Need some budget receiver recommendation

What's your budget? I take it you are interested in an AVR so that you can eventually move up to 5.1/7.1 at some point?

buy a used RX-V667 or similar. You can get them for cheap (about $325 shipped) or you can get a new one for $360.

For any model you are intent on purchasing, read through the forum to find out about issues with that particular model........

Pioneer VSX-821-K 5.1-Channel 3D Ready A/V Receiver at Newegg for $179.99 after $20 off prom code. Seems like a decent deal for a budget receiver.

The Yamaha and Pioneer are good suggestions. Check out Amazon for last year's models (or older/used). Right now they have the Denon 1611 for $299 (very well regarded budget receiver). They also have the Harman Kardon 2600 for $330 (just over your budget).

+1, hard to beat this deal.

If you want future proofing, getting an older receiver is going to go against that.

Onkyo TX-SR805. One of the all time fav receivers and a legendary powerhouse. About $1000-$1100 when new a few years back. Doesn't support 3d, and only upconverts video to 720p instead of 1080p and so people are unloading them on ebay for $300 or so now. FANTASTIC receivers with very strong amp section. THX 2 Ultra rated - (THX's highest rating.) If you don't need 3d or video upconversion (passthrough mode is perfect if you devices upconvert on their own or if you don't need upconvertin of old sources. You can just passthrough the signal without modifying it and that works perfectly) I loved this receiver and I never should have sold mine.

As tested by Secrets website -
8 ohm load 173 Watts
4 ohm load 270 Watts*
from an AVR!!!

Try to find a single bad review on this AVR.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...06-part-1.html

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/r...805-conclusion

Ebay SR805
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...All-Categories

Unless lip-sync issues will bother you.

^ Point is valid for a small minority. 95% of the tvs out there will have no problem. Only on the fastest refreshing displays will you notice it. I did notice it a hair on my AX200U projector - but it is known to be a 'gaming' projector and very minimal video delay. Most TVs are absolutely fine.

Wow! $179.99 for 3D is not good enough I don't think you will find an avr with the latest 3D features for less. I could be wrong. Good luck on your search.

I haven't followed this much since I gave up on three 805's back in '09. Is the speed of the dislay that's the cause of the lip-sync issues? So my 'inferior' DLP tv was the problem? It's too fast of a display? Seriously?

Everything I read on it when I had the model said that the receiver had a set amount of delay introduced by the processing in DD and Audyssey and such, and that the level of 'lag' that it introduced was well below what most TVs did -- and you could add delay to the receiver, but you couldn't take delay away --- so if you had a faster display than the recivers lag you were just going to have to deal. This only effected DD and DTS and Audyssey modes. If you flipped to stereo you were perfectly fine. They had a few game modes as well that would help speed up the processing a bit - but it was a slight speed up.

There was at least one trick outside of game mode that I read about on the forum and it helped me because I think I was right on the border. IF you increased all speaker distance equally to the max settings it wouldn't negatively affect your audio but would help with delays. IE if your fronts were truly 10 foot away and your rears were 12 feet away you could make the front 23 foot away and your rears 25 foot away by adding 13 feet to each through manual calibration. That would tell the receiver processing that since the distance was further out the receiver would need to actually reduce the lag so the audio would get to you in time. It was a work around and helped a bit. Why Onkyo didn't just let you manually adjust the lip synch property in the same manner is beyond me - perhaps they figured the audio synch would effect such a minor portion of their customers with the typical market of TVs. Most people with a typical HIDef display at the time had significantly more lag on their display than the receiver so Onkyo probably didn't get that many complaints in the grand scheme of things. The processing has gotten faster in newer models - but it still isn't instantaneous. If I remember right from some testing here on avsforum my two year newer TX-NR1007 is 7ms faster in overall audio processing with the same settings. At any rate - my brother has my TX-NR805 on a modern Samsung 1080p LCD and has absolutely no problems. I upgraded to a Onkyo TX-NR1007 to no advantage except Pandora radio - WHICH I LOVE and a couple extra HDMI inputs


There is still a LOT of variance in display lag.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1377652
I ordered three TVs last time I upgraded for use on a gaming PC with intent to keep my favorite and return the other two. I felt gaming lag with the a LG and a Samsung, but I did NOT feel gaming lag on the toshiba - which is the one I kept. I think I'm more sensative to this kind of stuff than most and you might be as well. Everytime i asked my wife if she though the lips were out of synch a tiny bit she'd say "NOOOO - what are you talking about?"

Thanks Archaea,

The delay in the processing is what I remember, back in the day.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted to like this unit! I still drool over the specs and wonder if I gave up on it too soon. Especially since my eyes aren't as sharp as once were..... I ended up going with Denon's 1909, mostly because of the Dynamic Volume and better Audyssey. Is it perfect? No....but NO audio lag after adjustment. Audio specs are WAY pale by comparison!

I've noticed in your other posts you are still using Onkyo so I guess you or they have adjusted.

I'm started to help my son get ideas for a lower priced avr, hence the revisiting of posts like this one. Any speculation on makers' new crops and their 'typical' audio lag issues?

I don't. I haven't been following the newest recievers much because the 1007 I have does everything and has the same powerful amp section as the 805.

I just hate to see someone buy a barebasement curent new onkyo for 300 when the 805 was such a power house and the same money now. Most people don't care about 3d and 720p upconvert max which are its two limitations. Otherwise it is a very current and relevant receiver that supports all the most modern codecs.

Heck on onkyo receivers below about 500$ now days you only get audyssey 2eq which is a stripped down version that doesn't even address subwoofer eq