Please, I need advice form a audiophile. I love music and my budget is seriously limited... someone can recomend me the best receiver for under $300 street price? Thankyou very much!!
Anonymous
Posted on
I forgot to say that I pretend to hear SACDs, I don't know if this matters to the question.
I am also looking in this price range. I have asked several "pros," and the concensus is the Onkyo TX-SR501. It lists for $299, but can be had for a little less.
Anonymous
Posted on
Thank you, Mandy, for the advice! I was thinking in a denon 1803, but I think the onkyo receiver is better! you are kind to answer, and sorry about my english, I'm from brazil.
Railbait
Posted on
Isnt' Angra from Brazil? Awesome band! One of my favorites.
BTW, I think Onkyo are nice receivers also, especially for that price. If you have more to spend you open up the field more.
UNICRON-WMD
Posted on
For the price, I suggest the JVC RX8030 6.1 780 Watt Receiver. I have had a JVC in the past and I thought it was great for the price. This receiver comes with everything for around $300. I am positive the "PROs" around here would disagree with me.
Anyways, good luck man! WMD
elitefan
Posted on
J&R Music World has had refurbished Onkyo500's on sale for $149.88. Same as the 501 and for that price a steal. Don't know if they still have any but worth a call. Another for $300 would be the Pioneer812.
Anonymous
Posted on
elitefan, the pioneer has thd 1%, isn't this too much for music? thanks for the advice about onkyo 500. unicron, really awesome 780watts for 300$, and thd 0.08! onkyo has only 65w / channel... strange! railbait, you have good taste, angra is a realy nice band from brazil :-) if you like hardrock, probably you hear about sepultura, from brazil too.
Johnny
Posted on
Anon,
First of all, yes, the 1% thd is a little high, but in the price range you are talking about, I don't think it will be uncommon. From what I have heard, any thd at 1% or under is usually considered acceptable. In this price range, I doubt you would hear any differences. Secondly, just a little warning...do not choose a receiver simply based on its specs (i.e. power and thd). These ratings, especially the power ratings, can be very deceiving. If you have been reading this forum regularly, you should already know what I am going to say. Most electronics companies have very different ways of rating the power of their receivers. Some only rate the power at one frequency, like at 1khz, rather than rate it over the entire audible range (about 20hz-20khz). Other companies give the power ratings with only two channels driven (as opposed to all 5 channels driven at the same time). Therefore, when you see a power rating of 100watts per channel, on most receivers, this is a huge overestimation. When you rate the power properly, ie with all channels driven and over the entire audible frequency range, some receivers cannot even meet half of their specified power. NAD, H/K, and Rotel are the only companies that I know of that rate their products with all channels driven. So, when you say the JVC receiver has 780 watts of power, when you rate it with all channels driven, it probably won't get anywhere near that. So when the Onkyo receiver says that it only has 65 watts, who knows, it may out power the JVC when they are rated in the same way. The best advice I can give is to listen to what your ears tell you, not what some spec sheet tells you. Don't buy a receiver simply because it is supposed to have huge power, because in reality, it probably doesn't. Go with what your ears tell you.
Anonymous
Posted on
Thank you very much johnny! and what you think about the onkyo 500, it has a good sound?
Johnny
Posted on
Anon,
I haven't ever listened to this Onkyo model, but I owned an earlier cousin of the 500, the TX-DS474. The specifications and power of my old unit are similar to the 500. The sound was nice, especially if you can get the 500 for $150 like elitefan said. I think for that price, you probably couldn't do any better. Like I said, my old Onkyo sounded nice, but it really didn't have much power...but for that price...what do you expect. If your room is small, and you have small speakers, it should be fine for you. However, if your room is large, or you have anything less than 8ohm speakers, this unit will probably be way underpowered. If that is the case, I would wait, save some more money, and get a slightly more expensive receiver such as the NAD T742 ($449) or a lower end H/K model.
