from the manual on the HK website. However in typical HK fashion they have it listed incorrectly on the product page.

thanks and sorry about that. I just downloaded the user manual and confirmed their website is wrong. That's a bit disappointing but I am sure the amps are still solid in this product. Their 3490 receiver blew me away when I bench tested it.

 

[anamorphic96]

thanks and sorry about that. I just downloaded the user manual and confirmed their website is wrong. That's a bit disappointing but I am sure the amps are still solid in this product. Their 3490 receiver blew me away when I bench tested it.

Nothing to be sorry about. HK is one of the worst offenders when it comes to getting there website specs correct.

 

[JohnA]

Is there a reason the Pioneer VSX-1020-K wasn't included?

 

[GranteedEV]

Hey, I think I read that the HDMI 1.3 harman kardons have the 1.4 chipset and can be upgraded via firmware?

 

[anamorphic96]

Is there a reason the Pioneer VSX-1020-K wasn't included?

Yes. Because the VSX-30 was. It's pretty much the same thing. But it's now part of the Elite line. I wouldn't read much into it though.

 

[endbegin]

thanks and sorry about that. I just downloaded the user manual and confirmed their website is wrong. That's a bit disappointing but I am sure the amps are still solid in this product. Their 3490 receiver blew me away when I bench tested it.

I'm curious about how to compare the DAC in say the Yamaha RX667 v/s the HK 3490 you reviewed. Both their specs are 24-bit/192 KHz but surely not all 24/192KHz's are created equal?

I do realize that the Yamaha offers much more functionality, but just from a D/A conversion point of view, how could I tell which is better?

Hope you can shed some light on this ...

 

[anamorphic96]

I'm curious about how to compare the DAC in say the Yamaha RX667 v/s the HK 3490 you reviewed. Both their specs are 24-bit/192 KHz but surely not all 24/192KHz's are created equal?

I do realize that the Yamaha offers much more functionality, but just from a D/A conversion point of view, how could I tell which is better?

Hope you can shed some light on this ...

As much as you and many people would like to think there is audible differences in DAC's there isn't. Put a blindfold on and level match the signals and I guarantee you will not be able to tell a difference. DAC's are a mature technology now.

 

[endbegin]

As much as you and many people would like to think there is audible differences in DAC's there isn't. Put a blindfold on and level match the signals and I guarantee you will not be able to tell a difference. DAC's are a mature technology now.

I wouldn't like to think so, so it is nice to know that it doesn't matter.

There are plenty of articles out there that say jitter can be a huge problem.
Even comparing the specs of Yamaha's receivers, say the RX-A1000 v/s the RX-A2000: For the former, the "specs" say that low-jitter PLL circuits have been used, while for the latter it says ultra-low jitter PLL circuits have been used. What is the difference between low and ultra-low in terms of hard numbers? Yamaha (other manufacturers too) doesn't say what it is. Is it just marketing hype? Is there an audible difference?

The point is that there seems to be no reliable way for the average consumer to know these things, which is what led me to this site in the first place.

Anyway, I ended up going with the RX-667. Hopefully, I can finally just enjoy the music.