Need advice on very low cost receivers

[landfill]

I'm just starting out in this home theater field and am completely lost. I looked through a lot of the old postings, but more of the questions about receivers are out of my budget. I'm still a college student!

In any case, I'm looking for advice on a new receiver to go with some new Athena AS-F2 speakers I just picked up. I'd like to stay around $250 for the receiver, I'd like 5.1 audio. I also need 5.1 channel inputs. Are there any suggestions?

Thanks a lot

[kpzbee]

I'm just starting out in this home theater field and am completely lost. I looked through a lot of the old postings, but more of the questions about receivers are out of my budget. I'm still a college student!

In any case, I'm looking for advice on a new receiver to go with some new Athena AS-F2 speakers I just picked up. I'd like to stay around $250 for the receiver, I'd like 5.1 audio. I also need 5.1 channel inputs. Are there any suggestions?

Thanks a lot

I would suggest looking for something used. If you'll be happy with 5.1, you can pick up some real nice units for low cost. I considered this myself but have since changed my mind. Good luck & happy hunting!

[paul_pci]

I'm thinking you could probably find a nice yamaha receiver for about $299 with the 5.1 channel input. In fact, I had originally purchased the HTR 5650 for that exact price thorugh J&R before finding a steal on the RX-V3300 model. Plus, since Yamaha has come out with a few new models, you might find a good deal on discontinued/clearance sales.

Happy receiver hunting. Don't preclude forgoing a purchase now for a wiser purchase in the future.

[markw]

My stepson has a Panasonic HE-100 that sounds pretty durn good. These sell for $250 or less at the big box shops. Check out j and R, Best Buy and Circuit City.

Should mate quite well with those speakers.

[yamdsp-a1]

My stepson has a Panasonic HE-100 that sounds pretty durn good. These sell for $250 or less at the big box shops. Check out j and R, Best Buy and Circuit City.

Should mate quite well with those speakers.

Hi,

Buy used.

Buy something off e-bay or audiogon.com or from your local store. Any HTR released in the last few years has 5.1 (although they might not all have 5.1 input).

Personally, I would recommend Yamaha if you go the used route because of their reliability and build quality but there are lots of other options. Having been a college student on a limited budget, I talk from much experience. In fact, my current amp was picked up used and it was an awesome purchase and I suspect my next amp will be used too! (Although I am a few years out of college and can probably afford a new one).

Never been much into that the new car smell if you take my meaning. The technolgy changes but it has not changed dramatically in the last few years - not like the leap from pro logic to 5.1 or from VHS to DVD. My amp, which is probably 5 years old now (maybe more) still sounds wicked. Okay, it doesn't have 6.1 or pro logic II and the video switching isn't up to todays high end units but it sounds awesome and what more do you want?

Truth is, you will get far more bang for your limited bucks by going the used route and you will find that most people in this hobby take care of their equipment and want it to go to a good home when they are done with it.

hope that helps and happy hunting.

Yam

[landfill]

Thanks a lot for your help. I went with the Panasonic model and so far I'm really happy with it. The Athena AS-F2's are great, especially with four of them in dolby digital 5.1

[127PJSNY]

I hope you have better luck with your Panasonic than I did. My Panasonic Sc-HT80 stoped reading DVD's, see my post of 4/10/04 : Problems with Panasonic SC-HT80

[lbhkilla]

Check out Best Buy, I just got a Yamaha VSX-D812K for $200. They are closing them out, so if your lucky and your local BB has one its a pretty good deal I think.