Good Reciever

Look at Onkyo and Yamaha and Pioneer in this price range. All of them are the best quality you're going to get at this price. You can't go wrong with these 3. I just purchased the Pioneer VSX-516 for $199 and I'm very happy with it.

For the money your not going to beat this. They are built like a tank, a five year old could run the setup menu and it sounds pretty darn good.

http://www.accessories4less.com/cgi-bin/item/ONKTXSR503

Here I dug this up on the Onkyo.....

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/art...rticle_id=1083

I have the Yamaha HTR-5935 and love it. I think it's $200ish at Best Buy.

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I HIGHLY recommend pulling the trigger on this one. Wish I would have found it before I got the Pioneer for 10 bucks more. Don't get me wrong The Pio is a great receiever but it does have drawbacks. No S-video connections. The Manual totally sucks and the remote is tiny and cheesy. I don't see you beating the features and ease of use this one has for the price.

The only thing to beware of with the Onkyo is if you ever want to upgrade to larger speakers you wish you had more power.

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he makes a good point. you might be able to find a refurbished onkyo 602 for about $250, which has more power, features, and pre-outs (i think) so you could add a separate amp down the road if you wish. that said, i still think the 503 is a nice receiver.

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602 has no pre-outs and the power difference is negligible. At this price point your not going to hear the difference anyway. Also I don't think anyone has any refurbished 602's anymore.


Having said that I have a 602 in my garage buried under tons of stuff and it keeps humming away like there's no tomorrow. That's why I said these things are built like a tank.

no pre-outs on the 602...i stand corrected.


you also might want to look into an H/K 235, which are still available refurbished for about the same price. it has pre-outs and more features than the 503.


i owned both the onkyo and the H/K and prefer the H/K sound, but that's just my opinion.

I am sorry I am new to this. What is a pre-out and how would it make things better for me?

Happy Yamaha owner here.

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it allows you to connect a separate, dedicated amplifer if you one day decide you need or want more power for you speakers than the receiver alone can provide.

On another thread it was said the xr57 would be availible from Panasonic website for $299 the last week of May. That is if you had your heart set on the xr55.

My recommendation:

For 7.1

http://www.harmanaudio.com/search_br...0235-Z&status=


For 6.1

http://www.harmanaudio.com/search_br...0135-Z&status=