different direction

[dale331]

About 33 years ago I bought a Pioneer SX-525. It has worked fine for me. I have been thinking of going to surround for a few years. I have been looking in the $400 to $600 range. I have downloaded the manuals for the HK 335, Denon 2105 and Pioneer 1015. I'm not sure I have the patience or brain power to figure these things out. I already got a set of Polk Monitor series speakers so I am going to plow foward. Any suggestions for something simple in that $400-600 range? My wife can barely handle the stereo so the simpler the better.
thanks dale

[GMichael]

About 33 years ago I bought a Pioneer SX-525. It has worked fine for me. I have been thinking of going to surround for a few years. I have been looking in the $400 to $600 range. I have downloaded the manuals for the HK 335, Denon 2105 and Pioneer 1015. I'm not sure I have the patience or brain power to figure these things out. I already got a set of Polk Monitor series speakers so I am going to plow foward. Any suggestions for something simple in that $400-600 range? My wife can barely handle the stereo so the simpler the better.
thanks dale

I would look into the Yamaha RX-V657. Here's a link http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/receivers/RXV657.htm

[Pyrrho]

I would look into the Yamaha RX-V657. Here's a link http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/receivers/RXV657.htm

I think that is a good choice as well. One of its features that you will probably find very useful is the automatic balancing of the speakers. It will do a fine job with this, and if you have to manually adjust this, you need a sound meter and you need to know what you are doing, or it will be wrong and you won't get the performance that the thing is capable of delivering. By all means, buy a receiver with an automatic setup.

If my memory is right, though, it doesn't have a phono input, if that matters to you. In which case, you might want to go with the Yamaha RX-V757 (or if XM is unimportant to you, the Yamaha RX-V750, which might be available at a discount, because it is discontinued; the new RX-V757 is its replacement). I also like the learning remote, so I would prefer this one to the RX-V657, though this retails for $650. You should, however, be able to get a discount at least down to your $600 budget, particularly if you buy the RX-V750.

You can also go with a model from Yamaha's HTR line; you can see which models correspond to each other in the chart at:

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/compare/YPAO.htm

And you can read about the difference between the RX-V line and the HTR line at:

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/receivers/receiver_main.htm
(You will need to click near the bottom right of that page.)

Basically, there are stylistic differences, and they rate them differently, and they are sold through different types of dealerships.

[dale331]

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the user manual for a 750. Tonight I'll read through to see if Yamaha seems any easier to use than the other brands I mentioned.

[Pyrrho]

Thanks for the suggestion. I downloaded the user manual for a 750. Tonight I'll read through to see if Yamaha seems any easier to use than the other brands I mentioned.

The jump from stereo to multichannel is a bit of a bother, and absolutely nothing will be as easy or straightforward as your old Pioneer SX-525. Nothing will come close. But once you set it up properly, then it can be reasonably easy to use. To keep your life as simple as possible, buy one with an automatic balance feature. Many brands make such receivers, including Pioneer and Denon, as well as the Yamaha receivers mentioned above. Keep in mind, however, that this feature is not on the lowest models, and exactly how high up you have to go varies from brand to brand. It is also convenient if the receiver you buy will remember which surround choices you prefer for each input. I have a Yamaha RX-V730 (which was replaced by the RX-V740, which in turn was replaced by the RX-V750, which is the only one of these three with the automatic balancing). With this level of Yamaha, you can have your CD input default to whatever you want (I use plain stereo; some people would use Dolby Pro Logic II instead), your DVD input to the same thing or something else (I have it automatically switch between Dolby Pro Logic [if it is not a multichannel source], Dolby Digital, and DTS, depending on what is output off of the DVD).

Take your time, and keep in mind that the setup need only be done once if you don't change anything. (And with the automatic balancing, it is easy to redo the balancing if you move some furniture or a speaker, so this feature will make your life easier.)