Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Receiver on a budget

So my receiver has bit the dust so am looking to get a new one...on a budget of about max $350 cdn.
My current speaker setup is M60s + VP100 + QS4s and an EP350.

Other than the standards one wants in todays AVR's i'm hoping for at least 5 HDMI inputs. The Pioneer VSX-824-K looks interesting but am interested in any thoughts you all might have.

The biggest problem you are going to have with your system is the M60's. They are rated at 8ohm but if you look at the impedance graph they pull most of their power when playing bass heavy in and around the 6-7ohm.

The issue is the receiver can handle the load, but they do a pathetic job of cooling themselves. I don't know if anyone ever bothered to really read the manual for the units, but they say you need to have 16" of clearance on top of the unit, and 8" clearance of each side and back. So you simply can't put it into a rack or near anything else. This is compounded by the power requirements of your speakers as it will pull the receiver to the max powering the lower frequencies of your speakers if you play at and decent loud volume.

Just a heads up to consider.

I am sort of wondering why you would need so many HDMI connections? Thinking possible Cable, BluRay, Game Console, ???

I could probably manage with only 4 HDMI inputs and use a spliter. Gaming consoles, bluray, HTPC's add up and HTPC's don't play nice with splitters so the 4 would be enough if i limited a spliter to the gaming consoles

That Pioneer unit will drive the M60s just fine. Like any receiver, it will have its limits. You have to know when to stop pushing that limit or you will chance clipping and speaker damage.

I've run my M60s from a Harmon Kardon 380i receiver which lists at 30W/ch into 8 ohms. Had no issues unless you expect 90dB at 10 feet.
In my home office it was more than loud enough to get uncomfortable.
http://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/harman-kardon/hk380i.shtml

Well i've pulled the trigger on a used ONkyo TX NR609 (with replaced HDMI board, apparently there were issues) here's hoping it does the trick!
I'm losing the multi analog for my SACD player but i'm sure there's some speaker wire switch or something i can get to hook it up to my old AVR.