2. home-theater
  3. 157725-24250

A/V Receiver Recommendation for a newby.

Hi folks. I'll be the first to admit I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to home theater systems.  I know the basics . I recently bought a  pair of Bowers and Wilkins 702 s2 speakers along with the htm 71 s2 center  channel. I have a pair of PSB GB1 book shelf for the rear speakers.  I currently have an Onkyo TX-NR676 a/v receiver.  I've been told by multiple people that this receiver isn't powerful enough to drive the B&W speakers and am looking to upgrade. I do have a limited budget after shelling out $6000 in speakers. I was wondering if anyone has experience with the Onkyo  TX NR 797 or Denon avr 2600h or recommendations My max budget is $1000.
Thanks in advance. 
elwayfan

Showing 2 responses by kren0006

kren0006
1,859 posts
 
My advice would be to get the best Marantz AVR you can for $1k. Marantz puts out new models every year, and when they do the old ones go on sale about 40% off. So their $1.5k (or whatever it is) will probably go for $1k new at that point.

It’ll have all the Atmos/DTX and also will have a pretty good digital streamer for streaming music (Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, etc.) and will sound pretty good for music also.

That’s if $1k is really your budget limit. It is possible to do better if you have more to spend, but at $1k I don’t think it is possible to do better if you want Atmos (which if you are heavy HT, is worthwhile).

I have marantz SR5012 running an Atmos 5.1.2 system in my main HT system. It works great for tv and movies.

Now my main music system costs 3x more than my main HT system (I don’t use the HT for music), but when I started I did.

If you get more seriously into music, you can get a dedicated 2 ch amp or integrated for that later.
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
OP:  Marantz just announced its new line of AVRs this week, so last years models should either be on sale now or soon, if interested.  The new models are denoted SRXX15 (where XX is either 50, 60, 70, 80).  

Last year's models are SRXX14;  previous year SRXX13, etc.

I got an SR5012 just under two years ago.  Marantz really pushes new AVR models out every year.  Usually there isn't much that changes, though I haven't kept up since my purchase and can't speak to specific changes year-to-year.
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