First of all, I know the receiver question has been beat to death around here and I could search and read tons but most of the time we are dealing with 4 Ohm M80s or more stringent needs.

My question is for a friend at work who will never have anything but a super cheap HTIB sound system but needs a new receiver for with HDMI in to play BluRays from her PS3. They fall into the very common, "nice TV but won't splurge on speakers," category.

I figured out thier need when she explained to me that she was hooking the PS3 directly to her TV and wondering why she wasn't getting any sound from her surround system. Alternatively, I need to go home and figure out if the PS3 can be set to guarantee sending sound via optical out even when a HDMI is plugged in.

So my question is..
What is the cheapest model of receiver you would feel comfortable in recommending for such people.

They don't need new sound encoding, they do need at least one HDMI in (but I'm trying to tell them to plan for the future.) 5.1 outputs will suffice and wattage is an unknown because I can't find anything on the efficiency of their HTIB speakers but they are not monster loud people and have a small room.

Ease of purchase in Canada is also a bonus.


Thanks all. I hope this is sufficiently far enough away from the normal ask to warrant it's own posting.

Yamaha @ $249 - Future Shop
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/subclass.asp?catid=10551&mfr=&logon=&langid=EN&list=&page=0&sort=3
"With a total of 500 Watts of power and dual HDMI ports for HDMI switching, the YAMAHA HTR6130B receiver..."

Or Sony $199.95 - Best Buy
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10086676&catid=20313

I'm wondering how long it will be before M80s are suggested

Murph - I've never tried it, but I think the PS3 has separate output settings for video & audio... meaning you could choose HDMI out for the video, optical for the audio. If that's the case, they might be able to skip buying a new receiver altogether.

Jason

Thanks Guys,

I was going to wait till I got home but she called and is home fussing with it so I looked up the PS3 online manual and found the setting to ensure the optical out is engaged and another to use bitstream so the PS3 does the decoding.

That should be the band aid solution. The receiver suggestions are still good to have though because she currently has only one optical in on her receiver so she has to change cables from her satellite TV box to her PS3 all the time.

She could also use a good universal remote to simplify the switches for her but she needs baby steps.

I would go with any of the low end Denons, Yamaha, Onkyos you can find locally or at FS or Best buy.

For the remote the Logitech Harmony is quite possibly the most powerful, simplest and cheapest you can buy.

I'm thinking she's going to need a Denon 3808 and M80s, with at least an EP350. QS8s are a must, but she can use a phantom center for a little while. That's only a little outside the budget.

Good call...

The optical solution with HDMI picture works fine. I've been waiting out the HDMI AVR saga and use this set up. Lip sync can be an issue since you are seperating the paths of the image and the sound. Not a big deal expect for RP displays, as I understand it.