New Reciever Recommendations

[josh0099]

Looking to cash in on the Ebay Live Rebate and start my Home Theater set up finally not sure what I want exactly so anything is up in the air...I would put a strong emphasis on the sound more then video processing/switching...

I have been looking at the Pioneer Elite VSX-01TXH and VSX-03TXH....

Max Price is $700 before the rebate... So I am open to suggestions and sorry if its too open ended I plan on upgrading my speakers soon as well as they aren't up to par with what I want.

Looking for opinions and any feedback from people that may have these two receivers.

 

[Chapbass]

ive got the model before the 01 and absolutely love it. dont have much to compare it to though. only thing i really dont like is the setup menu is kinda blah...but hey, its a setup menu...

 

[erwos]

You might be able to get a Denon 1909 for that price.

 

[Snakexor]

Originally posted by: erwos
You might be able to get a Denon 1909 for that price.

LOL, ANY of the pioneer elite receiver line is better than a 1909....

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What's your total budget for the entire audio system together? I just want to know if $700 is a reasonable amount to spend on your receiver choice or if some of that should be allocated to other components to get you the most balanced system.

 

[josh0099]

Eh my budget is probably between 2-3k maybe a little higher if I can talk myself into it...The $700 would be before the live rebate which maxes out at $200 so it would be $500ish....

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

That seems quite reasonable then.

 

[josh0099]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
That seems quite reasonable then.

So would this be the receiver you would get in this price point?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Maybe, I haven't been keeping up with receivers enough to be able to confidently say I would get a certain one. There are usually quirks with a receiver, so I don't know what quirks (if any) the Pioneer units have and if they would be deal breakers for me.

The amount of money you're budgeting for the receiver is what seems quite reasonable to me. I've seen people that go out and get a $700 receiver and then pair it up with a 5.1 speaker set that cost ~$300. The bulk of your budget should be used on the speakers and subwoofer, which is exactly what you have planned.

Personally I know I like the rockets from AV123, so if I was making myself a system now I would be looking to see what "Santa Schifter" has in store http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=38344 and see if that fit. Usually these end up being nice sale prices on 5.0 / 5.1 sets which might fit in well with your budget. Order fulfillment has been a read nightmare for some people over the last year or so over there though, so I'm not as confident in that recommendation as I was earlier. Since AV123 has deals on denon receivers, I would see if they had something competitive to bundle with it.

With a Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, or whatever looked appealing, I would make sure to go on AVSforum and find the dedicated thread for whatever unit I was looking for. If there's any deal breakers associated with a particular model, that would be a great place to find it. I tend to research things quite a bit before I buy them, so I would want to thoroughly review all the options available before making that decision. Since I have not done that already, I'm not confident recommending something specific at this point.
Denon, Onkyo, and Pioneer have all been quite competitive in bringing some great features to receivers at this pricepoint though. I would certainly compare what was available at these three companies along with HK and Yamaha.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

FYI here's the Santa deals
http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=38629

 

[master7045]

I've been thinking about an RX-V1800 which seems to get pretty good reviews. There are several models from Yamaha that are above and below that one (863 and 2700 that come to mind quickly, you may want to do some research on those). I believe the Onkyo 706 series is getting good reviews as well. The Elite line from Pioneer is always a safe bet, but like others said Denon, HK, Integra are all worth looking at. Sorry that was somewhat vague, but look at reviews on avsforum.com and on soundandvisionmag.com and hometheatermag.com, you'll find something.

 

[josh0099]

Hrm... the Santa deal seems pretty interesting...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: josh0099
Hrm... the Santa deal seems pretty interesting...

If you're thinking about it, you might want to try to get a demo from someone in your area before placing an order. I'm running RS850 / RSC200 up front and like it a lot. On the forum in this area
http://av123forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9
You could make a thread asking for an audition and seeing if anyone nearby has some you could listen to.

That's what I did before I made my first AV123 order.

There are certainly a lot of options, but sale prices like these put the Rocket system in your pricerange... the upper range though.

Looks like a 5.1 RS850/RSC200/RS450/MFW-15 combo would be right at $2500 shipped to a freight facility. Combine that with your planned $500 budget for receiver and I've managed to spend your entire budget

At this level of price though I would certainly try to get a good demo session with them first.

AV123 used to have free trials (with 2-way shipping) on all products, but it's back to bookshelf speakers only I believe. You still get the trial period for all products, but you'd have to eat shipping costs... which is not insignificant at these weights.

 

[s44]

For Onkyo, I would get the 70*5* rather than the 706 (ditto 605/606 and 805/806).

Apparently the power amp portion of the 6 models has been cheapened, with the only gain being (I think) better automatic surround EQ.

Also the older models are cheaper, which makes 'em doubly attractive.

As for the speakers, you're definitely in a price range where you should listen to some "normal" audiophile brands before just buying stuff off the internet.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Agreed on the auditioning of other brands. I think my suggestion might have come off as only hearing the Rockets and then ordering. What I meant is that auditioning them would be a good idea along with any other competitors you could find. Lots of recommendations for retail and ID options in the sticky thread.

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: josh0099
Looking to cash in on the Ebay Live Rebate and start my Home Theater set up finally not sure what I want exactly so anything is up in the air...I would put a strong emphasis on the sound more then video processing/switching...
.

if you can still find the VSX-90TXV around, that has all the audio goodness of a pioneer elite, minus HDMI audio capabilities. It cost me $300. Again, the only drawback is that i have to hook an optical cable from my source to the receiver even if it's HDMI capable. not a big deal IMO. it sounds great!

 

[josh0099]

Welp I bought the VSX-03TXH yesterday during the 30% cashback got it for $510 shipped so lets hope its good. Now I gotta get new speakers sometimes. For now it will be running my Polk Monitors. I will post a better review and maybe even some pictures if people are interested once I get it and have it setup properly