Replacing Long-Time Receiver - Thoughts Requested - Blu-ray Forum

Alan Gordon · 03-11-2021, 08:29 AM

I am in need of a new AVR, and I'm having difficulty figuring out what I should get. Any thoughts on the matter is appreciated.

To start off with, let me tell you a bit about my setup. It's pretty basic:

TCL 55S525 4K Roku TV
Samsung UBD-K8500
Apple TV 4K
Xbox One S
Pioneer 1019AH-K (2009)
Polk Audio CS20 Center Speaker
4 Polk Audio Monitor 60 Floorstanding Speakers
2 Pioneer Bookshelf Speakers
Polk Audio Powered Subwoofer

My Pioneer 1019AH-K has been great through the years, and I have no complaints about the sound. 5-6 years ago (maybe), one of the lights on the front of the unit started working only half the time, and a few years ago, one of the HDMI inputs stopped working. As the AVR does not accept 4K sources, it didn't matter as I have everything directly connected to my TV, other than HDMI going from the Samsung Blu-ray player's HDMI Audio Output to the AVR.

My Apple TV is plugged directly into my TCL 55S25 TV, and I have Optical going out of the TV into my Pioneer Receiver. When I first got the TV, I could play Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound from movies I own in iTunes. However, sometime later, my AVR stopped displaying Dolby Digital Plus, and only Dolby Digital 5.1. At the time, I assumed maybe a firmware update to the TV had broken that ability to output DD+, and was disappointed, but moved on, and hoped it would be fixed with another update.

Later last year, while watching a movie, I kept thinking to myself how disappointing a 4K Blu-ray movie's audio was. 2/3 into the movie, I realized that my receiver was applying ProLogic II processing to Dolby Stereo audio, when it should have been Dolby TrueHD. I was very confused by this. It was late at night, so I decided to investigate more that weekend.

Shortening my story somewhat, I discovered that the AVR would no longer play Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus audio. Silence... nothing more. It would still play up to Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, and even Dolby Digital EX from some old DVDs I had around. TrueHD and DD+ wouldn't work at all though. DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, DTS, and DTS ES worked fine... for a while that is. Months later, all my HDMI Inputs went bad.

None of the HDMI inputs work now at all. Optical from the TV works with lossy Dolby and DTS audio for the most part. When I say "for the most part", well, some days are worse than others, but I'm having issues with lip-syncing pretty badly. Strangely, the Roku apps themselves do better than when I'm watching content via the Apple TV or lossy audio via the Blu-ray player outputted into the AVR via optical, but it CAN have issues as well. Depends on the day.

I'm looking at two different receivers:

Denon 960H ($699)
Yamaha V6A/TSR-700 ($599/$399)

I do not want to go any higher than $699 (TOPS). I'm already unhappy about potentially going THAT high.

Both receivers are 2020 models, and have pros and cons. Both suffer from the HDMI 2.1 issue, but I'm really not worried about that part, as my TV isn't HDMI 2.1, and spending this money on an AVR will delay any future TV purchase by quite a bit, and while I plan on getting a PS5 at some point, it's not affected by the HDMI 2.1 issue I've read.

The Yahama V6A looks cooler to me aesthetically versus Denon 960H, which looks similar to my Pioneer 1019AH-K, but I don't really care about that. The Yamaha V6A is a 7.2 receiver like the Denon, but unlike the Denon, it has speaker outputs for 9.2, which is cool should I ever choose to add additional "presence" speakers.

The Denon 960H has a better User Interface compared to the Yamaha, in my opinion. The Denon 960H also has DTS Virtual:X, which the Yamaha doesn't have.

Reading reviews of the Yamaha V6A on sites and AVSForum sees all kind of bugs with HDMI even after multiple updates. These issues SHOULD be fixable, but reading owner experiences are definitely disconcerting.

Reading reviews of the Denon 960H, you don't see as many issues as the Yamaha, but one MAJOR criticism I see a lot is that this receiver runs HOT! I don't keep my receiver in a cabinet, but I live in the South and I don't have the best ventilation and cooling, so my home gets HOT during the warmer months, which in the South, is most of the year. This concerns me. My Pioneer gets very hot too, and I've gotten 10 years without (for the most part) trouble. I have NO idea how hot these people's idea of hot is. Is it hotter than my Pioneer? I don't know. The Yamaha V6A looks to have a bigger body, and I haven't seen any complaints about it running hot (so far).

I don't really know which way I should go. I'd love to read any and all thoughts someone may have on what I've said.

03-11-2021, 08:29 AM	#1
Alan Gordon Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Aug 2007 Location:Dawson, GA 4K collection:867 Blu-ray collection:2455 DVD collection:437 MA collection:1874 Digital collection:2065 iTunes collection:4091 Prime collection:1896 Trading Score:44	Replacing Long-Time Receiver - Thoughts Requested I am in need of a new AVR, and I'm having difficulty figuring out what I should get. Any thoughts on the matter is appreciated. To start off with, let me tell you a bit about my setup. It's pretty basic: TCL 55S525 4K Roku TV Samsung UBD-K8500 Apple TV 4K Xbox One S Pioneer 1019AH-K (2009) Polk Audio CS20 Center Speaker 4 Polk Audio Monitor 60 Floorstanding Speakers 2 Pioneer Bookshelf Speakers Polk Audio Powered Subwoofer My Pioneer 1019AH-K has been great through the years, and I have no complaints about the sound. 5-6 years ago (maybe), one of the lights on the front of the unit started working only half the time, and a few years ago, one of the HDMI inputs stopped working. As the AVR does not accept 4K sources, it didn't matter as I have everything directly connected to my TV, other than HDMI going from the Samsung Blu-ray player's HDMI Audio Output to the AVR. My Apple TV is plugged directly into my TCL 55S25 TV, and I have Optical going out of the TV into my Pioneer Receiver. When I first got the TV, I could play Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound from movies I own in iTunes. However, sometime later, my AVR stopped displaying Dolby Digital Plus, and only Dolby Digital 5.1. At the time, I assumed maybe a firmware update to the TV had broken that ability to output DD+, and was disappointed, but moved on, and hoped it would be fixed with another update. Later last year, while watching a movie, I kept thinking to myself how disappointing a 4K Blu-ray movie's audio was. 2/3 into the movie, I realized that my receiver was applying ProLogic II processing to Dolby Stereo audio, when it should have been Dolby TrueHD. I was very confused by this. It was late at night, so I decided to investigate more that weekend. Shortening my story somewhat, I discovered that the AVR would no longer play Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus audio. Silence... nothing more. It would still play up to Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, and even Dolby Digital EX from some old DVDs I had around. TrueHD and DD+ wouldn't work at all though. DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, DTS, and DTS ES worked fine... for a while that is. Months later, all my HDMI Inputs went bad. None of the HDMI inputs work now at all. Optical from the TV works with lossy Dolby and DTS audio for the most part. When I say "for the most part", well, some days are worse than others, but I'm having issues with lip-syncing pretty badly. Strangely, the Roku apps themselves do better than when I'm watching content via the Apple TV or lossy audio via the Blu-ray player outputted into the AVR via optical, but it CAN have issues as well. Depends on the day. I'm looking at two different receivers: Denon 960H ($699) Yamaha V6A/TSR-700 ($599/$399) I do not want to go any higher than $699 (TOPS). I'm already unhappy about potentially going THAT high. Both receivers are 2020 models, and have pros and cons. Both suffer from the HDMI 2.1 issue, but I'm really not worried about that part, as my TV isn't HDMI 2.1, and spending this money on an AVR will delay any future TV purchase by quite a bit, and while I plan on getting a PS5 at some point, it's not affected by the HDMI 2.1 issue I've read. The Yahama V6A looks cooler to me aesthetically versus Denon 960H, which looks similar to my Pioneer 1019AH-K, but I don't really care about that. The Yamaha V6A is a 7.2 receiver like the Denon, but unlike the Denon, it has speaker outputs for 9.2, which is cool should I ever choose to add additional "presence" speakers. The Denon 960H has a better User Interface compared to the Yamaha, in my opinion. The Denon 960H also has DTS Virtual:X, which the Yamaha doesn't have. Reading reviews of the Yamaha V6A on sites and AVSForum sees all kind of bugs with HDMI even after multiple updates. These issues SHOULD be fixable, but reading owner experiences are definitely disconcerting. Reading reviews of the Denon 960H, you don't see as many issues as the Yamaha, but one MAJOR criticism I see a lot is that this receiver runs HOT! I don't keep my receiver in a cabinet, but I live in the South and I don't have the best ventilation and cooling, so my home gets HOT during the warmer months, which in the South, is most of the year. This concerns me. My Pioneer gets very hot too, and I've gotten 10 years without (for the most part) trouble. I have NO idea how hot these people's idea of hot is. Is it hotter than my Pioneer? I don't know. The Yamaha V6A looks to have a bigger body, and I haven't seen any complaints about it running hot (so far). I don't really know which way I should go. I'd love to read any and all thoughts someone may have on what I've said.

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