Need help choosing a receiver

[JRS03]

Looking to upgrade my old receiver and speakers (yeah like 8 years old) I am starting with the receiver first and I have a Budget of 1,500 to work with. I would like one that I can hook an Ipod dock to it as well.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[kpkelley]

What are your other requirements or desired features?

Would you consider going into entry-level seperates?

How many sources will be connected to this receiver and by which connections?

What are your viewing and listening habits?(Some receivers are better at some things than others)

Are you interested in the new height channel technologies from Dolby or DTS(height and wide)?

[DonRSD]

youre JUST looking at a receiver?

id go with

ONKYO 806 for $994

or

ONKYO 876 for $1694

the 806 would probaly be a better buy, in my estimation

look how much i got MY 806 for.........

[JRS03]

Originally Posted by kpkelley

What are your other requirements or desired features?

Would you consider going into entry-level seperates?

How many sources will be connected to this receiver and by which connections?

What are your viewing and listening habits?(Some receivers are better at some things than others)

Are you interested in the new height channel technologies from Dolby or DTS(height and wide)?

Currently I have a Yamaha..5.1 system. Would it be better to get into seperates? I know that has always been for the more hi end audio/videophile.

I listen to Jazz/Soft Rock but use my system more for watching movies than anything else.

If you were to go seperate what entry level amp etc.. would be the way to go?

[JRS03]

Originally Posted by DonRSD

youre JUST looking at a receiver?

id go with

ONKYO 806 for $994

or

ONKYO 876 for $1694

the 806 would probaly be a better buy, in my estimation

look how much i got MY 806 for.........

Nice..how did you get it so cheap? On sale?

[DonRSD]

got it at the right time i guess.....lol

the 876 THEN was only like $850 (i shouldve bought it but i didnt.....RAWR)

[kpkelley]

Originally Posted by JRS03

If you were to go seperate what entry level amp etc.. would be the way to go?

The nice thing about seperates is that a good amp will continue to be a good amp and won't need to be replaced, meaning all you would need is to update the processor instead of both.

Emotiva make good entry-level amps, but you can also get some nice amps used from places like audiogon/videogon and avsforum classifieds.

The only requirement for a proc is that it has preouts, which means that you can use a cheaper receiver if you only want to use external amplification on some of your speakers and not all of them.

There are some nice threads on seperates in the audio section if you take a look.

[mtbkr]

i bought my 876 for $980 with shipping on amazon about three months ago. good timing . it has been an amazing receiver so far. i still plan to get a emotiva amp as well but i will nee speakers that can handle it first.
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=...s=Receiver&p=i

[Elvis]

So would it be better to go with
this:
http://emotiva.com/umc1.shtm

and this
http://emotiva.com/upa7.shtm


over a reveiver with a built in amp?

[RandDawg]

Originally Posted by Elvis

So would it be better to go with
this:
http://emotiva.com/umc1.shtm

and this
http://emotiva.com/upa7.shtm


over a reveiver with a built in amp?

That is much better than most receivers out there. If you want more power per channel than look at the XPA series amps.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Emotiva and Outlaw make good entry-level amps to add to a compatible A/V receiver, and there are often-times some really good used deals at Audiogon and CanuckAudioMart on Rotel amps.

For $1,500 I'd buy a decent A/V receiver that handles all of the codecs and add a 2 or 3 channel power amp to it, especially if listening to music is important to you.

John

[Driver_King]

I would actually look into the XPA-5, instead of the UPA-7 with the same UMC-1 processor. The XPA-5 is a bit more powerful and overall beefier amp than the UPA-7. By the way, what kind of Yamaha speakers do you have? Can you post them in your gallery?

[Elvis]

Yes I will get some pics out in the next day or so. I have a Yamaha 5.1 receiver but I have Pinnacle Speakers. I have had them since the late 90's. But its time for an upgrade there as well. This will be about a 4 month process upgrading everything.

[got rice]

Originally Posted by John72953

Emotiva and Outlaw make good entry-level amps to add to a compatible A/V receiver, and there are often-times some really good used deals at Audiogon and CanuckAudioMart on Rotel amps.

For $1,500 I'd buy a decent A/V receiver that handles all of the codecs and add a 2 or 3 channel power amp to it, especially if listening to music is important to you.

John

Originally Posted by Driver_King

I would actually look into the XPA-5, instead of the UPA-7 with the same UMC-1 processor. The XPA-5 is a bit more powerful and overall beefier amp than the UPA-7. By the way, what kind of Yamaha speakers do you have? Can you post them in your gallery?

Yeah, I would have to agree with both of these bits of advice. There is no reason you need to spend the entire 1500.00 on strictly the AVR. If you do enough research you can find a very good performing AVR for well under $1000.00. The Pioneer SC-05 was recenly on sale for $695.00 at 6th ave. It does everything you could ask for and then some. This is just one example of many.

I'm not sure if the EMO UMC-1 has an ipod connection, if so this would be an even better alternative. I kinda like the idea of having matching separates.

[Driver_King]

Nothing wrong with Pinnacle speakers. Unless you are dissatisfied with them, keep them. Save the money for a better subwoofer(s) and everything else!