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ItsJustMe
01-23-2011, 10:13 PM
Frost Pist and all.

Little bit of background first:
In my den I have an Onkyo 6 series 7.1 receiver between a Mitsubishi DLP and a Verizon FIOS DVR, a Sony 400 disc DVD changer, an A.C. Ryan and Wii thrown in for good measure.
I bought an Onkyo 5200 series Home Theater in a box for the speakers and used them with the 6 series receiver.

Since I had the 5200 receiver sitting around, I put it in the bedroom with a Mitsubishi LCD with another Verizion FIOS DVR, an LG Bluray player and a Mac Mini. I had some older speakers that I have had for years -- from the '70s and '80s that I hooked up to the Onkyo. (I have a fileserver set up to hold our movies that feeds the A.C. Ryan and the Mac Mini - ask me if you want some gory details on that setup..)
A pair of Bose 601s (yea, I know, but I like them) and a pair of Realistics with 15" woofers. Using the 601s as front and the Realistics as rear. We love the sound and use it more than the system in the den.
We have some issues with the 5200 receiver - HDMI is video only and we have to use optical inputs for audio - Verizon had to downgrade us to an older set top box in order to get the box to work over HDMI with the Mitsubishi TV. Newer set top boxes won't do the security handshake with the TV through the onkyo and you just get a green screen. works fine without the Onkyo in the mix. When we use the Mac Mini with XBMC to watch movies (mostly DVDs but some Bluray rips) on occasion we get audio clicking and popping from the HDMI conection on the speakers built into the TV.


Now after all that, on to my question:
I want to replace the Onkyo to hopefully resolve the handshake issue and the noise by using the HDMI for audio and video. I'm looking for something below $500 or so and maybe a subwoofer to toss into the mix. I kind of like the Onkyo and was looking at one of the RC units at Fry's last weekend - looked real interesting, but a little more $ than I want to spend. I like the networking aspect with firmware updates and whatnot - is there anything like that out there?

blackraven
01-24-2011, 08:34 AM
I would buy this onkyo 608 AVR-

http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR608-7-2-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B003BIFOL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295886895&sr=8-1

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/item/features/538569707/onkyo-txsr608?v_c=netelixir&ne_ppc_id=705&ne_key_id=8607965&ne_sadid=5905454687

It's a steal at this price!

Hers's the next model up the NR707- Its a little more flexible as it can handle 4ohm speakers and hs a few other features-

http://bountii.com/product-7164-onkyo-tx-nr708-7-2.html?gclid=CMuk-qmk06YCFYa7KgodtnQVHw