$400 receiver recommendation for jschaudel

[bargainseeker]

Receiver: yes, I would be willing to purchase a refurbished one on-line as long as the warranty was the same. I was looking at one site (don't remember which) some time ago and the refurbished unit (Denon) had an extremely short warranty. However, I don't know which sites a good and which are not.

I have started a new thread to address your request for recommendations on an A/V receiver around $400.

First you should know that all of the online dealers I am about to recommend are ones which are factory authorized dealers for that particular brand. I have bought from J&R, eCost and PCMall in the past with good results. I have no personal experience with Dakmart.

For a brand new receiver with a full length manufacturer warrany, I would recommend the Yamaha HTR-5760. The HTR-5760 can purchased for $399.99 plus shipping from J&R (click on the link to get an email with their $399.99 price).

In a Denon receiver, the best deal I found in your price range was the Denon AVR-1804 from Dakmart for $326.98 plus shipping. This is a factory refurbished discontinued model that comes with a 1 year warranty.

In an Onkyo receiver, I would recommend the Onkyo TX-SR702 which lists for $799 but is currently available from PCMall for $409 with free shipping (after mail in rebate) and from eCost for $409 plus shipping. This receiver is a refurbished current year model that comes with a 90 day warranty.

If I were buying today, I'd go with the refurbished Onkyo TX-SR702 even though it only has a 90 day warranty. Studies of failure rates in electronic equipment over time have shown that if a piece of electronics is going to fail, it is likely to do so in the first few months. After that, the failure rate drops to a minimum and then goes up again very gradually as failures due to age and wear and tear start to occur. Knowing these statistics, I am very keen to get a factory warranty that covers the first few months of ownership but not as concerned about coverage after that. These statistics are also why I don't buy extended warranties on receivers (and also why such warranties are so profitable to the sellers).

However, I don't think you would go wrong with any of these three.