Receivers - Got one?

Firestreak

Firestreak

Solid Zoid
Adventurer
Joined
Jul 9, 2004
Messages
6,456
Location
The Magical Land of Connecticut
Up until now, been using a Samsung all in one package, with 5.1 surround sound over optical.

The good - it was cheap, $300, included 5 speakers and a subwoofer.
Sounded decent.
Gave me surround sound which can be pretty big for playing first person shooters, as well as for watching movies.

But I had a problem, my TV that I'm using is pretty bottom of the line, though I got it at an amazing price, it's technically just a monitor. It has no outs, and it has only 1 HDMI.

I use 3 high def devices with it, PS3, Xbox 360 and my PC. My PC uses a DVI-HDMI cord, my PS3 HDMI and my 360 has a choice, either HDMI or Component. The 360's dilemma was that the optical plug is part of the included component cord, and that cord blocks off the HDMI slot.

Since my TV has no outs, that means I had to either forgo HDMI on my 360 or use my TV's speakers.

Also means that for my whole setup, I needed switches. An optical switch for sound, and a HDMI switch to TV, since my TV has only 1 HDMI and my receiver only 1 optical.

And my Wii, forget about it. If I wanted to plug the stereo phono plugs from the Wii into my system I'd have to physically cut them to separate from the video that goes into my TV.

So I'm thinking Metal Gear Solid 4 is gonna have 7.1 surround sound, PS3 is capable of outputting DTS-MA, my SACDs are surround sound thanks to a firmware update via optical but not high def quality... because I need a receiver with HDMI to transfer high def surround.

So first I look at the Sony 720.. it's under $300, and I notice it has 3 HDMI inputs and 1 output... which means I could run EVERYTHING into the receiver, and just output the video to the TV via a single HDMI. My Xbox 360 would get surround sound and HDMI quality vid together, and I no longer need to use switches.

Problem was, people said the sound quality sucked.

Next looked at the Onkyo 605. Same price, better quality, but only 2 HDMI cords.

So after asking advice and keep going higher and higher up than I wanted to spend, found myself spending 600 on this Onkyo 805, which is according to audiophiles I asked a badass receiver. So I'm pretty psyched, and thinking about how to PS3 really inspired the upgrade.

PS3 game for the 7.1, Super Audio CD and Blu-ray for the quality. And of course without the PS3 I'd have been alright with 2 HDMI. Made me wonder if any other PS3 owners also been racking their brains around their audio setup.

Right now it's just a matter of waiting for a 1080P projector with a 10,000 contrast ratio, an HDMI input and fast response time to fall into my price range, until then I'll have a sound system that dwarfs my piece of shit TV.
 
I did go through this same situation. I do have an Onkyo, neither of the models you mentioned. The thing looks like a freaking jigsaw puzzle on the back and i have no idea how it was set up. I paid people to do it... sorry fire.
 
Shouldn't be too bad.

51p2OeBWe-L._SS400_.jpg


See the 8 outs for the speakers along the bottom(count 9 actually, no idea what the 9th is for...), looks like Banana plugs to me, can't tell if there's an option for regular wire as well or that's just a screw, I won't get wire until I know which. Over that third speaker out you can see what appears to be ins where I can plug in my Wii, or further to the right if I get those Wii component cables, which I probably won't. Next it's just the HDMI ins and outs, which are all the way on the top towards the left a bit. I think on the bottom left's the optical in for my PC's sound card. I'm told I can setup profiles so I can have it play the sound card's optical input when I'm set to the video card's hdmi input.

I believe this upscale's my Wii's resolution, I think Brawl would actually look pretty good.
 
Last edited:
They were right, Sony blows goats when it comes to audio. They're the name everyone's heard of, but they just sound like shit compared to the major brands. They have shitloads of connections and they're decently priced(for once), but they just don't have the power or the sound quality to compare to something like an Onkyo or a Denon.

The 805 is a bad ass receiver, especially for the price. Once I got to the part where you were talking about the 605, I was going to recommend the brand new 606 model; which has 4 HDMI inputs in it; but you got a better receiver even without that extra HDMI input, and for only $100 more.

The high end receivers all use screw-in type speaker connections, rather than the little spring plugs. You can wire either through raw speaker wire or banana plugs; either way works fine. I'm using banana plugs on mine, just because if I need to move them or rewire(which I will in a little while), it'll be much easier to just slap the plugs in.

There's only 2 optical inputs on your receiver though, the one in the far bottom left(with the gray background) is an output. That's fairly standard notation for receivers, the ones with the white/gray background are outputs, the black backgrounds are inputs.

The reason why there's 9 speaker outputs is because that's a 3 zone receiver, you'd use the 7 sets on the right for surround sound in your main zone; and the two sets on the left is for a second set of speakers you could have running in another room.

It will upscale your Wii and any other non-HD pictures to 1080p with the faroudja chip in it.

Now you're probably going to need speakers to work with it, since from the sound of your old system you had a home theater that was basically a DVD player with speaker connections in the back of it; and those speakers aren't going to last long against the 805. Onkyo's are also very user friendly, they're among the easiest receivers to set up.

All in all, it's an excellent home theater purchase, even at it's original $1,000 price tag; but it's nothing compared to the beast I got a few weeks ago:
Front
Back
 
Yeah, almost got the 606 too, in Circuit city for $500, but for $600 to get the 805 was too tempting.

As for speakers, ordered this...

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Ch...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211767700&sr=1-1

Works with 7.1 systems, going to move the fronts to the centers and get 2 of http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Mo...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211767580&sr=1-1 for left and right.

Will eventually upgrade center to http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Mo...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211767764&sr=1-1

So I can get a really good music and movie watching experience respectively.

Your receiver looks really good. Wish I knew more about them.
 
I'd definitely have gone for the 805 over the 606. 4 HDMI ports is nice(3 in the 805 is enough for almost everyone), but 50% more power and 1080p upconversion for only $100 more is a better deal.

The 6750's are polk's entry level units; they're decent for the money, but for a little more, the Harman/kardon HTKS 11's sound a lot better. They might not pair up as well with the monitor series that you're getting, though.

For what I have right now, Fronts, Rears, center, sub. I would have bought the CSi A6, but it won't fit in the stand I have(CS1 was the best model that would); and I went low-end on the sub since I'm in an apartment and I'd like to stay here.

In maybe another month, I'm going to get either these(left and right, didn't feel like linking twice) or these. Then I'd move my R50's to my rears, and maybe(doubtfully, though) the R300's to the sides. My room isn't laid out properly for a 5.1(went for flow and comfort over true surround), so a 7.1 really wouldn't work well. Plus, I don't watch a lot of blu-rays to be worth the effort and the few I do have aren't 7.1 anyways, so I won't get that much out of a 7.1 anyways.
 
Last edited:
The Polk set isn't the highest end, but I figure with the brunt of the expense going towards the front 3, I'm better off not spending all my money on the rear 4. The front left/right will be for music, and the center will help with movie dialogue.
 
The biggest drawback is going to be the subwoofer; it's an 8-inch and I think 50W RMS, it's pretty much a toy subwoofer. You could buy a better sub later on, but the harman/kardon package I mentioned already has a better sub, as well as better speakers. I'm not sure about the online prices, but I know at Fry's, we sell the HK's for 250(on sale) and the 6750's for 200(on sale); so they're not that much different for the improved quality.
 
Last edited:
Well $250 wouldn't have been too much, paid $240 for the Polks, but it's already been shipped out. If I'm really unhappy I'll have them returned but it's not like I'll have the speakers for life anyway, they're sort of the low end to keep me happy until I get a condo or something and can go a little nuts.

Thing about speakers is they're extremely hard to compare, since you need to do it with the same receiver and same media being run though, on top of which, general reviews are useless, because most people will say anything is great. Audiophiles are the only ones really to turn to for this kind of advice, if you don't have direct access to massive amounts of equipment easily to test out.
 
Last edited:
Just be glad you didn't buy the Sony. More than them sucking, both Denon and Sony that Circuit City carries are not HDMI pass throughs, they're HDMI switches. Big difference when it comes to what you want to do. If they're switches, it only passes HDMI through HDMI, and will ignore component or even any analog signals.
 
Another thing you might want to look at is a cooler for your receiver. Onkyo's can put out a lot of heat, so one of the receiver cooling units might be a good idea. You can get one of the manufactured ones or you can make your own. At work, we have a CPU fan laying on top of the vents of one of our receivers helping blow the hot air out. It looks like crap, but it works.
 
Taurothar said:
Just be glad you didn't buy the Sony. More than them sucking, both Denon and Sony that Circuit City carries are not HDMI pass throughs, they're HDMI switches. Big difference when it comes to what you want to do. If they're switches, it only passes HDMI through HDMI, and will ignore component or even any analog signals.
Click to expand...
That's actually on the lower end models for almost all brands; I know on one of the Yamaha's, it doesn't even do audio through the HDMI plugs. I have no clue why they'd do that, but the low-end yamaha's aren't that great anyways.

Edit: wait, I think you have those reversed; the higher end receivers all say switching or repeater on them, the lower level ones all say passthrough. Same problem, but I think you swapped the terms.
 
Last edited:
Bajaratt said:
That's actually on the lower end models for almost all brands; I know on one of the Yamaha's, it doesn't even do audio through the HDMI plugs. I have no clue why they'd do that, but the low-end yamaha's aren't that great anyways.

Edit: wait, I think you have those reversed; the higher end receivers all say switching or repeater on them, the lower level ones all say passthrough. Same problem, but I think you swapped the terms.
Click to expand...

It's possible. Either way, the 505 was the first Onkyo model that had it, but none of the Denons would do it I think till the 788 model. Also, they change the signal to progressive, which can be a bad thing depending on how good the converter is.
 
I little over a year ago I decided on the Onkyo TX-SR674. So far, I have no complaints.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top