A receiver, or...

[RoyY51]

Greetings!

It's been a while since I posted...things have gotten busy at the Young household. I have, however, been lurking on and off, and have noticed that things have slowed down here a bit. Many of the Old Monikers are MIA, and the overall participation is not near what it was. Thankfully, I've also seen that some of the most trusted and trustworthy denizens are still hanging in there. It's to you stalwarts, as well as the Knowledgeable Knewbies, that I appeal to for help.

I'm looking for new home theater amplification to replace my Nad T763. The Nad, while delivering great sound on both movies and music, lacks a couple of features that would (I believe) greatly improve my theater experience. First, is has no HDMI connections, and, try as I might, I cannot get a perfect sync with the sound and picture. Running the HDMI video from the Oppo Blu-ray or the digital cable box directly to the TV and running the audio into the receiver creates a lag that I can't seem to eliminate. I understand (perhaps erroneously) that passing the HDMI signal through the amplification automatically syncs everything up. This would be a wonderful thing...that slight lag is driving me up a wall!

Secondly, I've read that room-correction technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years.I have a wierd listening area (ceiling slopes from 8 feet on the left, to 7 feet on the right...room is 9 feet wide in the front, 12 feet wide in the rear) that I think would benefit from some good audio processing..."good" being the operative word. I've heard that there's also some crap out there. I'm hoping that a guru, or two, will help me winnow the wheat from the chaff.

Lastly, I'm not married to the concept of a receiver. I never listen to music on the radio, so the lack of a tuner would not be a deal-breaker. Affordable multi-channel separates, or an integrated multi-channel amp would definitely be an option.

That's about it...except, of course, for my budget. I would like to keep this in the $800 range. Options just got a little restrictive, didn't they? Believe me, I'm still going to have to do a lot of massaging to get the Better Half to agree to even that expenditure!

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter...you folks have always been there for me in the past, and I know that you will do your best to steer me towards Video Nirvana.

Thank you!

[blackraven]

Hi Roy, if you don't mid a factory refurbished unit, take a look at the Marantz AVR's here at big discounts. From what I have read they are an authorized dealer and reliable.

Home Audio | Accessories4less

[harley .guy07]

I just replaced an aging Yamaha with a Marantz sr5008 and love it. While I only use the power section for my center channel it mostly acts as a preamp processor and for the money it is awesome. The room correction setup is stupid easy and works well. And it sounds very warm and balanced. It is very simple to use as well.

[Unworthy]

I just replaced an aging Yamaha with a Marantz sr5008 and love it. The room correction setup is stupid easy and works well. And it sounds very warm and balanced. It is very simple to use as well.

I just got an SR5008 a few months ago and echo this response with one comment. The installer used the automatic room correction setup procedure, but apparently didn't actually listen to it afterward. As soon as I turned it on I realized something was wrong. After some probing I discovered that the LF speaker was set to +12dB while no other speaker was set higher than +4. Use technology, but trust your ears.

D

[Worf101]

Not knowing your budjet or how many speakers or what kind... I will say that I recently got an Open Box Onkyo 5010 from the Bay. I used vintage speakers so I didn't use Auddessy for room correction. still... a modern receiver is a wonder. I ripped almost all my music to my HD and I know stream all my music to my main system in lossless, this is a wonderful feature that you also might take advantage of. You can find great receivers in all price ranges from most of the "major players." I love using a receiver and run my cable, BluRay and Roku through it.

Worf

[RoyY51]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! Your recommendations for the Marantz strike a chord with me...To this day, the best sounding AVR I've ever owned was the Marantz SR780. I traded it in for my current Nad T763, in order to experience the more advanced features of the Nad. In retrospect, I kinda wish I hadn't. I lost a lot of the musical magic that the Marantz delivered. Maybe the time has come to recapture some of it! I'll keep you posted.