[Delvo]

I'm currently using my PC as my music & movie machine, with a 2.1 stereo speaker set with its own amps built in, and no receiver. I get analog TV broadcasts on a separate TV with an antenna in the window.


When we switch to digital broadcast TV, I want to send the converter's audio to the big speaker system. (Its composite video signal could then be sent to my digital projector, whose only input source right now is the PC, while it could still send both audio and video to my little TV through the RF jack.) I also want to eventually switch the big system from 2.1 to surround sound, and get a blu-ray player, but not all at once quite yet.


The first step in the change would be a receiver, which I can use with my current stuff and also plug the digital TV broadcast converter into.


So let's say I know I want a surround-sound receiver (not just a stereo one), and I know what inputs & outputs I want/need. I could go to the obvious stores, check the backs of their cheapest surround-sound receivers for their inputs & outputs, and buy whichever one is the cheapest that has what I'm after.


So what's to keep me from doing exactly that? By going for the minimum that meets those qualifications, what will I be missing out on? What other qualifications am I not considering that these cheap ones won't meet?


Also, when I was looking at some receivers earlier today, I saw that two that were otherwise pretty similar had wildly different speaker wattage ratings: one said 10 per speaker and another was well over 100 per speaker. What in the world am I supposed to think THAT means? Can one really be that much more/less powerful than another? (I've read the FAQ, but it's not especially helpful on this issue; it's full of technical stuff but not practical "how to know what the label really means" stuff.)

 

[Delvo]

Hmmm... whatever might be the reason for the lack of responses, I'll bump it once with what I've found so far from random scattered threads that weren't exactly on this subject:


Cheaper receivers are likely to have fewer HDMI jacks (in or out), or even none.


When given blu-ray's lossless audio formats, cheaper receivers are less likely to be able to play them that way, and if not, they would play a version that has data loss.


Cheaper receivers have less video upscaling ability (such as no 1080p).


What else would you want a receiver to have that only exists in receivers above some minimum price level?

 

[tundrSQ]

my guess as to why you are not geting any responses is that your questions seem to be bouncing around the walls...what is it that you want to know?


Do you want the OK to but the cheapest AVR that you can find?


Go to ebay and look for a used AVR...and buy somethign reliable like a denon...stay away from products like onkyo which may be more hot or miss.


If you are looking to buy new then it would be best to post a budget, and a list of what you think you want. It seems like i just read that pioneer is coming out with an hdmi receiver for $199...is that in your budget?

 

[Delvo]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ /forum/post/15548117


Do you want the OK to but the cheapest AVR that you can find?

If I had already decided what I want to do, I'd just do it, not seek approval. I'm trying to get an idea of what the different "levels" of receiver are like and what price level it would take to get any given "level".

Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ /forum/post/15548117


...buy something reliable like a denon...stay away from products like onkyo which may be more hit or miss.

I didn't know about that! Onkyos certainly get talked about a lot around here for an unreliable brand. It would be impossible for me to have found out a big general pattern like that without someone telling me, because most threads in here are about individual models, and there are so many models and thus such a huge number of threads, and each of those threads was already so immensely long when I started checking this forum, that there'd just be no way to catch up with it all.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ /forum/post/15548117


If you are looking to buy new then it would be best to post a budget... is that in your budget?

I don't have a budget. That doesn't mean I have enough money, and willingness to spend it, to get any receiver I want regardless of price, and would never judge any receiver too expensive. It just means that right now I don't even know HOW to judge whether a receiver is too expensive.


I can't set a budget because, if I were to randomly pick some arbitrary number of dollars, I wouldn't have any idea what kind of receiver that could get me, and if I had a description of a type of receiver I want, I'd have no idea how much money it takes to get that. I also need to find out whether there are important traits to look for in a receiver, which affect people's buying decisions, but which I'm not even aware of yet.

 

[B&W700guy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ /forum/post/15548117


Go to ebay and look for a used AVR...and buy somethign reliable like a denon...stay away from products like onkyo which may be more hot or miss.

Just gota love FANBOYS. Denon make a good product just like Onkyo, Yamaha, Marantz, you name the mfg.


Delvo, the problem you are going to get here are people, like this, who think that because they purchased BrandX, it is the best. You can't get away from the FANBOYS and Haters

You should go to the HT 101 Thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=824554


There is good information here...also it would be a good idea for the fanboy to read