Best Sounding AV Receiver for $500~700

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
Hi

I got stumped today by a young couple that are friends of mine. Just got married and would like a decent surround system to go with a giganormous 70 inch Sharp TV a wedding gift. For speakers it is a no brainer: Pioneer SB22 designed by Andrew Jones all around, for sub an SVS. I got them the Andrew Jones after a glorious review in TAS, they are very good by the way. For sources... easy any BD player with Wifi and apps :D or cable TV or PC.. For receiver.. I am stumped. They want a decent sounding receiver that would cost between $500~700 ... No fancy anything , of course HDMI and a USB port for iPod or iPad .. Control via an iSomething would be nice but not mandatory. Calling the experts .. What do you recommend people?
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Onkyo TX-NR818. ...It has Audyssey MultEQ XT32. It's better than anything else below one grand, and even above.
-> It was $649 before (with free shipping) from Amazon.com
And $699 from Newegg.com (Retails normally for $1,200)

You have to look for the sales (they come, they go, always).

==> It is in my A/V Receivers mega thread. ;)

___________________

* Excellent choice of speakers and sub by the way Frantz.
{BD player: Sony BDP-S790 - roughly $200}
 
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amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
I am partial to the new Pioneer Elite. They have class D amps which means they run very cool. I love that I can put them in a closed cabinet and not worry. The sound quality is pretty good too. The room correction subjectively creates better results than my older Onkyo but is not as powerful (e.g. no sub correction). Good news is that it fully exposes its parametric EQs that it programs so you can manually tune it -- something you usually can't do in consumer room EQs. Since you are already them on the Pioneer path, this may be a good choice for them as far as brand consistency.

The little Pioneer speakers are the best value I have found in budget speakers. They don't handle a lot of power but they have real high fidelity sound.
 

WLVCA

Member Sponsor
Nov 2, 2012
3,911
2,374
1,395
Tucson
I'll second the Onkyo TX-NR818. Have one and like it.

Read today on AVS that the 828 is right around the corner so should be some great prices upcoming.

I bought one on Black Friday from Amazon for $649.
 

Phelonious Ponk

New Member
Jun 30, 2010
8,677
23
0
I like the Onkyos and Elites just fine. I also like the Yamahas. On the BR player, avoid the Samsungs; they're not terribly reliable. The Sonys are solid. So are the LGs. Oppos rock, but they ain't cheap.

Tim
 

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