Am I ready for my AV reciever purchase

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[nopiano]

Perhaps try again with that question... :?

 

[Anonymous]

sorry I think I posted it twice, but could see no way to delete one

 

[Anonymous]

sorry I think I posted it twice, but could see no way to delete one

 

[Anonymous]

Can't see my other post. So here goes again

We’ve re arranged the living room and the old hi fi has to go. The speakers on speaker stands just don’t work where they are, not visually or sonically. For the record they were Mordaunt short 20i on Atacama SE 24s run off a Cambridge Audio AM 1 amplifier. The old set up was mainly used for films. We are hoping that a 5.1 system will give us clearer voices, I realise that straight music won’t sound as good.

It looks like I’ll be buying a Onkyo TXSR309 and Boston Acoustics XS speakers. It look like I missed the Sony 810 clear out.

Does this receiver have auto set up? How much of a pain will manual set up be?

The final set up will be. Apple tv through the receiver to the telly (which has HDMI). This is our main movie source. I assume the HDMI takes the audio to the receiver for processing without the need to use the optical digital out?

The freeview PVR will also go through the receiver via HDMI, but freeview is stereo only? Will The receiver try and pull out the voices for the centre channel?

The cd player will go in via the phono leads. Can set up so this plays 2.1

An I pod can go on the USB with an ipod wire

The old DVD player will still Scart to the telly but will connect via its digital out to the receiver. Will this create sinking problems in terms of delays?

Does this sound like it will work? Is there another receiver at this price I should consider. Does this sound a better route than home cinema in a box? I have no desire for a blu ray player at the moment

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

It looks like I’ll be buying a Onkyo TXSR309 and Boston Acoustics XS speakers. It look like I missed the Sony 810 clear out. Does this receiver have auto set up? How much of a pain will manual set up be?

It's not too bad really - you'll need to set the cross over (which for the Bostons is likely to be a minimum of 120Hz), then set the distances to each of the speakers in feet / metres and the speaker levels in dB - you can either do this using the test tone and use your ear to determine when you think each of the tones is equal, or you can get a sound meter (just an example, others are available) to help you achieve this.

The final set up will be. Apple tv through the receiver to the telly (which has HDMI). This is our main movie source. I assume the HDMI takes the audio to the receiver for processing without the need to use the optical digital out?

Yes, this will work fine on the Onkyo.

The freeview PVR will also go through the receiver via HDMI, but freeview is stereo only? Will The receiver try and pull out the voices for the centre channel?

Depends on what mode you put the amp in for the above. You can either set to stereo to ignore the surround speakers, or you can use one of the Dolby / DTS modes which will attempt to create a surround sound field from the stereo signal. Have a play and see which you prefer.

The cd player will go in via the phono leads. Can set up so this plays 2.1

Ditto the above, though probably Stereo (or Direct / Pure Audio mode if it has one) would be preferable for music. As before, have a play and see which you prefer - there's no right or wrong answers on this!

An I pod can go on the USB with an ipod wire

The old DVD player will still Scart to the telly but will connect via its digital out to the receiver. Will this create sinking problems in terms of delays?

The Onkyo has a sync delay option in the menu, so if there are any issues with this, you should be able to tweak this to iron them out.

Does this sound like it will work? Is there another receiver at this price I should consider. Does this sound a better route than home cinema in a box? I have no desire for a blu ray player at the moment

I would always argue that a separate system is a better route than all-in-one, as long as you can put up with the extra boxes and the slightly more complex setup process. In terms of the Onkyo, it looks good for the price, but I haven't heard it - if you can, I'd recommend going to a local dealer, telling them your budget and then getting some auditions so you can hear them yourself. For a bit more cash, you could look at the Yamaha RX-V371 or even the Sony STR-DH820 - no idea if they'd be better in your setup, but it's a good idea to at least have a listen so you can make an informed decision.

It could also be worth looking at an older model which has been reduced as well - I notice Richer Sounds has some 2 or 3 year old models that sold at £500 -£600 when brand new, like the Denon AVR-1910 for less than £200 now. It depends where you're based, but it's always worth looking at that, especially if you have no interest in 3D (since 3D functionality will be missing from any of these).

 

[Anonymous]

Firstly thanks for your detailed reply

I made my purchase today.

I realise that I'd set a slightly low, arbitary budget but I stuck to it

Richer Sounds are out of the sony 810 and the I can't see the Denon listed on the website

So it was Onkyo for at 180 and the speakers for 200. An extra HDMI lead for £10. 20m of oxygen free speaker cable speaker cable from B&Q was just under £18. It looks OK, 72 strand I think. We also got a new tv stand. Fortunatly even with the sub woofer way bigger than we expected the room looks way less cluttered with 6 speakers than 2.

I have achieved a basic setup this evening with the Apple tv and freeview box wired into the reciever. It all seems to be working. Setting the cross over frequecny seemed important. Its quite high with 180 Hz recomended on the sub woofer.

It'll take a while to get an idea of what modes we like. But direct was Ok for the tv and we got surround sound out of the apple tv watching trailers

the kids loved the ipod menu un screen

Hopefully tomorrow will an actual movie and possible wall mounting the speakers. They come with wall bracket that look well made and allow some tuning of direction

Richer sounds gave us a great tip. We've got a sound meter as a free app on my sons phone

so thanks again

John

 

[professorhat]

Good stuff - enjoy your system and if you've got any more questions, just come back and ask!

 

[Anonymous]

Nearly had to post for help

spent an hour today turning the digital out on the DVD player on. Thanks goodness for internet manuals. I was defeated as the option isn't available with the DVD playing.....