[eloon]

So I've been lurking around these forums quite a bit and finally decided to post.


I'm really struggling with choosing a receiver.


Quick background - just bought a house. In the last month in the rent house before moving all of our AV stuff got stolen. Actually worked out ok because I get a lot of insurance money to go back and redo the AV stuff in the new house. I'm setting up a media room in one of our extra bedrooms. It's not super fancy or anything, but I'm working with what I have. Room is about 11'x13' so not very big.


Equipment (either have or planning to buy):

Panasonic 54V10

LG BD390 (likely)

Xbox360

Wii

Att Uverse cable box

Zune (planning to get a dock to run through the receiver)


Currently I have a Yamaha HTIB (receiver is HTR 6130). I plan to wall mount the TV and store all the equipment in the closet - with 1 HDMI running from closet to back of tv through wall/attic.


I have HDMI out on all of the items except for the Wii and Zune (though I haven't explored it as much and not that concerned as it will mostly be for music purposes). I would be willing to run another cable for the Wii if I don't get a receiver with upconversion and let the tv do the converting.


At this point I'm still going to use my yamaha HTIB 5.1 speaker set. I will upgrade these later on but too many other expenses now to do everything at once. I don't think that with my room size anything more than 5.1 (or 5.2?) is needed though.


I'd rather not spend more than the 500-700 range. I don't have to have the best equipment out there, just something that fits my needs. I'm no audiophile (I still think the yamaha HTIB I got sounds pretty decent, especially for what I paid) but I'd like something that puts out decent SQ and will only get better as I upgrade my speaker set. I would prefer to get 2 zones if possible because I am damn sure I can find another place to run speaker wires in the attic to take advantage of a second zone. But probably not a deal breaker.


Thoughts?


Thanks in advance AVS community!

 

[eloon]

After more and more research, looks like Pioneer 919 might be just what I need and pretty cheap to boot. Thoughts?

 

[Notnil]

The pioneer is a good receiver, probably the best price piont feature combo in new receivers available right now. I've been trying one out during the 30 day return window and found the audio quality is good, as is the auto set up features. The auto volume doesn't do much. It does run pretty hot, so won't work well Ina confined space. Also, the component to hdmi conversion is not an up conversion, so depending on how your tv upconverts, your wii might look a little fuzzier than you're used to. I fixed by just running the wii direct to the tv and then an

audio cable back.

 

[eloon]

I've been working with a home theater store here in Houston and the guy told me that there are some solutions to keep equipment cool in more confined spaces. I don't know how much that stuff is though.


That said I was planning not to stack the equipment in the closet but sit them next to each other on a shelf to help with cooling. Obviously there is no AC in the closet...