Reciever Recommendations

mtbiker · Jul 28, 2003

hello,
 Could you all recommend a good Reciever for around 300 to 350?  Starting to build my home theater.  I'm a little new at this so please bear with them through all my questions.

pds · Jul 28, 2003

You can get a Panasonic SA-HE200 receiver from J&R Music for $350.00, maybe even cheaper elsewhere. It has 130 watts/channel times 6 and all the bells and whistles that you will need for some time. It is probably the biggest bang for your buck out there. Panasonic makes reliable equipment and you should be more than pleased with the performance.

Eric · Jul 28, 2003

The ones I like at this price are:

Onkyo TX-SR501, Sony STR-DE695 and Denon AVR-1603.

Of the three the Sony has the most power (90W). The other specs are about equal (THD: 0.08% (0.09% Sony), freq. resp.: 20-20k Hz). The Panny has the highest THD (0.9%) and lowest freq. resp. (40-20k Hz). Check the surround modes on these three and (for me) the Sony wins.

The warranty should be looked at too. The panny has a 1 year and all the others are 2 years.

gene · Jul 28, 2003

Eric/All;

Just a point of clarification, just because Receiver A rates frequency response and THD differently than Receiver B, doesn't necessarily mean one is better than the other.

It is often the case that lower end receivers are rated only down to 40Hz to give the illusion of higher power. The same applies for THD ratings. Receiver A may publish higher THD ratings than Receiver B for identical amps! This would make Receiver A's amps appear more powerful to unknowing consumers.

BTW, stay tuned for our review of the Onkyo TX-SR601 A/V receiver.

Khellandros66 · Jul 28, 2003

I believe Denon has a new AVR1604 or AVR1804 receiver coming soon, you'll probably be best getting one of these, or wait a while and buy a $450-500 receiver.  I started off buying inexpensive gear, but then again my Yamaha RX-V1300 is now my fourth receiver (which I plan to make a pre-amp in the next 1.5-3 years or so, unless Hi-Rez material skyrockets in availabilty).

Patience is the key to buying good gear.

~

Bob

Khellandros66 · Jul 28, 2003

You should take this into consideration too.

http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin....AVR2802

It may not have the high Component Video bandwidth, but I (and many others) prefer direct to HDTV.

~

Bob

Eric · Jul 28, 2003

gene : Eric/All;

Just a point of clarification, just because Receiver A rates frequency response and THD differently than Receiver B, doesn't necessarily mean one is better than the other.

It is often the case that lower end receivers are rated only down to 40Hz to give the illusion of higher power. The same applies for THD ratings. Receiver A may publish higher THD ratings than Receiver B for identical amps! This would make Receiver A's amps appear more powerful to unknowing consumers.

BTW, stay tuned for our review of the Onkyo TX-SR601 A/V receiver.

Hi Gene!

Yup,  that's why I'm not to happy with the panny. I caught the 40 Hz, 0.90% and 130W. Something fishy going on here.

All three others are rated down to 20Hz (or so they claim). The Sony here has the same freq range as the Denon and Onkyo. The THD on the Sony is 0.09% compared to the Onkyo and Denon at 0.08% not too big a diff there. Unless 0.01% THD gets 10 watts, in which case the three are the same.

gene · Jul 28, 2003

Personally Bob, if one were to spend $600 on the Denon AVR-2802 at Crutchfield, I would alternatively suggest they spend about the same elsewhere for the newer and improved AVE-2803 which implements dual differential DAC's all around, and has better SNR than even the infamous $3500 Sunfire Theater Grand III.  

In my opinion, S&V Mag review of this receiver is right on the money!

Sound and Vision Review of the Denon AVR-2803

I just can't believe this much performance can be had for only $800 retail, about $540 street price !

Link to Price Comparison of Denon AVR-2803

Hope this helps.

Khellandros66 · Jul 28, 2003

gene,

I' already new about the low price of the 2803 o certain e-tailers, but take into consideration that they are not authorized dealers, therefore the price of shipping plus a extended warranty put the price up to $675-750, I was suggesting that in his buget, he should buy last years model, with authorized dealer warranty.

mtbiker · Jul 29, 2003

Wow guys, thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it.

How do you all feel about Refurbished units from ecost.com. They have the 2802 refurbished by denon for $329? I just can't afford anything over that.

Thanks
Mark

pds · Jul 29, 2003

Hi Eric, I'm not sure where you have gotten your specs on the Panasonic I referenced above. As from their instruction manual the specs are: 20-20,000 hz stereo mode 0.05 total harmonic distortion 100 wpc into 6 ohms at rated power. The distortion figure is less, 0.03 percent at half power. The higher total distortion of 0.9 is with all 6 channels driven and a power rating of 130 WPC. Considering that you can buy this receiver at J&R for $319.00 post paid, I believe it is a bargain.

Perhaps Gene can explain why the distortion rating is so much higher when all 6 channels are driven.

To the best of my knowledge (and I certainly could be wrong) I think I remembered reading that distortion below 1% is inaudible.

The man was looking for a reasonably priced receiver and the Panasonic should certainly fill the bill. It is considered to be a best buy.

dis · Jul 29, 2003

I was in your same position about a month ago...Out of all the brands I looked at the best bang for the buck both in terms of features, quality and power was the Yamaha RX-V440. (The wattage rating is RMS)

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/RECEIVER/RX-V440.htm

I have the same amp and I'm not only impressed but very happy.

dis · Jul 29, 2003

I wouldn't go with Sony...I can't speak for their higher end amps but their low end stuff in both car and home audio always seems to sound good at low volumes but once it's cranked up, maybe it's just me but it doesn't clean.

dis · Jul 29, 2003

I was in your same position about a month ago...Out of all the brands I looked at the best bang for the buck both in terms of features, quality and power was the Yamaha RX-V440. (The wattage rating is RMS)

You might even find a good deal on the RX-V540 which has a little more power and a few more inputs.

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/RECEIVER/RX-V440.htm

I have the same amp (RX-V440) and I'm very impressed and very happy.

Eric · Jul 29, 2003

pds : Hi Eric, I'm not sure where you have gotten your specs on the Panasonic I referenced above. As from their instruction manual the specs are: 20-20,000 hz stereo mode 0.05 total harmonic distortion 100 wpc into 6 ohms at rated power. The distortion figure is less, 0.03 percent at half power. The higher total distortion of 0.9 is with all 6 channels driven and a power rating of 130 WPC. Considering that you can buy this receiver at J&R for $319.00 post paid, I believe it is a bargain.

Perhaps Gene can explain why the distortion rating is so much higher when all 6 channels are driven.

To the best of my knowledge (and I certainly could be wrong) I think I remembered reading that distortion below 1% is inaudible.

The man was looking for a reasonably priced receiver and the Panasonic should certainly fill the bill. It is considered to be a best buy.

Hi pds!

I got them from panasonic's site. Here's a link:

SA-HE200K

I think were quoting the same spec's 0.9% at 130W 40-20k. I agree that the these two guys have (for all purposes) the same amp specs (save output power).

Edit:
Forgot to mention that I saw only the 6-channel specs on the panny for some reason, not the stereo spec's. Sorry about that.

Have you looked at the Sony?

STR-DE695

6 Channel Power Rating - 100 Watts Per Channel x 6 (8 ohms 1 kHz, THD 0.7%)

Stereo Power Rating - 100 Watts Per Channel x 2 (8 ohms 20 Hz-20 kHz, THD .09%)

Now what got my attention (besides the amp spec's) on the Sony was the modes. The Sony suppports all the standard surround modes of the panny:

Dolby® Digital, Dolby® Digital EX, dts®, 96k/24 bit dts ES®, Dolby® Pro Logic® II Decoding

and has 11 DSP modes to boot (the panny has 7). Add to that twice the warrenty and $100.00 less (the STR-DE695
is $299.99).

I have nothing at all against Panasonic (I own a $2k Panasonic HDTV). I've also owned a lot of Sony stuff and can't say a single bad thing about Sony either. I simply see the Sony as a having a higher 'bang-o-buck' reading.

Peace

2x6spds · Jul 30, 2003

Hi mtbiker

I have to agree with the folks recommending the Panasonic/Technics receiver. I think they're real overachievers, sound great, have a lot of features but tend to run a bit hot.

The Panasonic sounds at least as good if not better than some much more expensive units, including the Sony STRDB1070, Harman Kardon AVR65 and as good as the Onkyo TXDS797 - I own all these units except for the HK which I sold.

mtbiker · Aug 3, 2003

Thanks for all your help guys. I've narrowed my decision down to the Denon 1603 or the Panosonic SA-HE200K.

Now I'm torn, I just can't make up my mind which one to go with. I'm leaning toward the 1603. In you all's experience which one sounds better? I know, or have heard, that Denon is known for awsome sound. Is that true?

Any tie breakers out there for these two recievers that you all know about?

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