Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater A/V Receiver

Need help in getting an A/V Reciever.

Do you shop online or at store?

I need one to drive some M2's and a VP100 and be able to connect an S-video connection to an older Toshiba.

I think some older Denon and Onkyo have S-Video connections but a lot of the new ones do not.

Any suggestions of where to find a receiver -- Best Buy? or Online?

THanks,
Mike.

Your best bet is to use a retail store to scout out models and then buy online. You can almost always find electronics cheaper online, but the stores are useful because you can actually look at things in person there.

This Onkyo TX-SR304 5.1 receiver from Accessories4Less has the S-video capabilities you're looking for, and it's cheap, too.

Mike, you didn't mention what features besides the S-video connections are important to you, but there's a good 4th of July sale(until the 7th) at Shop Onkyo on the 506 factory refurb. When you register for "Club Onkyo" you're eligible for the 10% off sale, a $10 credit and free shipping. That would make the net cost about $169. It has three S-video inputs, and as you mentioned, the 307, 507 and 607 have dropped them.

I have a 505 for going on two years (and certainly paid more than $169 for it) and it has been very good.

Well - I will admit some ignorance.

Please help me understand the connections as this is my first venture into A/V.

I plan to get some Axiom speakers - 2 M2's and a VP100.
I have an older Toshiba TV.
I will probably get a lower-end OPPO DVD player.

What connects to what to make this all happen?

I know the TV and the A/V receiver connect for the audio.
The A/V receiver and the DVD connect via the S-Video connection?
Is that right?

My goals are not high as I just want great sound for music, TV and DVD's.
It's easier to improve over the nothing I currently have.

I don't plan to buy a new TV for a few years.

If your TV has a component connection (three video wires -green/red/blue) you can use just about any receiver on the market as they will pretty much all have this. Some do not have S video anymore because it has pretty much been abolished for component. Composite is a single yellow video wire which has been around forever, you can pretty much guarantee your TV has this as well as just about any receiver.

For the DVD player, you could use any of the above three as well. Again if the TV has component (which is very possible as Toshiba was the first to use it, called ColorStream, I had a Toshiba DVD player with it back in about 2002) you would prefer to use that. If not you'll have to use S video or composite, but S video again is hard to find in a receiver.

Another option is to run video directly from the DVD player to the TV and bypass the receiver altogether. It's nice if you have three or four components to run them through the receiver because then you can only run one set of wires from the receiver to the TV and let the receiver do the switching from the various inputs.

For audio, you will want to run a digital cable (what is known as coaxial or optical) from the DVD player directly into the receiver. You don't need to run the audio to the TV unless you plan on using only the TV speakers from time to time. You can use the white/red stereo audio if you wish, but if you're buying a new receiver and a new DVD player, you may as well take advantage of digital audio and send much better quality sound to your Axioms. From the TV itself the white/red is probably your only option if you are watching cable through the TV and you don't have a seperate cable box.