his old kenwood has developed some sort of popping noise via the sub whenever switched from source to source. for no explicable reason he wants a marantz or yamaha < $1K US.

any suggestions regarding the latest/greatest value-priced receivers - marantz,yamaha, or otherwise?

thanks!

i'm not familiar with Marantz or yamaha models. But, in the same price range, I have found many Denon's and Harman Kardon's to be quite good.

That being said, I'm currently running a 5 year old Yamaha low end 5730 with my Epic80 system, and I'm happy with it. I'll be upgrading once I move, likely to HK or Denon, or a "boutique" brand like Emotiva or Outlaw Audio.

I realize I haven't specified any models. However, I think with entry level, either going with Yamaha or Denon or HK, it's hard to go wrong. I would verify online reviews at www.audioreview.com and other sources to see what people are saying about the units. I pay particular attention to posts about reliability and bugs, as, in general, amp and audio performance will be very similar across all brands.

You can pretty much put every brand on a dart board, put on a blind fold, throw it underhand and be happy wherever it lands. They’ve all got pretty good ‘value’ receivers out nowadays.

It really all depends on what features and function that are needed / wanted. Then you need to start getting more picky.

I love my latest AVR, which is the Marantz SR 8001. It’s not all that and a bag of chips without its own problems, but it sure does sound good. I suspect the lower level Marantz receivers sound pretty good too, and they’re cheap.

Mark, there's a whole bunch of fine units available in the $500-$1,000 area, but I'll suggest the Yamaha 6090 .

I have to agree with mdrew. The Marantz SR 7001 & SR 8001 sure do sound good. I haven't heard the other less expensive models, but I got to believe they are on a par.

Edit: Got my model numbers mixed up.

I agree with mrdrew. Most brands are on par with one another. Really just need to decide which features, stlying and power you want.

I upgrade an old onkyo sr302 toOnkyo TSXR803
7 channels, 105 watts, 2 hdmi inputs, awesome styling and I've liked the old one so I kept with the brand.

Eric, your Onkyo looks exactely like mine 804. What is the difference, do you know?

bigwill2,

also, don't discount the used markets, if your neighbor is not set on having the absolutely latest and greatest features.

www.audiogon.com and www.canuckaudiomart.com in Canada are very good places to look for used receivers. You can also find refurbs at www.ecost.com, or directly from harman kardon's website.

thanks for the suggestions, gentlemen.

a nice price on that yami, John! i believe that would be the winner for me.