Best Receiver for ~$300?

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

My brother's looking for a new receiver to replace the craptastic one he has now. He's got a budget of about $300, give or take a little depending on what's available or worth it.

He has five speakers; unsure if he has a sub. He has a couple of HDMI devices he'd like to run to it so it should at least have two HDMI ports. He also has several component devices and some composite devices to hook up. Since he lives in an apartment, he won't need anything capable of blowing down the walls. He expressed interest in multi-room capability but I don't think it's a requirement.

He was looking around at Best Buy the other day and was considering the HK AVR-146, which they had for $249. But he's not opposed to buying online, where greater deals can be had and possibly result in a better receiver entering into his price range.

Any suggestions?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Is he looking for strictly a new one, or would used / refurb be considered?

Is he hoping to get audio over HDMI as well, or just video switching?

 

[manimal]

AVR 146-147 do a decent job, better than those craptacular Sony's that get put on "sale" all the time. There are a few things in the 300 dollar range that will do a decent job, HDMI switching is about the best you can get off these things though, Dont expect Upconversion of other analogue sources.

I have a AVR 146 in my basement and it does a decent enough job there.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

YoYo, I think he would prefer a new one. But, if a refurb came along that was a smoking deal and had a warranty of some sort, I think he'd be ok with that too. I suspect he'd also like audio over the HDMI up until it hits the receiver.

Manimal, I already explained to my bro that he probably won't get upconversion from other sources so he's expecting that already. Is the AVR 146 pretty user-friendly?

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Sony DG910

About $350 - It does video better than Audio and for HDMI compatibility it is prolly the best under $400.

 

[Wuzup101]

HK AVR 247 or 347 from e-bay. Generally, you can get the re manufactured ones for around $300 (or just a bit more) from the HK factory E-bay store. They come as if they were new (full warranty and all the parts).

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
YoYo, I think he would prefer a new one. But, if a refurb came along that was a smoking deal and had a warranty of some sort, I think he'd be ok with that too. I suspect he'd also like audio over the HDMI up until it hits the receiver.

Manimal, I already explained to my bro that he probably won't get upconversion from other sources so he's expecting that already. Is the AVR 146 pretty user-friendly?

Yeah I think it would be tough to get HDMI over audio on a new receiver in the sub $300 range.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
YoYo, I think he would prefer a new one. But, if a refurb came along that was a smoking deal and had a warranty of some sort, I think he'd be ok with that too. I suspect he'd also like audio over the HDMI up until it hits the receiver.

Manimal, I already explained to my bro that he probably won't get upconversion from other sources so he's expecting that already. Is the AVR 146 pretty user-friendly?

Yeah I think it would be tough to get HDMI over audio on a new receiver in the sub $300 range.

OK, so if that doesn't work out, then all he'd have to do is get a separate audio cable, right? For instance... if he hooks up his DVD player via HDMI, he'd use the HDMI to carry video and then an audio cable to handle audio. Both cables going into the receiver. Is that how it would work? I think most important is the price range, so he'll be able to deal with that.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
YoYo, I think he would prefer a new one. But, if a refurb came along that was a smoking deal and had a warranty of some sort, I think he'd be ok with that too. I suspect he'd also like audio over the HDMI up until it hits the receiver.

Manimal, I already explained to my bro that he probably won't get upconversion from other sources so he's expecting that already. Is the AVR 146 pretty user-friendly?

Yeah I think it would be tough to get HDMI over audio on a new receiver in the sub $300 range.

OK, so if that doesn't work out, then all he'd have to do is get a separate audio cable, right? For instance... if he hooks up his DVD player via HDMI, he'd use the HDMI to carry video and then an audio cable to handle audio. Both cables going into the receiver. Is that how it would work? I think most important is the price range, so he'll be able to deal with that.

Yeah, he'd just have to run audio as well.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead
YoYo, I think he would prefer a new one. But, if a refurb came along that was a smoking deal and had a warranty of some sort, I think he'd be ok with that too. I suspect he'd also like audio over the HDMI up until it hits the receiver.

Manimal, I already explained to my bro that he probably won't get upconversion from other sources so he's expecting that already. Is the AVR 146 pretty user-friendly?

Yeah I think it would be tough to get HDMI over audio on a new receiver in the sub $300 range.

OK, so if that doesn't work out, then all he'd have to do is get a separate audio cable, right? For instance... if he hooks up his DVD player via HDMI, he'd use the HDMI to carry video and then an audio cable to handle audio. Both cables going into the receiver. Is that how it would work? I think most important is the price range, so he'll be able to deal with that.

Yeah, he'd just have to run audio as well.

...but im not sure how that would work for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray unless those units have multichannel analog outs... For the PS3 you need to accept a compressed stream through the fiber optical if you cant do HDMI I think...