Good Receiver for PC?

[Ruger22C]

HT-RC270
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?class=Receiver&m=HT-RC270

Only $450. Accepts 2 Subs.

 

[SithSolo1]

That receiver is fine if you need all that power.

Pretty much any receiver will work fine with a pc, it just depends on how much you want to spend and what else you plan on hooking up to it. Right now I'm running a a Panasonic sa-xr10(used) with mine. PC to the receiver via optical cable and then 2 large bookshelf speakers and a powered sub. Sounds much better than my old logitec setup. All told about about $370 spent.

 

[Ruger22C]

Digital has too many issues with PC, for me. BTDT.

 

[SithSolo1]

Digital has too many issues with PC, for me. BTDT.

I've never had any issues with digital, maybe I'm lucky or just buy cheap.

It's good receiver for $450 but without more information about what you plan to do with it there is no way to know if its the best one for the money for your needs.

How do you want to connect the two?
Are you going for 2.1, 7.2, or something in between?
What speakers are you using?
Is this for a gaming pc in your bedroom or a htpc in the living room?
Etc.

 

[Ruger22C]

Gaming PC
7.2

I could do with 7.1, but this isn't much more than the cheapest 7.1 I've found.

Because I need analog IN, not analog pre-out and not digital in, it's very hard to find alternatives.

No speakers, yet. Might do yamaha, might do energy. Abhor klipsch.

 

[velillen]

How big is the room you use your gaming pc in to want two subs Oo. Or 7.2 for that matter Oo.

As for receiver, i'd just grab a video card that outputs hdmi and bit streams audio (pretty much any modern gpu) then just hook the pc up via hdmi the the receiver and output to the monitor.

Picking the receiver after that is just a matter of what features do you really want? if you dont care about hdmi 1.4 (3d) then you could go for older models and svae more money.

Anyways that my thoughts and others may differ

 

[Ruger22C]

Velillen.

"Because I need analog IN, not analog pre-out and not digital in"

And FYI that doesn't work, unless your monitor supports audio. It will report back to the PC that it has no speakers or audio out, and disable audio.

 

[Nebor]

Everyone advising him to use digital out are ignoring the fact that it's a gaming PC. I'm sure with 7.2 sound, he wants to have directional audio in his games, not 2 channel PCM.

 

[velillen]

Velillen.

"Because I need analog IN, not analog pre-out and not digital in"

And FYI that doesn't work, unless your monitor supports audio. It will report back to the PC that it has no speakers or audio out, and disable audio.

note where i said i would go with a video card with HDMI OUTPUT. Plug that into the receiver. Then from receiver output to the pc monitor.

Trust me it works it's how my htpc is hooked up as i write this.

and like i said IT WAS MY OPINION.

 

[Ruger22C]

note where i said i would go with a video card with HDMI OUTPUT. Plug that into the receiver. Then from receiver output to the pc monitor.

Note where I said I did that already and it doesn't work. It reports back to the PC as a non-audio device and disables sound when you have monitors like 2333T.
You're ignoring my post and ranting now.

Did you plug it into that 42" panasonic in your signature, which as I said, it will only work IF you have audio on your monitor?


Maybe your receiver is smarter than my Yamaha, but it's still ignoring the fact that I need analog.

 

[Soundmanred]

I use digital optical for my PC to reciever for stereo/DD/DTS audio and video, but for games I have to use the analog 6 channel inputs on the reciever to get surround.

 

[Ruger22C]

There's many reasons I don't want digital.

Digital HDMI makes me lose eyefinity.
Digital does not give me surround with on-board audio.
Digital makes me lose my equalizer. It makes me lose my SVM, my crystalizer, my CMSS, and EAX. Basically, any control over how the audio sounds and any features.
Digital gives 7.1 only via HDMI, not toslink or spdif.
Digital HDMI proper sound cards, not video cards, are Very expensive.
Digital toslink / spdif requires DDL or DTS for surround sound, and then only gives 5.1.

So, any analog suggestions?

 

[SithSolo1]

It looks like at this point that Onkyo is your best option. Most new receivers are phasing out analog-in to cut costs and they are banking on people using HDMI in for all their audio needs.

As for speakers I'd personally go with Energy over Yamaha.

Now a suggestion. I know you want 7.2 but keep in mind that many games currently support at most 5.1 channels. If you have a non-huge room then it might make more sense to scrap the extra 2.1 speakers and put that cash into a higher quality 5.1 system. Again this is just a suggestion.

 

[Soundmanred]

I would just find an older reciever on CL that has analog 5.1 inputs. I doubt 7.2 is really necessary.
I just got a 7.1 Integra DTR-5.9 (Onkyo) for $250 and it's amazing.
Saved alot from it being used yet it looks and works like it's new.

 

[Ruger22C]

It looks like at this point that Onkyo is your best option. Most new receivers are phasing out analog-in to cut costs and they are banking on people using HDMI in for all their audio needs.

As for speakers I'd personally go with Energy over Yamaha.

Now a suggestion. I know you want 7.2 but keep in mind that many games currently support at most 5.1 channels. If you have a non-huge room then it might make more sense to scrap the extra 2.1 speakers and put that cash into a higher quality 5.1 system. Again this is just a suggestion.

Hey, thanks for your on-topic advice.

That's not the case, however. I've had my X-Fi and P7800 for 4 years. Almost all games support 7.1. They might not call it that, they might call it 'windows default.'

 

[Ruger22C]

I would just find an older reciever on CL that has analog 5.1 inputs. I doubt 7.2 is really necessary.
I just got a 7.1 Integra DTR-5.9 (Onkyo) for $250 and it's amazing.
Saved alot from it being used yet it looks and works like it's new.

7.2 isn't necessary, 7.1 is.
I've used 7.1, I've used 5.1. Big difference in games.

I'll see if I can find your receiver on ebay for cheap.
~Dang man, good job.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ffe70a2&itemid=180638470780&ff4=263602_304652

 

[Soundmanred]

7.2 isn't necessary, 7.1 is.
I've used 7.1, I've used 5.1. Big difference in games.

I'll see if I can find your receiver on ebay for cheap.
~Dang man, good job.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ffe70a2&itemid=180638470780&ff4=263602_304652

Yeah, I know.
Richer people than myself get new stuff and I get deals. Got a $600 sub for $150 too among other things. I just scour Craigslist for stuff like this and buy it.
I honestly didn't know that sound in games had more than 6 channels, I've only used 5.1 with my last receiver (a Yamaha RX-V2095).
I haven't hooked up analog to the Integra yet, and I don't run my HDMI to it because when I switch to another input, my PC thinks I unhooked my TV and shows everything on my secondary screen.
There go my plans for hooking everything up via HDMI...

 

[Ruger22C]

Another reason not to use Digital, Sound.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

I bought an HT-RC270 a couple months ago to replace my 10 year old Pioneer receiver. I've been enjoying it hooked up to my PC via HDMI.

 

[Ruger22C]

 

[kornphlake]

If you are doing all the processing in the PC and only need analog amplification I'd consider discrete amps instead of a receiver, class D amps can be very affordable if you don't need big power. It's tough to beat the flexibility of a receiver though, especially at that price.

 

[Ruger22C]

Hey, Korn!!

Tell me more. I don't know about amps.

Specifically, how would I get the sub signal to them? Subs have their own amps.

And how much are they? Maybe a specific one you suggest?

And how do I separate the signals so the I have separate directions?

I don't do LOUD, so the speakers need only a small amount of power. But I want a decent amount if it doesn't cost much more, because quality goes up with more available power, I'm told anyway.

 

[Soundmanred]

Hey, Korn!!

Tell me more. I don't know about amps.

Specifically, how would I get the sub signal to them? Subs have their own amps.

And how much are they? Maybe a specific one you suggest?

And how do I separate the signals so the I have separate directions?

I don't do LOUD, so the speakers need only a small amount of power. But I want a decent amount if it doesn't cost much more, because quality goes up with more available power, I'm told anyway.

This is a good idea if you can find amplifiers cheap enough.
In theory you could get three or four stereo (2 channel) amplifiers and just plug a set of analog outputs to each (one for front left/right, one for surrounds, and so forth). The sub would be hooked up the same way, it's the same as hooking up a normal amp.
In reality that would probably cost as much as a multi-channel reciever unless you got some used prosound stuff.
Check out Parts Express for amp ideas, they have tons of different kinds. I didn't link to the prosound stuff, it's not cheap enough to justify, and the power output would be way more than you need.
Sadly most of their stuff is Pyle, which I frown upon.
http://www.parts-express.com/wizard...ice=&srchCat=756&srchMfg=&srchPromo=&srchAttr=

 

[Soundmanred]

You could get this, it has what you need: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2141643

Manual (.pdf) - http://usa.denon.com/US/Downloads/Pages/InstructionManual.aspx

and search for AVR-687.

 

[queequeg99]

7.2 isn't necessary, 7.1 is.
I've used 7.1, I've used 5.1. Big difference in games.

Just an observation that you may have considered (it isn't entirely clear from the other posts): in this price range most 7.2 receivers are just 7.1 receivers with a built-in y-connector that splits the LFE channel. I'm not sure about this specific model. If you find yourself paying a premium for such a receiver, you should look to a cheaper 7.1 unit and buy the $0.60 y-connector yourself. There are, however, many units (generally more expensive but not always) that do have two independent LFE channels. This can be helpful is you find yourself struggling with speaker setup and use a room correction system that can properly adjust two different LFE channels.