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Help a guy out? Renovating home theater system after 10 years and have a few questions.

I am going to modernize my family's TV situation.  We have a 60 inch Pioneer 1080p plasma. My speakers are Paradigm Millennia with two MIllenia 20 Trio as towers and then Millenia 30s for center and surrounds.  The subwoofer is a Paradigm, but not sure what model.  The Receiver is a Denin AVR 2807. I have not done anything with it in a decade. 

I am getting an LG 86SJ9570 because why not.  The receiver definitely need to go, and I have settled on the Yamaha Aventage for no good reason. I was looking at Onkyo, but I get the sense the Yamaha may be easier for me to figure out.  My inclination is to look for more receiver than I need but buy something maybe a few years old. Whatever it is will be a learning process.

I have figured out that the model numbers reflect the series or the date.  When the Aventage came out in 2010, it was 60, 700, 800, 1000, etc.  Then they have the 810, the 820 and so on.  So we now have the 70 series.  I suspect that if I bought a 7 year old receiver, I would be missing some things that I really want or need, but I have no idea how far back I can go safely.  I cannot find a chart of the changes by series.  An RX-A1070 is $1,199 at Amazon, and an RX-A2060 is $929.  I can get a 1040 for $550 and a 1030 for $450. But I have no idea what a good cutoff point would be.  If anyone has an idea, I would really appreciate the help.

I also would be curious if my speakers make sense.  We sit about 18 feet from the TV, and I sometimes feel like there is not enough mass to the noise if that makes sense. For some reason, it seems to me like that might be more of an issue with a bigger screen.

Thanks, I really appreciate any help. 
vasubandu

Showing 4 responses by willemj

willemj
1,036 posts
 
We also have a Panasonic plasma screen but I have decided not to upgrade for the time being. I had a look at many modern 4K screens and felt that the ones that I saw were pretty gross with too bright colours. But that may be the way they were presented to impress in store. For me the clinching argument is that there is virtually no source material to watch. Broadcast TV here in the Netherlands is not even full HD, and the number of UHD disc is tiny, and even fewer of them are serious art films. I know Netflix does some (compressed) 4K streaming but I have never found anything other than commercial drivel. So on the TV side I am postponing an upgrade. My plasma screen should have at least another few years of life in it (I hope).
On the audio side I have long ago decided that I prefer a high end stereo system for my HT sound (Quad 2805 speakers with a B&W PV1d sub plus Antimode 8033 room eq). For the same budget and the same domestic space I think I get better sound that way, although admittedly I am missing some of the special effects. But that is my choice, and your preferences may be different, of course.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
To be precise:
We get what is called HD ready i.e. 1280×720p broadcast/cable television. Full HD as in Bluray discs is 1920×1080p. UHD/4k is 3840x2160 pixels. Do you have significant UHD content, or just HD? If the latter, it is not yet worthwhile to upgrade, I would argue.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
The only downside of the receiver is that it is old fashioned and does not support UHD video and some modern formats. So as long as you do not upgrade the screen to UHD it should be fine, however.
Good modern AV receivers are not particularly expensive compared to the cost of good speakers, but make sure that if you decide to get a new receiver it has plenty of power (the more the better), also with all channels driven. That puts a big demand on the receiver's power supply, which happens to be the most expensive part of the unit.
The weakest part of the audio side of your set up is not the receiver but the speakers. I can well imagine that you feel the sound is not big enough, let alone good enough. Unfortunately speakers are also by far the most expensive part of a system.
The biggest impact on the size of the sound in HT would be to replace the subwoofer with at least two modern ones. See here for why you need multiple subs: http://www.acousticfrontiers.com/20101029using-multiple-subwoofers-to-improve-bass-the-welti-devanti...
Brands to consider would be SVS or Rythmik, but there are other good ones as well, particularly at a bigger budget. One interesting option would be the Audiokinesis Swarm system: http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/
In all cases I would suggest a dsp room equalization system as well, either one that is built into the receiver, or an external one such as the DSpeaker Antimode 8033.
willemj
1,036 posts
 
Panasonic plasma tv’s do indeed have great picture quality - I am very happy to have one in HD, so no limitation in resolution as long as I don’t watch UHD content. For now, I think the only reason to upgrade one to an UHD TV is if you have access to significant quanitites of UHD content. Like many, I don’t, so I am not upgrading to an UHD TV.
I hope my plasma screen will live until UHD content will be readily available, and then I will upgrade, of course.
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