Advice Requested - Replacement for Onkyo TX-NR717

[Benedict_Arnold]

So we finally moved into our Houston Texas McMansion complete with movie room and I'm in the process of cutting holes in the wall for the surround sound speakers (Yamaha Natural Sound range - not the best but good enough and a fair price).

I had the builders put wires in for:

- 2 front high levels (in wall corners behind TV / projector screen location)

- 1 centre speaker (in ceiling in advance of a projector screen but I could also put one high up in the back wall)

- 2 surround half-way down the ceiling

- 2 rear in-walls

- 2 powered subwoofers (in-wall or boxes)

I plan to use my hifi speakers for the front left and right

The room measures about 30 feet x 15 feet x 10 feet high.

Right now I'm using a 60-inch Samsung 4K 3D LED TV, but if Santa's nice I'll get a 4K projector and screen for Chrimbo.

HDMI cables are Audioquest Chocolate, again, perhaps not the best, but good enough, and yes, you really can see the difference between them and el cheapo HDMI cables with 4K TV. Oh, and all the boxes are connected to eachother and the outside world by a wired 100 MBit/sec LAN.

The receiver is an Onkyo TX-NR717 I've had about five years. I suspect it will need to be upgraded, principally to cope with 4K throughput, so I would appreciate advice on upgrade options.

I would like 7.2 surround sound, as a minimum, possibly 9.2 later, with front left & right (now), centre (now), front high left & right (later), surround left & right (now) and rear left & right (now). I'm hearing all sorts of stuff about Dolby Atmos, don't have a clue what it is or how it works or what it does, but I think I would like it, unless and until, that is whatever usurps Atmos as the new "latest and greatest" comes along.

I really like Onkyo stuff as it reminds me of the build quality of 1990s Technics stuff, i.e. not necessarily the latest and greatest, but well built, relaible and suitably "chunky".

I' thinking Onky TX-NR737 or 838, but would welcome suggestions, Onkyo or otherwise. Mainstream brands only please. Budget would be around $1000 US plus sales tax maximum or $1000 including VAT in the UK.

 

[simonlewis]

Forget onkyo TX-NR737 and 838 those recievers are over twelve months old, i am not sure what recievers you have in the USA, but here in the uk Denon AVR-X4200W is being released this month and iirc the marantz 1710 is being released in october and also check out the yamaha 1050.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Denon X4200W is already available here, 1500 US plus sales tax (8.5% in Texas). A tad over the budget but if I'm good maybe I'll get one for my birthday in November.

The Yamaha is mostly available bundled with speakers, for about $1300, which suggests they're trying to shift old stock.

I'm going to try a firmware update on the Onkyo. Last night I got it "working" but hooking the Bluray directly to the TV and using a fiber optic for the surround sound. It works, but it's a bit Heath Robinson, and my media PC doesn't have an SPDIF on the motherboard to use the same trick, so one is on order.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Firmware update didn't do any harm, but the receiver still won't pass 4K signals, so the sources (Bluray player and media PC) are hooked up to their own HDMI inputs which gives me 4K pictures.

I'm trying to sort out the audio return channel thing, but in the interim I'm using fibre optics from the back of each source into the receiver.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Onkyo TX-NR838 is now discounted to $700 new, $550 and up for "open box" returns, down from their original price of $1300. TX-NR838 is "Atmos ready", so I presume, by now, the firmware upgrade is available.

Question remains, therefore, is the 838 worthwhile or should I hold out for the 2016 models, especially as the 17-year-old's venerable 13 or 14 year old TX-NR807 (which I gave him to use four years ago) finally packed up this week and he wants a replacement. He could have the 717 or event the 545 in the games room, and I could upgrade. Well, it might work with the wife, whereas spending $1200 or more would see my manly parts cut off with the bread knife...

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I'm homing in on the Yamaha RX-A2050.

The RX-A850 just got a good write-up from WHF.

The A2050 is 9.2 rather than 72. and gives 7-channel plus subwoofer(s) Atmos rather than 5-channel plus subwoofer(s).

Right now I have six in-wall speakers - two Yamaha NSIW960 (150W peak, 50W RMS) mounted front relatively wide at about 30 inches in from the corners on a 15-foot wall and about six feet from the floor to the bottoms of the enclosures, two Yamaha NSIC800WH (140W peak, 50W RMS) mounted relatively wide half-way along the room's 25-foot ceiling and two more Yamaha NSIW660 3-way rear speakers (150W peak / 50W RMS) mounted to the rear, roughly at the same distances from the walls and floor as the fronts. The center is a boxed Klipsch center channel unit underneath the TV. This will be replaced by one or two (wired in parallel) more NSIC800WH units so they're symmetrical behind the hoped-for projector screen.

SO that's seven speakers in total.

The reason I want a 9.2 receiver is because I want to add some proper "stereo speakers" and a dedicated Cyrus "stereo" later.

When I get to that point the wall mounted fronts will be front high or front wide or whatever, the ones in the ceilings will be surrounds or presence or whatever, and the rears will be, erm, rears. The front outputs from the receiver would then be fed into the "aux" line ins on the proper stereo with the proper stereo speakers doubling up as the home theatre fronts.

Thoughts?

Any benefit in adding another pair of rears or overheads or just overkill in a 15 foot by 25 room?

The Atmos would only scale to 7.2 using this receiver any way. I have wiring in for a single closer to the front overhead, and 'er indoors would really go bananas if I tired to cut more holes in the plasterboard. On the other hand, running cables is a doddle as the room's upstairs, the walls are hollow and I can access them from the attic. I don't think there are any horizontal braces half-way up the studs either, but if there are then the speakers would have to be mounted above them, i.e. at least 4, possibly 5 feet above the floor.