help me spend some money...AV Receivers

Hi All,

Looking to upgrade from my ancient Sony GA8ES receiver to a new receiver.

I have $700 as my max for budget. I am really intrigued by the whole 'ez set/auto calibration' type deal and was looking for some pros and cons about the following receivers: Pioneer Elite VSX 53TX ($647 etronics.com), Yamaha 1400/2400 ($570 and $670 etronics.com) and the Harman Kardon 525 ($570 etrontics.com).

My system is a pair of M60s, a VP100, and two ADS L300's as my rear speakers, no sub yet and no plans to go beyond a 5.1 set up. My sources are a Harman Kardon DVD 50 and a TiVo/RCA DSS receiver.

Asthetically the HK would match my DVD player (but this isn't too important to me) and it has HDCD which I feel makes a difference on HDCD discs...but I suppose I can always let the DVD 50 do the HDCD decoding to a different input via good ol' RCA type cables.

Please feel free to share any thoughts on the above receivers and how they would match up in my system...and maybe suggest a few others...

Thanks for your time.

Russ, in my view a key feature is automatic room and speaker equalization(not just the calibration which the HK does). On paper the Yamaha YPAO is slightly more advanced than the Pioneer MCACC, but it isn't clear how significant this is in practice. I'd suggest going with one of the Yamahas.

Ditto on the Yamaha. How does a cheesehead wind up a Vol fan?

His dog wore him out so he can't think straight.

How did I end up a Vol? Well basically I was born into it. My dad and grandpa both were born and raised in Knoxville (I like to call it Knoxvegas) and both are UT alums...so when it was time to pick a college UT was one I looked at and I fell in love with the place. I really miss it, especially on days like today when I woke up to a -12 air temp and -27 windchill. I guess that is nothing for some of the fine folks from Canada that frequent this board.

that's the truth about my dog...he is six years old and as energetic as the day I got him (took him home from the pound when he was 2). I describe him as 44lbs. of legs and lungs, he can run like the wind.

You know why UT's color is Orange?

So you can go to the football game Saturday, go huntin' Sunday and Pick up trash the rest of the week.

You've made it farther than most UT grads. You aren't working at the local McDonalds anymore.

All in good fun. I have lots more if you want to hear them.

Oh believe me I get plenty of it, especially living in the Midwest. People make comments about being surprised I have all my teeth they ask me where my overalls are, if I've had any good moonshine lately, etc, etc...and oh am I thankful we haven't lost to a Big Ten team in football in 10+ years or else I'd never hear the end of it.

You know how to get a UT grad off your porch dont you?

Pay him for the pizza.

So is the current preferred mid tier Receiver the Yamamha RX-V1400?

What are Canucks paying for this?

Van G,
I don't think you have A&B sound in eastern Canada, but I was in the store 4 days ago. The list price on the RX-V1400 was $1170 and the RX-V2400 was $1700 (I think that's right anyways). Of course, that is listed price and doesn't account for any savings if you're a good haggler!

I just bought the Yamaha RX-V2400 in Ottawa, Canada and I paid $1175 Canadian. I checked 2 other stores and they were selling at $1399 (would sell for $1300), and the second store had it for $1599 (the snobby attitude came free with purchase though).

I'm very happy with it. Sound is clean, plenty loud and seems pretty easy to use. Now if I could only figure out how to get it to run the rear surrounds and the presence channels I could get 9.1... Forgive me; I digress.

Rob, contrary to some earlier reports on the internet, the back surround and presence channels can't be run simultaneously, even if a separate 2-channel amp was added. No more than 7 channels total at one time are output.

In reply to:
Rob, contrary to some earlier reports on the internet, the back surround and presence channels can't be run simultaneously, even if a separate 2-channel amp was added. No more than 7 channels total at one time are output.

What is the point then of having this feature? Does any software support this?

Sat, as the link(somewhat awkwardly) you clicked and the manual explain, the user can choose either the back-surround or presence speakers. The top RX-Z9 offers both simultaneously.

Oppss.. didnt see the link.

Thanks for the pricing posts. Looks like the RX-V2400 adds a little more power. Is that right?