Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo budget receiver ,,

greetings ,
i have the wallmount m22's ordered .
what would be a half decent receiver to drive them?
id like to be able to play mp3's on it .
maybe 5.1 would be surfice?
be advised that im fairly new to all this .
my budget would be $500.00 canadian , or less .
i live in newfoundland canada .
thanks for your time .
cheers .

Since I'm a Pioneer guy, I'd recommend the Pioneer vsx-1019ah-k. It retails for 500, but you could probably find it cheaper if you check around.

Another idea is to Google for "refurbished receivers". I get a lot of ideas for receivers when I do this. The most popular receivers seem to be (in this order) Denon, Onkyo, Marantz, Pioneer. There are others, but not a lot of mention, such as Yamaha. Some people say that the refurbished units are actually better than the new ones.

As far as sound quality, IMO I think weight has a lot to say about the power supply, but this might not apply much in the 500 and under quality of receivers.

Onkyo refurbs are usually an excellent value either at ShopOnkyo.com or accessories4less.com.

When you say "play MP3's" - what will you use for a player (computer, iPod, etc.)? I'm not sure you can get a network-ready receiver for that price, but any receiver should be able to accommodate a MP3 source device (some more elegantly than others).

yes , i was thinkin an ipod . or any mass storage device that would work on said receiver .
again , this is all new to me .
the last stereo system i purchased was way back in the 80's . lol .
alot has changed since then .
any help and suggestions i could get , will be educational , to say the least .
cheers for the replys people .

Concerning the Pioneer vsx-1019ah-k that I originally mentioned, I went to the Pioneer site and looked at the manual in pdf format. It says it has a USB port for digital audio players (MP3 players) of format FAT16/32.

Here's a link for it. Just click on the Documents tab, then the "owners manual" link. I then searched for MP3 and it came up with just a few lines in the document.

Yep, the '19 has an ever prettier looking interface, but even my 1018 can take a USB memory stick plugged into the front and play the audio files on it.

Your M22s will be good enough that you'll quickly get angry with MP3 music. You'll be able to tell the difference. Store your music in wav, flac, or apple lossless (depending on your computer/player).

That's unrelated to your question, but worth mentioning.

For $500 you could find a very good used Nakamichi RE-10 or AV-1s or AV-10 or something along those lines, I bet. It might take a while for one to pop up, but their sound quality is excellent.

Those are old though.

I'm a big fan of scouring Audiogon for great deals. No need to buy a $500 receiver when you can find a $2000 unit that's used a bit. They're broken in for you and sound way way better. This is especially true since you just bought nice accurate speakers, so you'll notice the difference in quality. Since you're not looking for advanced HDMI features or eight million varieties of 9.2 surround, you can pick up a great deal on a slightly older unit from someone who does now need/want that stuff. I bet there are also plenty of Onkyos and Integras out there within your budget.

wow , right glad you mentioned the mp3 thingy .
as i said , its all new to me .
i have ordered at present,,
the m22 v3 on wall speakers.$470.00
and the onkya tx-sr 308. i got it for $299.00.
and accorading to the reviews , its a great starter receiver .
the reviews were postive , on the receiver and the speakers .
what i needs now , is someone to reccommend me a player.
i would like a mass storage device .
again , its all new to me .
what do i need to buy?
back , when i was a young lad , there was no such thing , as , "mass storage" . lol
id like to thank,, you mates again , for helpin me on my way here .
i should have the receiver and speakers within 10 days .
now , i needs to order something to play music on it .
what would you buy , for the above gear?
cheers again , for the replies .
have a great weekend .
cheers .

Depending on how good you are with computers, you can build a very cheap PC (and, if necessary, external drive) storage device, which you can output via something like iTunes (or any of its competitors) to a USB DAC to the receiver. Or an Apple TV via optical digital to the receiver. I've also been told that there IS a way to use the headphone out jack on a PC or iPod that doesn't totally kill quality and gives a full digital signal to the receiver... though I don't know how.

Then if your music is in an uncompressed format, you'll be all set.

For me, I overpaid to get a brand new AppleTV because I wanted the optical out and control via my iPhone. I think it cost me $400 total for it plus a 2TB external drive. I have to hack the AppleTV to make it read from that drive (though I can still stream my music from my computer with that drive to the AppleTV) before it's perfect, but it's working pretty well for $400. And like I said, I overpaid. I bet it can be done for much less.

Depends on what system you want to run PC or Mac? Mass storage is simple buy the biggest hard drive you can afford, tha bad part is converting all your cd's to FLAC or any form of LOSSLESS format you choose, WAV, WMA, AAC or the like.

as my computer room , and said ,, audio room is 2 different rooms , i can't connect the 2 together .
i was thinking like a ipod thingy.
even one that plays video's .
cause now that im gone this far , i may consider a flat screen tv , to go with that reciever and speakers .
if i got an ipod thingy , that you could load videos on , could i play that , on the receiver and flatscreen?
besises the apple ipods touch ,, nano, classic ,,, what else is ,, out there ?
those rigs seem a weee bit expensive .
i reviewd the '' archo. same princpal , but a bit cheaper .
you taughts??
man , im learning lots here , and again , i apprecitae the replys .
the question ,,
will an ipod thingy player , play videos on that receiver and flat screen?
cheers again , for the reply's .

Yes, what you are considering is possible and an iPod should work without problems. Microsoft's Zune has had some good reviews and for just music I know of one forum member that is running an Olive player and it works very well for him.

http://www.olive.us/products.html

wow , the olive looks awesome . but the price is kind of out of reach , at present .maybe id consider it , if i did'nt have to buy the receiver and speakers . maybe a future purchase .
the zune is more my speed .
i noticed that you live in canada .
i lives in newfoundland , canada . not a big choice of stores here .
i mostly shop online .
where do you buy your stereo gear?
would you happen to have a link?
if im reading things right , am i right in thinking that i could hook up a dock , to the receiver , and leave the mp3 player in it ?
theres so many mp3 players out there , its not easy to choose .
is anyone fimular with the western digital ''live player'' .

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?s...mp;promoid=1034

again , thanks for all the help here .
CHEERS .

Whoohoo! Another Maritimer!!!! Well, Atlantic anyways. I always get corrected by the Newfoundlanders if I say "The Maritimes", when referring to all four Atlantic provinces.

You can absolutely hook an iPOD or any other MP3 player to your receiver if it supports a cradle or a direct USB connection. Worst case, you can simply use the output of your MP3 player plugged into one of the Analog In jacks on your receiver.

Some receivers are built to actually control the iPod from the receiver including with it's remote remote control. However, they don't always allow control over other types of MP3 players. In those cases, you have to use the MP3 player itself to change songs and such.

Some receivers will allow wireless streaming from a PC, as mentioned above. If you had one and a wireless router, it wouldn't matter if your PC was in another room and then there are lots of solutions to control the music on your PC wirelessly as well.

What I do, is I have a product called a "Squeezebox." It's basically a device that you put beside your receiver and it picks up the music from your PC either via your wireless LAN or through good 'old fashioned' Ethernet cable. You can control everything music wise from it and it does other things like Internet Radio as well, which I enjoy. Mine is an older model that came with a basic LCD screen and an IR remote (gotta stare across the room to read the screen and point it) but the newer ones come with RF remotes and color screens built right into the remote itself. That way you can be sitting out on your deck and use the remote without getting up and spilling your beer. Right now, I'm using an app on my iPod touch to do the above. Works great. Saved me from upgrading.

Edit: if it matters...
The other advantage of the Squeezebox is that it sends the music digitally through your network as opposed to applying a 'streaming' protocol. That means if you ripped your music to your PC in lossless format, it stays that way all the way to your receiver. That may or not be a big thing for you.

cheers for the reply murph buddy .
that squeeze box seems like ,, ''the cats meow'' .
but pricy .
i may consider it , down the road thouygh .
hows about this one , as a starter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6E-lXB0Ps

i can get it , for $129.00 canadian . fair price?
seems like a fair rig ,, for a starter .
man , there's so much out there .
to get the ,, right thing ,, ill need another , budget . lol .
anyways , cheers again for the replies .
your taughts on the ''ainol''.?
cheers .

I have a Roku Soundbridge which is a cheaper option than the Squeezebox if you want to just stream mp3s from your network. I also have a Western Digital Media Player. You basically hook up a USB hard drive to it with all your music and movie files so you can enjoy them with your home theater setup. With the Live versions of the media player, you can connect to your network, but through ethernet only...no wireless capability like the Roku or the Squeezebox. If you don't care about movies, then I'd definitely stick with some sort of network music player. They are faster to navigate, IMO. You can also get something like this . You must play the music from your pc, but at least you can enjoy hearing it through your nice system. I've got something similar to that for my bedroom system. Can you tell I like gadgets? Anyhow, I hope that gives you a few more ideas.

Hi Littlejohn,
As has already been mentioned for purely music streaming there are several solutions such as the Logitech Squeezebox, Roku, Sonos or Airport from Apple.

Another great way to do this on the cheaper side is to buy a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that has built in media server coupled with your wireless router. One suggestion (and the one I use) is the D-Link DNS-323. The box itself is not too expensive at ~$120, but then you just need to add hard drives to the size/price point you need.

I use this NAS box to serve video wireless to my PS3. It has a built in iTunes server and UPnP server. There are better ones out there - it's a matter of price and performance. It also serves music to non-iTunes clients through the UPnP server, but I am lucky enough to have a Sonos system for the music side. I agree with Sonicfox that the dedicated network music players are much snappier in response. Hope that helps some.

Cheers!

I am just using my ps3 as a network media player source. As has being mentioned on my other post about HD, I just managed to format a 1.5 terabyte and have been using it since then. As for Ipod dock I just realized I won't need to buy one for my Denon since I already own one that can be hooked up to the receiver.