Hello all,
I am wanting to upgrade my current 5.1 Home Theater Receiver. I am looking to spend between $150-$300. Here is my current setup:
TV: Sharp 50" LED (if that matters)
Receiver: Yamaha Natural Sounds AV receiver HTR-3064
Sub: HTD Level 3 subwoofer
Center speaker: HTD Level 3 Center Speaker
Left/Right Front Speakers-HTD level 3 Towers
Left/Right Surrounds: HTD level 3 bookshelf Speakers
Additional inputs: Cable, PS3, Xbox 360 and Apple TV
Room dimensions: 16' x 17'
I want something that I can run all my inputs to and go through straight to the TV (my current receiver will not do that). I would also like my sound to be good, obviously. Watch movies 80%, play games 15, music 5%. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
You might not want to hear this, but the biggest question mark with having your inputs go straight through the receiver to TV has to do with your "inputs" as you say, the sources themselves. They require HDCP repeaters at the very least. Unfortunately, cable boxes sometimes don't have those, because the providers are being seriously cheap bastards. Many do, but many don't. You can go aftermarket, but that's expensive. I'm not sure about Xbox 360 and ATV, but I def give them the benefit of the doubt.
That said, with all of your sources except for bluray, there is zero loss of quality by bypassing video to receiver. The only thing you lose possibly is convenience. Nothing beats a direct connection anyway. The reason you want to connect bluray to receiver is for lossless codecs (but even that can be worked around in a way). I say this for a worst case scenario.
That all said, Yamaha seems to have a good rep for reliability. Personally, I'd want the highest level of Audyssey my money could give me, but that tech is definitely not for everybody. For me, it made a huge difference in my significantly treated HT (double digit broadband absorbers, acoustically transparent screen allowing ideal front stage). I give it about equal significance to the treatments themselves, subjectively. The speakers aren't the best by any means, but decent values for HT purposes. Anyway, therefore I'd be looking at some Denons and Onkyos myself, possibly Marantz but they are usually lagging behind with their Audyssey offerings for the same money.
Sorry I can't cherry pick one for you. I should say that I don't require my receiver to power my stuff, it acts only as prepro, but if it did, all of a sudden I would require much more time to research the amp section, because I do crank it sometimes.
