Thinking about replacing my Onkyo sr605

loki993

loki993

Audiophyte
The receiver is about 13 years old now, still works fine though recently its has started to hum a little so who knows how much longer its got. I ran it with some cheapo HTIB speaker for years until I finally got some decent speakers. The initial thought was run 3.1 but money and room constraints stopped it basically at 2.1. I have a decent room now and some extra money so Im looking to start upgrading again.

Ive been considering this for a while so Ive done a fair bit of research already. The plan is 7.1/2 eventually. Ive considered an Atmos setup, both 5.1.2 and 5.1.4, but the consensus seems to be if you want to do Atmos right you need the 4 height speakers and that puts me into 1k+ receivers and I don't think I want to spend that much right now. Also there seems to be a lot of variation with the quality of atmos mixes and it just may not be worth spending the money right now over a good 7.1 set up. I also watch 99 percent streaming and I dont really know how many if any of them even have movies with Atmos mixes. Also the old Onkyo is now woefully lacking in the connectivity department with only 2 HDMI inputs. I need more.

So looking at receivers Im struggling to find the middle ground. I see budget stuff in the 500 or so dollar range which I feel is lacking in some way, 600 to around 900 which at least on the surface doesn't always appear to be better than the 500 dollar stuff, most of it is still 7 channel. then 1k+ and thats when you start getting into the 9 channel stuff.

so if I am only running 7.1 is there a reason to spend on that middle of the range? Am I actually getting a better amp or am I just getting more "features" than I'm never going to use.

so just to throw out a few things Ive looked at....I have a costco membership so Ive discovered these costco receivers everyone seems to talk about.

Yammy TSR 700 and the Denon s750. On paper the yammy seems to be the better receiver, a bit more power, more HDMI inputs but in reading threads about it the thing appear to have a lot of issues with firmware, I dont really want to deal with that. So the denon then right? How good is this thing really for the price paid? Am I really going to notice a difference from them onkyo? Im not sure.

So then in in the next tier and thats where Im lost because I still see 7.1 receivers, some more power but I dont know if Im really getting anything better at that point. I see a 3400H for 699 and A4L, cant seem to find it anywhere else and paying 700 bucks for a 2 year old refurbished receiver that only retailed for a grand originally feels a bit bad now. I feel like the ship may have sailed on these maybe around BF last year. I dont really want to spend a grand on a 9 channel receiver but if I could find something like a 3600H for the right price I would probably be willing to get one of those, that's about max budget for me I would say but they appear to be all gone and then next up is a 3700h and Im over a grand with that one.

It seems that Denon and Yammy are the big brands right? Is there anything else out there I should be looking at? Onkyo seems to have had its share of issues and are they actually going away? Sony appears to be non existent too.

the other option is to just start hooking more speakers to the old Onkyo and see how long it actually takes for it to die, maybe it makes it to black friday and stock and deals may be better then.


so sorry about the verbose post but I was trying to be as descriptive about my situation while not rambling too much.
 
MalVeauX

MalVeauX

Senior Audioholic
Hi,

For the cost, focusing on a budget, the Yamaha & Denon offerings are going to pretty much be what you'll find. Since most of what you're listening to is just streaming, realize that almost no content has native 7 channels in it and it's all being upmixed from either 2 channel or 5 channel to 7 channel, so the quality of this is going to be based on the processor doing the upmixing. The same is true if you expanded into atmos. So if you're on a tight budget, I would argue, do you even really need the 7 channel thing? Instead, if you have any interest at all in potentially trying atmos, a 5.1.4 setup is the best bang for buck. But yes a 9 channel processor will generally be at the $1k mark across the board.

The thing about a newer AVR is that you get better room correction software and better processors for upmixing legacy content to surround. And then of course, latest connectivity and features for video (not just audio).

You seem to be holding onto gear as long as you can, so if your goal is a 10+ year use, and you have interset in atmos and other stuff, you probably should just get a solid AVR that can do what you want to eventually do. Otherwise, you'll just spend twice as much doing this twice. I would absolutely argue that atmos heights are going to be far more immersive and interesting for surround content than a 7 channel ear level setup will be and would definitely look at the 5.1.4 approach over a 7.1 if possible.

If it comes back in stock, the X3700H is the one to get.

The RX-A2080 is a solid offering from Yamaha.

On a budget, the RX-A880 gives you a lot of power, pre-amp output and connectivity.

So maybe wait, see what happens as stock everywhere is out or thin, and maybe some good sales will appear later this year.

Very best,
 
loki993

loki993

Audiophyte
Yeah, pickins seem to be a bit slim on Receivers right now and the new ones are all mostly showing issues with HDMI 2.1. Seems 2019 had some good receivers but most of those are all gone. So the current goal is to throw a nice center and sub into the mix and see where that takes me, Ill deal with the receiver later or when it actually gives up the ghost on me.

I do hold onto my stuff, I try to get the best I can at the given time and basically if its not broke don't fix it.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Yeah now's a tough time to find the best deals on avr compared to not all that long ago. I haven't had the itch to move up to 4k/Atmos particularly due the work it would entail let alone the changeover in avr and display etc. I like your idea of working on the speakers/sub for now. What do you have now in that department? An hdmi switch might be something to help out on the cheap, too.
 
loki993

loki993

Audiophyte
Currently I have nothing. I have an old Jamo 8 inch ? maybe sub and small center from a free HTIB I got years ago that I used but never set up after I moved. They both kinda sucked and nothing was really intended to stay in the room its in currently so I didnt want to hassle with setting it all up. So Ive been running basically 2 channel stereo for a while now. So its more or less starting from scratch.

Right now everything is in the living room but eventually its going to go in a dedicated media room/area in the basement. So Im starting to build for that.

As for the inputs, right now I have a fire stick plugged into the receiver. I run the xbox and nintendo switch into the tv and just run optical out to the receiver. It works for the time being well enough for my purposes.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Is the hum it's developing a physical hum in the receiver case itself (from the transformer I'd assume in that case)? Or some sort of ground loop type hum audible thru the speakers?
 
loki993

loki993

Audiophyte
Is the hum it's developing a physical hum in the receiver case itself (from the transformer I'd assume in that case)? Or some sort of ground loop type hum audible thru the speakers?
Its coming from the receiver itself.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
yes, that how I originally noticed it.
That can be annoying....I had an older power amp (a Carver M500) recently have some audible transformer issues not only the case but started leaking into the audio channels as well....had to take it out of service (but have plenty around so no problem). Personally I lean towards Denon avrs these days. I do wonder about what's going to happen with Onkyo, some of their announced avrs with Dirac could be interesting.....
 
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R

rnatalli

Audioholic Ninja
Onkyo has some new receivers coming in the next few months that may be worth a look. I believe one will run about $899 and include Dirac.
 
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