Older flagship model A/V receivers

[SAGENT]

I've been thinking of upgrading my receiver and have been looking at some of the 2-4 year old Flagship models on E-bay/ Craigslist such as the Yamaha RX-Z9, Denon Avr-5803, Pioneer VSX-59txi. My present AVR is a Yamaha RX-V2500. Also in the near future I will likely be purchasing a 1080P Plasma and Blu-ray player.

Would it be worth it to pick one of these up if I could get a decent price or would I be better off running separate amps from the RX-V2500's pre-outs? Also how vital are the HDMI hookups. I'm very new to the latest home theater connections/ formats.

Any first hand accounts of the above receivers appreciated

Thanks in advance.

[kelsci]

I am not going to give any recommendations to any products at this time because you are not really ready to purchase anything however giving food for thought that when the time comes I hope that what I have written will have helped you in your search when that time comes to make that purchase.

When you purchase that blue ray player, what kind of sound do you want to hear out of it. What I mean is, do you want to hear the newer Dolby HIGH DEF and DTS HIGH DEF AUDIO CODECS that are featured on many of the blue ray discs. If that is the case, than those receivers that you mention are worthless to consider. The receivers you would have to purchase must state that they can process these codecs and the blue-ray player must state that they can output those codecs over the HDMI cable. The blue ray player should have at least two hdmi cable outputs. The receiver should have two and better still three hdmi pass throughs. There has been reports of what is called "handshake"problems between players and receivers which I hope gets taken care of as newer players and receivers come online.

If the audio thingy is not that important to you, you can purchase any blue ray player and use the coaxial optical output which will give you 5.1 sound in most cases. You can connect the HDMI cable from the blue-ray player to the plasma tv's hdmi input of your choice. You can use one of those older receivers if you desire.

Some blue-ray players may decode the higher codecs and output that sound thru analog 5.1 outputs that can be fed into analog 5.1 inputs of any 5.1 receiver that has direct 5.1 inputs. Bass mangement is up to the blue-ray machine; some have better bass management than others. Of course it would be up to you to hook up the wires to have that feed if you desire.

[musicman1999]

Many "flagship" models will allow bass management on the 5.1 analog inputs, although their is a d-a-d conversion added to the signal chain.

bill
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[codecougar]

If you are going to buy a 1080P Plasma and Blu-ray player down the road, I would get a new receiver with HDMI, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD. Aside from that your RX-V2500 should get you by for now.

As stated, HDMI connectors are important if you want to take advantage of the new audio codecs. Some people run their BD players directly through their receivers (both audio and video) for different reasons, so you will definitely need HDMI connectors if you plan on doing this.

Do some research on HDMI and the new audio codecs being offered on Blu-ray. I just don't think it is wise to buy old technology if you plan on "upgrading" your system.

[HAYSHAKER20]

I have an "old technology" rig, and its black ! Pioneer vsx-9300,owned it since 1988,its been through hell and back, the only rig I have even considered beside the Pioneer would be the Marantz 2270 ! Oh yeah , that "old tech" pioneer, when did they come out with that big ole plasma screen ? I think the 9300 was close by it ! the "pre-amp" bites, however if I jack the marantz in my main amp, I have 135 watts rms at a real clean level. Have a good 'un