New receiver recommendations

[cicatriz63]

Hey guys I'm currently looking for a new receiver as it is time to upgrade to something with some HDMI ports. I have a few in mind right now but wanted to get some opinions. I would like to keep things under $500 so that rules out most of the newest models, but I'm ok with last years leftovers. The only real requirements I need are a powered zone 2, so 7 channels is what I'm lookin at. I think I've narrowed it down to 3 and they are:

Denon x2000 - on sale for $399 right now
Yamaha RX-V675 - also on sale for $399
Onkyo TX-NR626 - $499 on amazon.

Right now I am torn between the Denon and the Yamaha, leaning more towards the Denon at the moment. However I have only ever had Onkyo receivers so I am considering the 626 as well, but I have heard Onkyo has had some quality issues lately so I am kind of leaning away from them. It seems like you get much more for you money with the Yamaha or the Denon.

Anyone have any thoughts between the Denon and the Yamaha? The feature set is pretty much identical between the 2. Any other recommendations would be great as well.

 

[rojo]

I don't have any experience with YPAO (oops!) on the Yamaha, but I know the Denon's Audyssey room correction / eq work very well. Getting a refurb from A4L will save you some scratch, and you might even find that the next model up is near your budget if you find any of its additional features potentially useful.

Many of us have ordered refurb receivers from A4L, and no one has reported any problems.

 

[herbu]

Anyone have any thoughts between the Denon and the Yamaha? The feature set is pretty much identical between the 2.

Don't think you can go wrong with either one. The Yamaha has 2 subwoofer outputs. Don't know if YPAO balances them separately, or if you can control them separately from the AVR. Would be a big plus for the Yamaha if you can, but looking at the manual, it doesn't seem like you can control them separately. If that's true, the 2 sub outputs are no better than a single output and RCA cable splitter... and we're back to either one would be a good choice, IMHO.

 

[cicatriz63]

Good points, I only have 1 sub so having multiple outs isn't much of a dealbreaker. I am not realy familiar with the Room EQ features on any of the models, but from my research the Denon has Audyssey MultiEQ XT which will EQ the subwoofer as well. I'm not sure about the Yamaha if it will do the sub or not.

 

[rojo]

I think what herbu was getting at was being able to EQ and correct each of a pair of subs individually. There's no mention of this in the Yamaha manual, though. Indeed, I've also found mention of another model that will only correct down to 62.5Hz. I can't say whether the same flavor of YPAO lives in the RX-V675, but it's possible that the Yamaha won't even correct a single sub. There doesn't appear to be any extensive testing bubbling up to the top of my searches, and as far as I can tell, Yamaha hasn't bothered to publish any sort of changelog or evolution of YPAO.

I hope someone more knowledgeable and experienced with Yamaha receivers can chime in and correct my misconceptions if I am mistaken. I know Yamaha does have a solid fan base.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yeah, eliminate the Onkyo for sure.

In this case it is really just between Denon vs Yamaha. There are similar threads on this topic of Denon vs Yamaha, so I won't rehash because it'll sound like a broken record.

 

[agarwalro]

The Yamaha can do HDMI input switching when powered off. Even the Denon X4000 can't do that.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The Yamaha can do HDMI input switching when powered off. Even the Denon X4000 can't do that.

So if the power is off, how do you switch from one HDMI input to another?

 

[cicatriz63]

I believe the input selections on the remote still work while the unit is in standby. While neat, not really a dealbreaker. Right now I'm heavily leaning towards the Denon just for the fact that I can get it from Crutchfield rather than Amazon for the Yamaha and I would much rather go through Crutchfield's support than Amazon if there were any issues. Anyone have any experience with the android apps for either of these? From my quick searching it looks like Denon's seems a bit more polished, but I have nothing to base that on really. The main use is going to be tv/blu ray and streaming airplay music to the main and/or zone 2.

 

[rnatalli]

I would go with the Denon as I prefer Audyssey to YPAO, but both are great options.

 

[cicatriz63]

Is anyone familiar with the zone 2 functions of either of these units? All of the receivers I have had in the past had the old school A/B switches which all of the newer ones no longer have. I know alot of receivers are limited in outputting digital sources to the zone 2. Does airplay count as a digital source? Basically what I can see us using most would be airplay from a macbook or iphone to the receiver. Will we will be able to listen to this via zone 2 independently of the main zone? Or at the very least mute the main zone and listen to airplay via zone 2 only?

 

[crossedover]

The denon will allow for network streams to zone 2. Not sure about the other

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I believe the input selections on the remote still work while the unit is in standby. While neat, not really a dealbreaker. Right now I'm heavily leaning towards the Denon just for the fact that I can get it from Crutchfield rather than Amazon for the Yamaha and I would much rather go through Crutchfield's support than Amazon if there were any issues. Anyone have any experience with the android apps for either of these? From my quick searching it looks like Denon's seems a bit more polished, but I have nothing to base that on really. The main use is going to be tv/blu ray and streaming airplay music to the main and/or zone 2.

I've used both the Android and iOS for Denon AVR. Both works great, but the iOS is still 100% better IMO.

For me, the biggest difference is the EQ function of any AVR (Room EQ, Sub EQ, Dynamic EQ). So try them out if you can to see which sounds the best to you.