Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Do I pull the trigger? (receiver)

I have an Onkyo 600 that has and still serves me well. My Epic 60/500 sounds great. I have however been toying with the idea of getting a new receiver but being located on the butt end of Africa has its challenges. Firstly there's not been much high def stuff to speak of. Blue Ray is scary expensive and not in any rental shops yet, but our first HD channel is launching for the olympics. At some stage I'm going to have to bite the bullet but cost and timing are critical in my opinion. If I make a purchase it will need to last for probably 8 to 10 years.

I have always liked the Denon kit and the 3808 is really nice. Locally it comes in at $3,000 and there is no way I can justify that price. The Onkyo 605 is $1,300 which is also quite scary given you can get it for $400 in the US.

So I was thinking that since I will probably only have 1 hdmi source for a while, upgrading is not vital and when I do get a second source, I could maybe get a switch for the hdmi video and just use the 5.1 rca audio outs from the blue ray player I end up getting to my current receiver to get the better sound. I could probably get away with my current receiver for at least 6 months but more than likely a year or so without "having" to upgrade.

Then I see that the place I normally buy my stuff from has the Sony STR-DA5300ES for the equivalent of $1,100. They normally retail closer to $1,800 here. Now I've never been a huge Sony fan but at that price my ears picked up. I realize that they will more than likely announce a new model in the next few months but the specs seem pretty good, although I'm not 100% sure how good it will sound.

I guess my rambling thoughts come down to:

• How good do you think the sony is and how much of a step up in sound (if any) compared to the 600?
• What's your best guess as to how well it will stand up to future advances? If I need to upgrade this thing in 3 years I will have a cow.
• Do you think the price is too good to pass up on?
• Would you hold out for as long as you could and then decide based on what's available at that point in time even though it might be more costly?

I think you see where I'm going...

Just looking for a sounding board to bounce ideas off of.

Thanks,
David

If the Onkyo sounds good I see no reason to upgrade, especially at those prices.
You really don't need HDMI on your receiver at this point , and if you need more just get a HDMI switch.
If you have friends in the states, perhaps they could purchase a receiver and ship it to you, that would sure save a lot of cash. Just my 2 cents.

It doesn't seem you need to upgrade soon. HDTV (not Blu-ray) is only regular Dolby Digital (audio) and does not require more than Component for video. Using analogue for hi-res Blu-ray is quite fine with either component to your TV or HDMI. You may as well wait until the dust settles a bit on those new receivers to make a move.

My plan was to actually get one shipped out at some stage. Shipping costs are ever increasing(oil prices) however, and you can forget about the warranty. I'd need to pay VAT as well, so if I got one shipped I'd be looking more at receivers in the $700/$800 range.

Hmm, I just looked at the specs for the Sony, and it looks good, but as HomeDad said, the upgrade in sound may not be that noticable. Sony receivers have never been too popular here on the boards, but who's to say that Sony couldn't upgrade and get our attention.

They certainly have gone gonzo on the HDMI: 6 in, 1 out. And your price is not bad. From what I just saw on Google, that AVR retails for $1000 to $1700 in the USA.

I'm curious about what the HD audio codecs can do, as I've always had the nagging feeling that my BDs are underperforming with my current set-up. Woe to me that Sony has beaten Outlaw to market with HD audio codecs!

But back to your situation. If you're not going to get Blu-ray discs, then I say wait for an AVR upgrade until you do. Enjoy your Onkyo and don't let the upgraditis bug make you spend money unwisely.

Which part of Africa's butt do you live in?

Lol, it seems like this is going in one direction. My wife may encourage me to spend more time here


Butt = bottom = as far south as it goes: South Africa

The new sound formats are really exceptional, Imho a huge leap over normal audio.

Homie, that's what I'm hoping for.

Also, I am hoping that the new Outlaw prepro comes out ASAP. Looks like it'll be another awesome product.

Yeah Doc, the sound on many of the new discs is excellent, but caution in assigning this entirely to the different format is justified. For example, consider the tests(blind and otherwise)rather briefly described in the current issue of Home Entertainment Magazine .

JohnK - Thanks for the link. I always enjoy reading the links you put up. Have you considered writing your own blog? (or do you have one I don't know about?) I'd promise to subscribe if you ever decide to!

Jason

Naw Jason, what I do here and on a board where I do financial/legal advice is more than enough time spent on the internet.

I currently haven't taken the leap to HD yet but I would like to upgrade my TV and receiver (Denon AVR-3801) down the road if possible. I've read through this thread but I'm still confused slightly. My personal preference is sound rather than picture. That said I was wondering if I buy a PS3 for a blueray player, will I still be able to utilize all the new audio formats on blueray even though I have a older receiver? I would assume this would require the PS3 to do the decoding? Would I still be able to connect it to my SD television? Last question but I don't know if there's any other reason other than storage capability to go for a PS3 with more storage i.e. noise etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I know nothing about gaming consoles because I can't use them . I would be buying this for my friends to enjoy for gaming and myself for movies.

Cam

Yes, you can utilize the new audio formats with a PS3. The PS3's only option is to decode these new formats and send it as LPCM, as it can't bitstream them. As long as your receiver can accept multichannel LPCM over HDMI, you're fine. And yes, you can still use your SD TV until you get an HD display.

I wouldn't worry about storage unless someone is going to use it for gaming a lot. There are slight differences in features depending on the model with regards to SACD playback and backwards compatibility with PS2 games. If neither of these concern you, I think any model of PS3 should do.

Now someone else with more knowledge can fill in the gaps.

Thanks for your help!! How do I know if my receiver can accept LPCM over HDMI? My AVR-3801 doesn't have any HDMI hookups.

As CV said, the PS3 decodes all the new formats, but if you have an older receiver you probably won't be able to get the new sound formats. Your receiver would have to have an HDMI connection as well as stated before, be able to accept LPCM over HDMI.

So that means that my next upgrade should be a receiver? I figured that's what it was going to boil down to. ERR the 3808 is so expensive in Canada. Going to have to take a look on eBay for a refurbished one.

Try Dakmart, they ship to Canada and also have the 3808ci on sale on Canada E-bay Dakmart
I've purchased from them and never had a problem

Thanks for the advice HomeDad, I'm checking them out right now as we speak. Any suggestions on extended warranties? I virtually always get extended warranties with my electronics but I've never purchased a refurbished unit even though it is refurbished directly by Denon. The only problem with an extended warranty through Dakmart is that I would have to ship it back to them which would be a hassle. If I didn't get an extended warranty I could send it to the authorized dealer service center here in town. Seeing that I've never had a problem with my other receiver I think this would be the better route to go.

I never go with extended warranties and have been fortunate enough not to need them, years ago I dropped an old receiver and sent it to Denon to get it fixed and they charged me less than $50.00, I think it cost more to ship it.
Imo it would be cheaper to go without the extended warranty if you have a good service center near by. In my case I've never had any problems with well made electronics.

I have a PS3 doing the DTS-HD & TrueHD decoding and I'm surprised to read that he doesn't think there's much difference. I tell all my friends that I wonder if the bigger upgrade in Blu-Ray isn't the improved audio over the video. At least I did before I got my DLP calibrated and the visual difference gapped. A lot more impressive soundstage in most movies.

I get that his point is with "well recorded" compressed tracks you might not be able to tell the difference, but that doesn't really mean anything. After all, it almost always comes down to practical application right? If most of the traditional surround sound tracks sound like garbage because they were poorly encoded it's the same effect right?

On the other hand, even with my Dave & Tim Reynolds at Radio City blu-ray I can still blind test the different tracks. And I'm guessing some care was done with the different encodings given it's an audio disc.

And I have pretty humble gear. I would think it's more obvious on top notch stuff.