Quick Recommendations on new Receiver. $400-600

[ajk1066]

I have been looking to buy a new receiver $400-$600 so I can take full advantage of the newest sound formats coming from my PS3 for Blu-Ray. I understand that the PS3 does all of the decoding so the receiver does not need to be able to decode DTS HD and DD HD, but it would be a nice bonus for any future components. These are the three I have been looking at.

Marantz SR4002 Dolby Digital EX®/DTS ES® Surround Receiver $550

Yamaha RX-V663 7.2-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver Possibly $400. $500 for sure.

The third is the Onkyo TX SR705. I have seen it for about $525

Any recommendations on which would be the best or any better ones for about the same price, or would they all be pretty comparable.

I would have posted direct links but I don't have five posts yet.

 

[jostenmeat]

I would consider at $50 past budget, an Onkyo 805.

- However, Im totally unfamiliar w/ the Marantz
- that Yammy clips video signal via HDMI. For some its a deal-breaker, for others it may not be. It appears the previous version, the 661 does NOT suffer from this issue.
- improvements of the 805 vs 705:

-a lot more current (rated 60 amps vs 36? much heavier, bigger?)
-BurrBrown DAC set vs Cirrus (though many say you can't hear difference)
-Ultra 2 vs Select 2
-zone 3

otherwise, identical, or near identical. Its the increase in power that makes me vote for the 805 over the 705 for relatively modest increase of price.

 

[patnshan]

No need for the Onkyo with the PS3. I'd recommend the yamaha from personal experience with the previous model. Any receiver that sounds good to you that accepts LPCM is adequate. I like marantz and have an 8400, but still thinks they cost a bit too much for the features they offer.

Get the 663, or if you want to save a bit of money, get the 661. You do not need HD bitstream processing if you plan to use the PS3 as it does not bitstream.


Pat

 

[mazersteven]

Take a look at the Audioholics Store.

http://store.audioholics.com/section/28/1/receivers_and_processors

 

[Midcow2]

I would go with Marantz

IMarantz SR4002 Dolby Digital EX®/DTS ES® Surround Receiver $550 ..

I have a new Marantz 8002 and I am extremely pleased. Also as a testimony to Marantz's durability, I still have a marantz 1060 power amp which still works flawlwessly after 30+ years. I have tried Yamaha and Pioneer Eliteand did not even consider them for my last upgrade. I was really disappointed with Pioneer's technical support. The only other AVR i considered was Onkyo, but there have ben some reported heating problems becuase of older transformer technology so I shied away from them.

One caution on the SR4002; it doe not support mutli-room speakers. To get that you need to go to SR5002. If you are only driving one HT then that shouldn't be an issue.


Good Luck!

 

[CAVU]

The Yamaha RX-V663 is the real sweetspot at the moment and can be had for $349 delivered ($549 MSRP).

The HDMI "clipping" issue is utter nonsense and will not affect anyone using standard consumer electronics video equipment. It is only noticable when using a personal computer as a video source and failing to set the output of the computer to "video" standard instead of "PC" standard. Setting the PC properly eliminates this matter altogether! The PS3, for example, has both "Limited" (video) and "Full" (PC) settings; the correct setting (with any non-computer display) is "Limited".

A lot of people keep waving this issue as if it were the plague when in fact they have no idea what they are talking about.

 

[ajk1066]

The Yamaha RX-V663 is the real sweetspot at the moment and can be had for $349 delivered ($549 MSRP).

Thanks for all of the input everyone. What site is offering this price?

 

[CAVU]

Thanks for all of the input everyone. What site is offering this price?

Check post #2 and then jump to the last ten pages or so of this thread.

 

[allargon]

I have been looking to buy a new receiver $400-$600 so I can take full advantage of the newest sound formats coming from my PS3 for Blu-Ray. I understand that the PS3 does all of the decoding so the receiver does not need to be able to decode DTS HD and DD HD, but it would be a nice bonus for any future components. These are the three I have been looking at.

Marantz SR4002 Dolby Digital EX®/DTS ES® Surround Receiver $550

Yamaha RX-V663 7.2-Channel Digital Home Theater Receiver Possibly $400. $500 for sure.

The third is the Onkyo TX SR705. I have seen it for about $525

Any recommendations on which would be the best or any better ones for about the same price, or would they all be pretty comparable.

I would have posted direct links but I don't have five posts yet.

If you're considering the Onkyo's I would wait another month or two. The new line is coming out TX-SR606, etc.

http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers/onkyo-tx-sr606-black/4505-6466_7-32956253.html?tag=prod.txt.1