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| I am looking in the market for a/v reciever. Budget is around $300 (for reciever only). What is the best bang for the buck ? I dont have a huge living room. Also how does Sony perform ? Speakers and / or Reciever ? Thanks in advance.. |
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Anonymous | Onkyo TX-SR501 Harman Kardon - AVR125 Denon - AVR1603 Check out some Yahama models also Also check out previous years models, which might be cheap. There isnt that much change in receiver technology every year! |
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elitefan | The Onkyo and H/K are excellent for the money but I would avoid Sony, Yamaha and Denon from past experience. J&R Music World has the H/K for $269.88 and a refurbished Onkyo TXSR-500 for $149.88. Kind of hard to beat that. |
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Max | Hey, yup, go with H/K over onkyo. It would be a shame to get an onkyo over an H/K..onkyo's are known to crap out as with most malaysian products. Well its a no-brainer to me but the choice is yours! Max |
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elitefan | The Onkyo unit I mentioned has been refurbished at the factory and comes with a 1 year warranty. A refurbished unit means it has been gone over and any problems have been tested and fixed which is more attention than new units get so I would not worry about future problems. I have had 2 Onkyo's and they were both very good and had excellent build quality. Both being equal I would probably rather have the H/K but $149 is a great deal for the Onkyo. I think it's worth a call to J&R. |
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Max | Hey, Yeah that actually is a very good deal! |
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Anonymous | Most receivers mentioned above are good. Remember you are looking at the low end to mid-range. I would suggest you for for the features you want and then audition the above brands. At this price ranges, whether you go for a HK or an Onkyo or an Yamaha, you are likely to be satisfied. Don't expect a high end sound from a low end system. Having said that refurbs is the way to go. You can get a more expensive systems with better DACs and Amps are a budget price. |
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Hawk | Nandy: I have a better idea for you. You can get a Marantz 4300 for $329.99 from an authorized dealer called Accessories 4 Less (accessories4less.com). This is just a bit north of $300 and it is a huge step up from the other receivers mentioned here. I also like the Onkyo TX-SR601, available from eCost.com for $299.99. Both of these units have fully discrete amps for each channel, unlike the other budget players mentioned above, and have much better power, too. They are both "factory refurbished" (hence the great price), but that should be no problem. Refurbs have a much lower return rate than do new units--anything that was wrong has been fixed already. Generally, refurbs are new units whose boxes have been damaged in shipment--they have been removed and checked out to amke sure the unit wasn't damaged and then reboxed. I bought a refurb myself and I have heard nothing but positive things from others who bought a refurb. |
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elitefan | Good advice Hawk. Both are excellent and priced right. |
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| Thanks a lot guys.. I will check out the onkyos & h/ks as mentioned. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the messages. |
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Anonymous | Nandy I agree with Hawk on rufrbs. I bought a refurb HK and am very happy with it so far! Also, note if you are buying Marantz from a online dealer, you are lokoing into a shipping charge of $30-$50. Many Onkyo and HK dealers give free shipping deals which is not the case with other manufacturers. Check out www.bestpriceaudiovideo.com for Onkyo. They are an authorized dealer and I have always seen them having the lowest prices on Onkyo with free shipping. |
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Anonymous | When you buy from an authorized refurshed dealer throughtheir websites do you have to ship it back to them for any unanticipated repairs or can you have it fixed at a local authorized repair center? Thanks |
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Hawk | Anon: No. It is my understanding that if you buy a refurb from an authorized internet dealer such as One Call, any authorized warranty station can repair it under the warranty. |
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Max | Hello, Do you guys consider H/K low end? if so what are some high-end receivers{not seperates}? |
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Hawk | Max: No, I don't consider H/K low end. They are among the very few receiver makers that puts in a quality power supply which alone qualifies them to the exclusive club or receivers I will listen to. High end receivers, IMO: Denon 2803/3803; NAD 742/752/762; H/K 325/525/7200; Rotel 1055/1065; Onkyo 701/800; Pioneer Elite 45/55; Marantz 7300. Anything above about $1300 (except the Rotel) are excluded from my list because above that point, you can get good separates (Outlaw or Adcom) that will embarrass any receiver except the McIntosh ($4K). Also, the big Japanese receiver makers really start to put on the "gizmos" that are a joke--certainly don't improve the sound. Just my opinion . . . |
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Max | Hello, Well your opinion is much appreciated Hawk! I always liked H/K too but the other day some guy told me H/K is part of a big conglomerate that includes many other brands. What exactly does he mean? Thanks again Hawk, Max |
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Anonymous | HK's parent company Harman International owns several companies including HK, AKG Acoustics, JBL, Infinity Speakers, Mark Levinson and others. |
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G-Man | A lot of conglomerates have separate smaller companies under their umbrella that mostly operate separately. There are plenty of conglomerates that make great products and plenty of small companies and individuals who make garbage. It is a meaningless distinction, unless you have a socio-political bone to pick. Sidney Harman is one of the most respected men ever in audio. The quality of Infinity speakers (particularly at the top end) have more than surpassed the quality they once were many years ago when they were considered very good. Infinity experienced some shoddy times in the 80's and early 90's until Harman bought them in the early 90's and hired Floyd Toole, the senior researcher at the Canadian Research Council (the best speaker development place in the world, until Harman started investing a ton of money into that realm in the US) to develope new designs. Since 2000 some excellent high end designs--the Preludes and the Interludes have impressed even the tweako magazines that weren't prone to like them. Even the defense department nutjob, Anthony Cordesman (who also writes for Stereophile), grudgingly admitted they were high quality. Cordesman probably does great work for the government, but he always struck me as knowing squat about audio--as is the case of about everyone at Stereophile. I don't think any of them have engineering or audio degrees--they can write--that is their main qualification. That and they go along with the publisher's (I think Atkinson--ugh) party line. Picasso was into cubism--most of the tweako mags are into "tubism", not to mention a lot of other unscientific nonsense. |
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Max | Hey, Yeah I dont buy in to the those audiphile writings because they are usually trying out like 600$ receivers on 20,000$ speakers and vice versa. Ok I gotta go we got a storm coming!!! Max |
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G-Man | Well--hope you battened down the hatches. We got off lucky here in Charleston, SC. Thankfully Isabel went north and we had a partly cloudy and breezy day. The ocean was rather turbulent though and I definitely wouldn't go swimming---lots of rip currents and big waves. My friends in DC, VA, and NC haven't fared as well. But a few years back when Floyd breezed on past it blew down my chimney and a couple of trees. Thankfully I moved here in 1995, after Hugo did a lot of damage in 1989. Getting back to big and small companies. There are a lot of charlatans in small companies, not that there aren't some honest and excellent engineers too--- take John Tice for one. Paying for his line conditioners and power blocks is like paying for magnets in your shoes to promote blood circulation. An exercise in futility, except for his wallet and retailers. The small manufacturers of 8 and 25 watt triode tube amps for thousands--what insanity. They sound like garbage and perform like garbage--yet Stereophile used to write (maybe they still do) that they liked/loved them. Of course, no engineer ever wrote that, just the dentists, wannabee audiophiles, and writers (with no engineering or knowledgable background in audio), people they have writing for them. The amount of non-scientific garbage and erroneous information they push is astounding. And distressing to anyone that cares about state of the art performance and honesty. I can go on and on about Stereophile and their publishing ilk--from writing that green magic markers on cd's improve sound(PUHLEEZE!!), wire and cable insanity (UGH!!), ridiculously expensive antiquated technology like tube amps and receivers are great, and the general tone--if it is more expensive and they advertize here it has to be better. Afterall, trust me--I can hear the difference even if you can't and even though I would never submit myself to an ABX test--Im still in the know because I have golden ears :-( cough, cough!! It is sad because they have such good testing equipment and rarely follow through with anything the equipment tells them. For years they raved about a lot of expensive speakers that had awful sound curves, yet they acted like they didn't exist. It is a religion and marketting money making exercise parading as a science to these publishers and writers (who know what the publishers and editors want them to write). My advice--buy a few issues of Sound and Vision and compare them to the tweako publications. The writing is generally absent hyperbole and BS and is written by audio engineers who know circuitry and sound. You won't find David Ranada and Ken Pohlmann (two degreed audio engineers) writing for tweako publications--unless they are allowed to write the truth. But you will find them in Sound and Vision. |
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Max | Hello, Yeah sound and vision is good. I totally agree with everything you wrote, nuff said. Max |
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Anonymous | Quote from Hawk, "Also, the big Japanese receiver makers really start to put on the "gizmos" that are a joke--certainly don't improve the sound." Does it mean Denon, Pioneer & Onkyo are making jokes, they are Japanese receivers. |