Receiever question.?

Question

Looking for a new home theater receiver. Will spend about 500 bucks. Want HDMI pass through to 1080p. I will eventually have a blue ray and a 1080p DLP television. The candidates are....

Sony- STR-DG1000
Yamaha RXV-661
Onkyo TX-RS605

Anyone have any feedback on any of these?

Also, Has anyone bought these type of products at online dealers with success. Prices appear cheap. What is the catch?

The SOny And the Yamaha have HDMI with 1080p capability. I am not trying to force down the Onkyo just want all facts. Have I been mislead about the other 2?

Answer 1

of the three the onkyo is superior and is the only one with HDMI 1.3 switching like thinkenstien mentioned. Sony reciever's suck in general even the most expensive ones. Yamaha's are okay they have a pretty neutral sound. While onkyo has a very rich sound with high current power that will drive your speakers with ease. Also onkyo reciever's are very easy to use and sound great. i used a TX SR-504 with a pair of KEF's for a while before i got my cambridge amp it sounded pretty good.


and you mentioned online dealer's. if you are going to buy your reciever online buy it from vanns.com. They are authorized sony onkyo and yamaha dealers, so you can obtain your factory warranty. Second there is absolutely no sales tax, and shipping is almost always free.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/538999147

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/538500464

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/538499878

i have heard both the sony and the onkyo recievers you have mentioned. the sony sounds absolutely terrible. the onkyo sounded pretty smooth.

Answer 2

Hi. Not long ago people interested in Home Theater equipment said that all amplifiers with the same power rating sound the same.They said they could not hear a difference when they were connected to the same speakers at the same apparent volume. Today that situation has changed. Now we hear there are audible differences with Receivers from different manufacturers. Sony is supposed to be the worse followewd by Yamaha, Harmon Kardon, Marantz and a few more. You really have to listen to them before you buy. The same goes for loudspeakers which have greater variations than amplifiers.Also a particular Receiver will work better with certain loudspeakers. The same goes with your Source.connected to your pre-amp. some work better together than others.The bottom line is a Receiver no matter how well it is made and how powerful it is has limitations in delivering quality sound. The greatest compromise in a Receiver is the use of a single power supply for all three sections(the pre-amp,the power amps and the tuner).The needs of the power amp section affect the pre-amp section resulting in Receivers that are not as smooth,effortless,open and full sounding as separate pre-amps,power amps and tuners.
Regarding HDMI .It is not possible to predict whether HDMI cables will perform better than analog video connections.Digital does not always imply better image quality in the case of a video connection.Most people assume that while analog is always subject to an element of degradation,digital transfer is error free, after all the information is represented by just ones and zeros.Also HDMI cables are limited to a max. distance of about 15 meters.HDMI do not use error correction. Therefore if information is lost, it is lost for good.

Answer 3

Between those three get the Onkyo. Sony receivers are terrible. Yamaha receivers have gone down in quality and they sound too soft and mellow. Onkyo makes a very good product and the TX-RS605 is the only one of your choices that has HDMI 1.3 switching.

Answer 4

Sony is not any good for good sound. Just lots of base and treble. I agree that Yamaha has gone down in quality but a much better choice over Sony. Onkyo is your best bet. You may also want to check out Denon if youlike the sound of the Onkyo.