AV receivers – recommendations?

Looking at getting a new AV receiver since I have finally gone over to HD, budget up to £300. Will be used with KEF eggs in 5.1 guise, what do you guys think I should be looking for? Am happy with my current Onkyo but this does not have HDMI inputs so do not get the cinema soundtrack when streaming HD movies from laptop. Also, must be available in silver!

Newer Onkyo? Still good kit and good VFM. You’ll easily find one that ticks all those boxes

My Onkyo is doing well – I got the one with bundled speakers and active sub – more than enough for my living room.

Dave

Recently bought a Yamaha RX-V475, great sound quality for both music and movies, 5 hdmi ports, built in airplay. Not sure if available in silver but highly recommended.

Secondhand.

Yamaha is the one true way.

If you like Onkyo, then maybe a TXNR626?? in budget and has the connectivity you want. I’ve a yamaha which is getting long in the tooth so am looking around at the moment….

Bought a RX-V675 which is great. A friend bought the Denon AVR-X2000 to replace his Shonky Onkyo and is astounded by the sound quality and features, all for £299. He has always had Onkyo before and after trying the Denon he will never go back to Onkyo, the build quality is terrible, really is hit or miss if you get a lemon or not.

Just got a denon avrx2000 from richer sounds – very happy with it. Has some network integration so you can stream 6 music + apple airplay. Remote on my phone so I can turn it down if the kids have it on too loud in the morning.

Pick the Yamaha the suits your budget, job done

I have Denon AVR too and recommend it but if you can try your speakers with the amp so you know what sounds best with your kit.

What Hi-Fi seem to rate this one:

http://www.whathifi.com/review/sony-str-dn1040

Quite tempted myself as I’ve been looking at getting all hi-tech with my music on a NAS drive, get a new TV, digital music player and perhaps some surround sound.
Looks like that Sony will do the music player and surround sound bit in one go (as do a few others, I now notice) which saves a bit more of the budget for a bigger telly & speakers!!

sorry for being a bit of a thickie, but is an av receiver what id call an amp?

so your tv, bluray, squeezebox music streaming (if applicable) etc would all go through it and to your hifi speakers?

just wondered if technologys passing me by and its the same thing 🙂

Think it went along the lines of: ‘sound processor’ = does all the inputs and decoding but has no amps, ‘amp’ = has the amps built in, ‘receiver’ = has amps and a radio built in.

I’d agree with the above.

All you need to know is that AV receivers have LOTS of connectors in the back and they are great fun to wire in….. 😉

ive got a arcam delta 290
is this an amp or av receiver? ive always called it an amp 🙂

Any good ones that aren’t massively tall? Yamaha do the RX-S600 that look good. Understand that this will compromise the number of connectors at the back a little but happy to sacrifice a few of those when the Yam one looks to have most of the stuff I’d need.

is this an amp or av receiver?

Think typically if it handles HDMI then it’s an AV receiver, so I’d say amp.

sadexpunk – Member
sorry for being a bit of a thickie, but is an av receiver what id call an amp?

so your tv, bluray, squeezebox music streaming (if applicable) etc would all go through it and to your hifi speakers?

You used to be able to get ‘receivers’ which were amps with just a tuner built in. Then you started to get surround sound receivers too; so amp for stereo, plus a tuner, plus all the amps for surround sound (5.1/7.1 etc) and all the connections/signal processing that entails.

I haven’t really followed hi-fi kit for ages, but have recently been looking into it and it now seems that you can get av receivers with network capability to stream music from wireless devices and also the same thing, but with surround capability too.
So, one box can do the amplification for stereo stuff and surround sound too. Plus, you can get the radio through it (normally via internet radio) and you can get music off something like a NAS drive or a laptop to play through it.
From your list of things in your OP to plug in, the squeeze box wouldn’t be necessary, as the network streaming bit of the receiver would do that too.

sadexpunk – Member
ive got a arcam delta 290
is this an amp or av receiver? ive always called it an amp

.

Just an amp.

thanks, sorry for the slight hijack but im asking cos im about to buy a samsung bluray player, for playing stuff from my laptop, and also youtube/netflix/iplayer/4OD.
i assume im not missing a trick here and a modern av receiver wouldnt do all this and more would it?

Sadexpunk, an amp will not do video streaming (youtube/netflix/iplayer/4od). But it may do Airplay music, DLNA music, Spotify, Internet Radio, etc.

thanks mate.

Yamaha is the one true way.

this^^ and

Pick the Yamaha the suits your budget, job done

Edit: I recently changed from Onkyo to Yamaha and really like it. You will find that the wiring/connection options on newer AV receivers can be a little intimidating, but just takes a little patience.

Can I just chine in with an anti-Sony rant as one was recommended above – weirdly Sony stuff is always top rated with What HiFi.

I have just bought a Sony kitchen stereo as it seems to be the only thing that ticks all the boxes I wanted, DAB, CD, Bluetooth, USB connections. However, it doesn’t connect to my admittedly aging iPod, the sound is a little thin and from time to time you have to turn it off at the mains to re-boot it as it will not respond to remote or on unit button presses.

I’ve never been a Sony fan, have tried a couple of bits recently and not really been won over.

I do have an Onkyo AV amp, about 6 years old, still going strong, works flawlessly.

I’d also consider Yamaha too though, have fun with buying there’s loads of good stuff out there.

Am happy with my current Onkyo but this does not have HDMI inputs so do not get the cinema soundtrack when streaming HD movies from laptop.

Nor does my Denon A/V amp have HDMI but I get round that by connecting laptop to TV with an HDMI cable and then routing the sound output from the TV to the Denon A/V amp using TOSLINK so the A/V amp is still getting a digital input.

Denon AVR X2000 comes with Audyssey MultEQ XT – advanced room correction equalisation which is highly praised.
Pick em up for £300. Bargain.

My Sony TAFE-570r has been flawless since 2002, or something. But that’s not a statistically-important sample I suppose.

The new Sony laptops are dire, break all the time [sample of about 4 there I think].

Sony often tune their sound in a certain way though, smooth with a tailing-off in the treble, but a little peak at the very top. Suits my Technics speakers, but not my AEs.

I’m looking to do similar and am equally clueless, choice is between soundbar or using existing 5.1 speaker set that I got with a Jamo DVR50 all in one package like this: –
http://img.clubic.com/00058349-photo-jamo-dvr-50.jpg

I am just unsure as to whether the speakers and active sub will wire straight into a new AV receiver? Any ideas? Connections on Jamo looked like this: –

http://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/164801-jamo_dvr50_receiver.jpg

I’d probably go for one of those Pioneer receivers at Richer Sounds for 130 quid – its got airplay and I don’t need top of the range

RX-V2065 here, do I win the Yamaha numbers game? 🙂 Onkyo always used to be ‘brighter’, Yamaha ‘smoother’, don’t know whether that still applies or not. Did Denon split the difference?

Onkyo and Yamaha seem to swap places at the top of the review lists for A/V receivers. I’ve got an old Yamaha A/V amp, no HDMI, or many of the more modern inputs, like USB, or up scaling, but it’s got optical in, so my Mac Mini and my Sony Minidisc recorder both get optical in. Great amp, got it half-price, £500…

Been considering this as an update an old Cambridge Audio AV amp with no HDMIs . Anyone tried one of these?

http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-12343-marantz-nr1504-3d-ready-networked-home-cinema-receiver.aspx