Need help deciding on a receiver.

Ok theres 2 things to research:


1. Feature set

2. and ... POWER!


I am going to talk about power, because features are boring. Power matters ... big time! So search for the most power for the buck, with a feature set you can stand.


Most receivers are actually anolog amped. Big honking old fashioned transistor technology, cooled by heat sinks, and all powered by this single, large square looking electrical component called the transformer.


So think of a 7.1 receiver, it has 7 amp sections, they generate heat and need to be cooled by metal heat sinks. You can often peer in the grill and see these lovely metal sculptures called heat sinks. If they look heavy and good, thats a good receiver.


But each of the 7 amps needs power from that big heavy block of metal called the transformer.


So say you were made out of money, and bought the best receiver on the market. It would likely have this massive 15 pound transformer, powering 7 amp sections with these big heat sinks. And of course all this stuff would require a big strong chassis to hold it. So .... the great receivers weigh probably 50-100 pounds ....


But you have a budget, so you just want a good receiver. So why not look for about a 30-40 pounder? They go from just under 400 bucks, to around 1000 bucks.


If you wanted to spend 200-250 bucks ... then you want to look at digitally amped receivers ... they are light, but still have pretty good power ... like those panasonic receivers. The feature set is barely adequete, but thats another story ...


THe last time i shopped receivers, the best $400 dollar receiver was a Pioneer 1016, which weighed in about 32 pounds and had good audio features. But this was over a year ago.

Depends on your "workflow." I'm kinda oldschool as I want good sound first, features a distant second. I don't have that many signal sources so it is rather simple for me. In general though, that is a place to start. Look at what your sources are, what connections/formats they have, then get a receiver that can handle all of them (and maybe a few more in case you add more stuff). I don't feel the need for my receiver to handle any of my video as my display can do that. But everyone has different preferences.


In my case, I have an Oppo 981 DVD player, DirecTV, and that's it for video sources. I have a VCR and DVD-R, but I don't really use them often so I put them in the closet and can hook them up if need be. I run the video from each direct to my Panny plasma. Audio is toslink from both the Oppo and DirecTV. I also have toslink from my Airport Xpress taking a lossless wireless stream from iTunes on my desktop computer. I have plenty of other inputs on my 540R to hook up everything I own, but choose not to right now.


But compared to a lot of people here, I have a brutally simple setup. I like it that way, and don't feel the need to have a zillion boxes around. Plus I don't game or even watch that much TV. Mostly netflix videos and stereo music.