Please direct me to the best 400-500 AV reciever

[tp]

Hi All,

I have been out of the loop for about 2-3 years and am in need of a AV reciever for a friend. I have a HK AV110 from '03 and it does fine in my room. Although I'm a fan of HK , I am interested in Denon, based of all the reviews I have heard over the years.

The room this AV reciever will be used in is a smaller room (Approx 14' X 10'), no carpet, no wall covering or curtains etc. Small room and gonna be very bright. The room is basically open fully on one side and half open on the other side.

Anyway, "What's Hot" out there right now, Best bang for 4-$500 range??

Friend would like to have a movies on in the main room , but have the ablity to have audio in other parts of house or deck etc. Last he has an account with Sirus radio, Iv'e noticed that some new AV recievers are XM ready ,what does that mean to us? Can I obtain a AV reciever with ; 5.1 or 7.1
Multi room
sirus radio ready


Thanks in advance

[brulaha]

Denon has yet to release their new line up. The Onkyo 605 is what's hot in this price range, albeit with some issues.

[kelsci]

L.J. is currently testing a Denon he bought from Fry's. He returned his Onkyo 805 over some issues. You can find his thread on the home theater segment of the forums. From some listening that I heard in some stores last December, I did like the Denons for surround sound reproduction.

[L.J.]

I think the Denon is going bye-bye as well. It's just not doing it for me in the music department. HT is great but 2 channel is kinda weak. The Denon just sounds very thin compared to the full, deep sound I was getting from the Onkyo.

Next up to bat is gonna be the Yammy 661.

[GMichael]

On paper the 661 looks like a solid unit. Let us know how you like it.

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=547398

[DEVO]

The 661 is cool w/ it's HDMI but w/ no transcoding? May want to get a remote...I've always liked the 659 even though it only did component transcoding, which is fine cause I can't see the diff. between component and HDMI anyway??? It does alot for the $$$$$$$. If you can find one, give it a shot, otherwise the 661 will do you fine!

[musicman1999]

L.J.

If sound is the issue have you tried a Cambridge Audio reciever?It has little or nothing in the line of features but sounds very good.You would have to rise well above their price range to get better sound.

bill

[kelsci]

L.J., last Xmas my brother and I heard outstanding two channel performance in the stores with the Pioneer Elite VSX-81,82 and 84. I cannot speak as to how good they are for surround sound, but IMHO, the sound reminded me of a Mac Intosh.

[brulaha]

I don't think you can compare the amp sections of the Denon and Onkyo that LJ bought. The Onkyo 805 was a steal at the price he got it, let alone the regular street price. I would compare the 805 to 3808 which has yet to be released, and even then it's not rated as high as the 805. I know from previous experience that Denon's next step up from my receiver was a much stronger amp section and sounded much better. I couldn't afford it at the time, but eventually upgraded to a separate amp, which helped considerably.