Need a little help - Receiver / Amp

[Redrum-Det]

I am building my dream room in the basement. I will be having a 65 inch DLP Polk RC80I in the ceilling at the rear and sides. I leaning on the RTi8 up front and either the CSi3 or 5 for the center. Not set on a sub, but looking at Monitor ASW100. My problem, I was set on the getting the Onkyo 804, it seemed that it had the best bang for the buck, on sale at Crutchfield for $750.00. The more I looked into it, I am finding that there are many people that are complaining about a hissing sound with this model. So I am back to square one with the receiver. I have a limit of $1800.00 for the receiver.

My problem is that at around $1500, there are quite a few models that are all quite similar on paper. Denon AVR3806 $1300, H/K AVR745 $1600, Pioneer VSX84 $1500, Yamaha RXV2700 $1500 (listed in alpha order). I am at the point where I could put the names on paper and throw a dart to see which one I buy. I have read that the Pioneer has one drawback, the power cord is attached. Is that such a big deal? I haven't bought or looked at a stereo since I was in the military twenty years ago. I want crisp, clear sound and don't really need 15 preset music scenes or the bells and whistles. HOWEVER, the speaker calibration tools are a great idea.

All thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[VXR8]

Hi Redrum-Det,

I don't doubt that all brands mentioned would have excellent functionality, but I can only comment on the Yammie 2700, for which I own. Prior to this receiver, I owned the Yammie RX-V4600 and the 2700 appears light years ahead of the 4600. Crisp, clean sound is guaranteed with the 2700 and as most would agree, for HT, Yamaha has it nailed for their DSP programmes, for which other brands aspire too. For music, most would also agree that the sound is a little bright, but I have found that some of the Hi Fi DSP programmes aren't too bad - something I didn't like on previous models (I have Polk RTi10s too, which some people find bright sounding anyway).

If you have an iPod, the optional iPod dock is a beauty - set and forget music with a "Music Enhancer" for compressed music files. The room calibration function is also quite good (as a base for initial room set up). This AVR has quite a lot of bells and whistles, such as Volume Trim when you change inputs, it maintains the sound level across different inputs. It can also upgrade your component video images through HDMI to 1080P.

If you are only going to use this AVR without separate amplification, the 140 watts per channel x 7 will suffice. If you aren't going to utilise your surround back speakers, you can set it to "Bi Amp" those 2 channels, so you can Bi Amp your main speakers, if you so wish.

I am very pleased with the 2700 and am only using the AVR to power all speakers, including my RTi10s, for which you may read elsewhere in other forums that these need good power to drive them ( I am looking at getting a Rotel RMB 1095 as we don't have Outlaw here in the land of Oz).

Anyway, I've dribbled for long enough and I hope this assists you in your final decision.

[cfrizz]

Welcome to Club Polk Redrum!

How much time do you spend listening to music? The reason being that most people say the Yammies & Polk RTI series speakers are too bright a combination & can be tiring on the ears after too long a period. Denon's & Polks are a good combo.

You are correct that you have a lot of choices in this price range. If you can listen to all of them to compare what sounds the best to you with the features that you like would be the best thing to do.

Whatever receiver you get, make sure that it has preamp outputs to add separate amplification later on down the line. (Do a search here on the board for more great info.)

Another receiver choice with good bang for the buck & rep is Outlaw Audio.
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/1070.html

Keep us posted & let us know if you have any other questions.

[audiobliss]

I would personally put my money on separates at this price point. If you were working within a small budget of $500 or so, it'd be harder to put together a great pre and amp (though I'd think it'd still trum pany receiver you could get for $500), but for ~$1800, You can definitely get a killer preamp/processor and amp combo.

I don't know if you've thought about separates or not, so I thought I'd just throw that out there.

Unless you watch movies at reference level or are a very discerning music fan, then any of the receivers you listed *should* do a respectable job.

[JimBRICK]

why dont oyu look at this thread, this preamp/poweramp combo for 899 with free delivery is an awesome deal and you'll have true watts to spare

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48901

[Sherardp]

I would go denon 3806 plus outlaw power amp(s), I dont see Sony on the list, but the Sony 5200es receiver has gotten good reviews all over the place including cnet, sound and vision and more. not to mention HDMI connections, plus 1080p upconversion.

[Pepi28]

For what you want to spend you could go seperates and get a great deal on an amp and pre/pro from Outlaw Audio. Have you thought about used also? You can get an awesome setup for 1800 on audiogon or ebay. Just another way to go.

[Huck344]

Redrum -

I've owned the 804 for almost two months now. I've never experienced any hissing noise. I play all my music, movies, tv and video games through it and have never experienced any issues. I did quite a bit of research on it based on reviews at CNET and other places as well as tested it at a couple of different stores. My personal feeling is that it had the best of what I was looking for in the price range I wanted to spend.

[Redrum-Det]

I started looking at seperates. While I conduct my search in the seperates, are there any MUST have features or anything to avoid?