Greetings! Been away for awhile. I have just replaced my 50" rear projection with a Panasonic G15 series 50" Plasma. I have the Axiom 60 series, upgraded with a v150 center and a Hsu VTF2 sub. My current receiver is a Yamaha RXV 1400. Has been a great setup but the Yami has no HDMI. So, I am looking to replace with the Pioneer Elite VSX 21.

I had a lot of help setting up the previous through this forum back then, so I am seeking opinions and recommendations here again.

So, any advice is greatly appreciated. Different receiver, other considerations, places to shop, whatever.

Thanks!
Jeff

Anything by Denon or Onkyo seems to have great reliability these days, the Pioneer SC series also appears to be quite good. What sort of budget and features are you looking for?

I'm in the same boat as you with a reciever void of HDMI input/outputs. So far I've been thinking about going with the Denon 3808 since so many here have been so happy with it. But the fact that it doesn't have the PL IIz feature, which I'm curious about experimenting with height channels, is sort of making me rethink that decision. I have a while, I'm not in a huge hurry to upgrade, so more thought will go into it before I ultimately decide.

Most of the known brands such as Denon, HK, Sherwood, Pioneer, Onkyo ect...should all be fine with the M60's. Denon seems to be the most popular AVR here, with a sprinkle of Onkyos but that's partly because of the fact that many users here have M80's which dip a little lower to approx 4ohms. Many of the better AVRs have high current capability these days(but not all).

Jeff, it certainly has been a while; welcome back! As to the receiver, I'd suggest that you give first consideration to one of the Denon or Onkyo units with Audyssey room correction. They're equally good with respect to basic amplification, so make your choice on the basis of features and price.

Thanks for the reponses. To tell the truth, I really hate that I am looking at receivers period! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I bought my current receiver. (although the years do pass quickly!, I guess its been about 6!) I am very happy with it still, plenty of power and sounds great, but as I've mentioned the lack of HDMI will irk me knowing that this receiver is holding me back from my best picture.

With that said, I really don't want to spend a lot of money but I also don't want to really go down from what I have in terms of power and quality. This is why I mentioned the receiver that I did (Pioneer Elite 21). I have begun to look at the Yamaha and Denon as well. It apperas I need to see which model I can afford from each manufacturer and pick the one that will give me the best value, eh?

Any other advice/comments is appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff,

So you are looking to upgrade your AVR because it lacks HDMI, I understand that, mine does too, but if it is only for video switching purposes that you want to upgrade, you could look to a HDMI switch instead, that is what I'm running while I spend money else where in my theatre.

What components are you looking to switch? Does your current AVR have enough optical/coax inputs for sound? If you have lots of audio inputs I'd consider getting a little more out of your current AVR rather then upgrading.

The only source that I think you would consider HDMI a 'must' from the audio side is a Blu Ray player and if your AVR has analog inputs you could easily pair it with a blu ray player with analog outputs and I think that just about nullifies the need for HDMI for audio... though I do think there is some limitations in regards to hearing secondary audio tracks over for PIP and the like, it will allow you to get to hear the latest audio codecs without the need for HDMI.

I know today's AVR's have the ability to upscale content and switch HDMI sources, but for my use, I'm happy with the upscaling my blu ray player does direct to my display and more then happy with the direct feed from my PVR to my display where I don't feel I need an AVR to do any video procoessing for me.

I decided to get a 4x1 HDMI switch form Monoprice and get a couple of more years out of my AVR. Only thing I'd consider over that is a 4x2 switch. My AVR still does all my audio switching and I'm happy with that.

Jeff, I have been doing a lot of research on this forum and on other sites lately as I am considering a receiver change as well. I currently have a Denon 3806 and certainly can say it seems to be a nice receiver. I am thinking of getting something with more features for my new theater room which will be in process soon. I figure I would like to eventually run more than a 7.1. I also want to try to avoid the Denon this time because I have a lot of trouble with the settings. It is definately hard to navigate for a non technical person like myself. One receiver I have zoned in on is the Yamaha RX Z11. My father has a Yamaha and set up is much easier than the Denon I have. It is an 11.2 with 140watts x7 and 50x4 giving you the ability to upgrade your sound stage a ton if you want to. it has 5 HDMI inputs and 2 outputs. Seems like the kind of receiver that you can keep for several years and survive many levels of upgraditis! I think you can get it in the US for under $2500.

Hi Jeff,

Consider the Onkyo TX-NR807 receiver. 140W X 7 (11.2 support) PLIIZ, 6 HDMI in 1 HDMI out. Ethernet port, Audyssey calibration and tons more features.. paid $1150 Canadian just a few weeks ago. Highly recommend it.

Jeff, since you're considering the VSX 21, it appears that you may be budgeting about $400-$500 for this. If so, I'd suggest thay you consider a factory refurbished unit which will be more full-featured at that price level and in my view is likely to be even a bit more reliable than a brand new unit.

Specifically, in a price range around $420 I'd suggest that you consider the Onkyo 706 , and another excellent candidate would be the Denon 2309 .

Thanks for all the responses. I will be looking at more receivers than I thought, although I do have a budget. There will be no flagship receivers or even near that for this 4 children father! You're about on John K, looking in that price range, although I would spend a little more for the right one. We'll see.

I am most intrigued though by Roar's response. I have been out of the game so long, I didn't even know this was an option. You lost me a tad reading your post, but as soon as I get the opportunity, I am going to look into this option while I decide what I want. Thank you. I have plenty of inputs on the Yamaha receiver, so I have plenty of room and time to do some homework.

Besides, I am still basking in my upgrade in television!

Jeff,

Sorry if I rambled

I'm just in a similar situation where I don't want to replace my AVR right now because I'm happy with the sound it produces and it is switching all my audio just fine.

I'm not convinced a low end (<$1000) AVR will do a better job processing my picture then my individual components are doing right now. I suppose if I had a VCR or a Wii in the mix I could benifit somewhat by the AVR upconverting those signals. But for DVD upconversion, the Oppo is going to do just as good of a job as any low end AVR is going to do so if I did buy a cheap AVR I would only be looking to pass the signal straight through and not looking for it do any processing.

Now my display is a projector with a single HDMI port on it, so I needed something to switch my HDMI sources, I opted for a cheap HDMI switch rather then buying a whole new AVR.

I'm not even convinced you need an HDMI switch if your TV has enough HDMI inputs to cover all your components.

I think you should list what components you are looking to connect to your TV and let us know how many HDMI inputs your television has. From there we could determine what benifits you would get by upgrading versus keeping your existing one.

I rambled again, sorry about that

Man, I think I have had some misunderstanding here at what I can accomplish with my current receiver. This is good for me and my pocketbook! Thanks Roar! I have 3 HDMI inputs on my TV.

My connections have been cable into my cable box, then component cables from it and everything else into my receiver, then component cables to TV. All audio has been using coaxial cables into the digital inputs.

Currently, all I want to hook up is my cable box and Blu Ray player. So, all I need do is hook them in directly to the TV via HDMI, skipping the receiver correct? I guess where I am unsure then is how should I run audio...

Thanks again for your advice, I think my wife is breathing easier

Hmmm, this is a turn of events....usually people spend more money when they ask us for advice!

Jeff, you got it, HDMI from cable box into TV for video, then keep the coax/optical from cable box into your AVR, nothing changes for the audio. Then for your Blu Ray, same thing, HDMI for Video, and coax/optical for sound.

You may have to reconfigure your cable box and blu ray player to make sure it thinks it is sending the video to hdmi and the sound to coax/optical, but if I were to guess, I'd bet the devices will figure it out when you put the HDMI in for video and the sound is probably always being sent out of the coax/optical anyway.

There are two rubs to this setup. First, you now need to switch inputs on your tv AND your AVR whenever you want to switch components, this can be done for you with a cheap Harmoney remote if you don't want to change the input with two remotes... and the second one, which perhaps is a bigger concern is the sound quality on blu ray.

The next generation sound, DTS MA and Dolby HD cannot be output over coax/optical, they can only be output over HDMI or analog. So, that is what I was mentioning before, if your blu ray player has analog outs and your AVR has analog in's then you're set! You just stop using the coax/optical for audio on blu ray and switch over to the analog outs, for this you would likely need to configure your blu ray player. If your blu ray player or AVR does not have analog inputs/outputs, then you are stuck listening to plain old Dolby Digital and DTS... which is what you were listening to before you upgraded your tv anyway

Oh just thought of one thing, you may want to go into the settings for your blu ray player and your cable and make do make sure you are not sending sound out over your hdmi... if you didn't you may be getting sound through the tv and through you avr if it did send it out over both and you wouldn't want that... again, me with a projector I don't care if sound gets sent to both my avr and my projector because my projector wouldn't do anything with the sound anyway as it has no speakers

I've done plenty of that already!

But, it feels good to offer something new for you

O.K. now I'm learning something. I wasn't joking when I said that I have been out of the game a long time. I was unaware of the way to send HD audio via analog. This is no prob, as there are indeed analog outs on my cable box and Blu Ray player and plenty of anaolg ins on my current receiver.

Just some menu surfing, searching and changing of settings and all will be good. I owe you a bigtime thank you Roar, for your bigtime help and saving me some bigtime bucks!

I will still enjoy looking for a good deal on a receiver but that will be down the line sometime.

Use the digital out on your cable box, you'll get better quality that way. But indeed, you can have the BD player decode the HD audio internally and output it as analog on the 6 or 8 jacks on the back. You'll have to set your crossover point and speaker distances in your BD player, because the receiver when using the multi-channel, analog input will only be actings as a pre-amp and then passing the unadjusted signals on to its internal amplifier. It's a toss-up whether the receiver will apply individual channel trims though, you'll have to run a test disc through the BD player and check the levels with an SPL meter to find out where you need to do the trims.

Your cable box probably only has 2 channel analog out, you will want to stick with the digital connection there. Your blu ray player hopefully has 5.1 or 6.1 analog out and your AVR hopefully has the same, that is the ones you want for your blu ray. I'd be stunned if your cable box has 5.1 analog outs and equally stunned if your AVR has more then one set of multi-channel analog inputs

There are just too many upgrades to make in the theatre before I commit some more cash to a new AVR... and personally, when I make that move I want to go with seperates... seeing the brand new Anthem in EFalardeau thread in this forum has me needing to save a little longer

I used to run 5.1 analog out of my HD DVD and BD players until I upgraded the receiver recently. Really not much difference other than simplicity with wiring. You can buy a mechanical switch made by Philips to allow switching between the 5.1 sources, I actually have one collecting dust you can have, just pay for the shipping.

Could you technically just run seperate Y connectors between the connector, making sure you only sent a signal down one source at a time?

I don't think you can, I think I remember reading that you can't do it that way because say for example you are outputting from your blu-ray player will be inputting into the outputs of your other player, which apparently can wreck it.