Ot - home theater receiver

[bigman]

Looking for advice - have an older MARANTZ SR 18EX, needs about a $275 repair. The unit is a beast, must way over 50 pounds.

Sound quality on this machine is fantastic, or I should say was.

I know the connectivity is dated, as is the HDMI switching. I would use this unit for a surround 5.1 setup and to drive some outdoor speakers( 2 pair) and some speakers in the living room.

Anybody out there familiar with this unit and could guide me in what a new unit with similar sound quality would run. I have no desire to add more speakers to the home theater setup, I am driving some Linn Katan for the fronts, and a Linn 5120 center channel speaker.


Thanks

[esldude]

Denon units are usually quite good and beefy themselves. Actually look in your local Craigslist and search for Denon. Often these units with just a few less channels than the latest, like 7.1 can be had for at or near the repair cost of your unit. Such things cost new $1-2k recently. While maybe not the very latest they are good and should work for your purposes. I have found them to be of excellent quality.

[Peter P.]

I'm a decades long reader of Sound and Vision magazine and trust their reviews. They tend to focus on audio and home theater for the mid-level enthusiast versus the high end audiophile, so the equipment they feature is more reasonably priced. I highly suggest you just visit your local library and check out the recent back issues. For equipment especially noteworthy and of a good value, you'll find a "S+V Recommended" seal on the front page of any review.

I like Yamaha equipment because it's very reasonably priced yet feature laden. My integrated amp is 27 years old and still running. My tuner and CD changer are not quite as old but still working.

[tuxbailey]

I like Yamaha equipment because it's very reasonably priced yet feature laden. My integrated amp is 27 years old and still running. My tuner and CD changer are not quite as old but still working.

I like Yamaha as well. I have my receiver for over 14 years and it still performs well. If I upgrade I will probably go with Yamaha again.

[esldude]

I would second Yamaha as well. I find the upper level Denons to equal them and usually have better thought out interfaces to the controls. But Yamaha is good. They just don't seem to pay as much attention to the USA market as they might.

[Likes2ridefar]

audiogon is another place to look for quality used gear.

for new, if you want a separate amp and processor Emotiva has great priced amps in pretty much any configuration you'd need.

[jghall]

Like many things in life, some of the answer would depend on budget. You can spend anywhere from $300 to $3k.

Certainly Marantz makes nice stuff. And their new stuff is just as good as what you currently have. Though without trying to stereo type(no pun intended), it excels more in 2 channel for a receiver, where I think there are better units for home theater use.

While there is certain mystic to Marantz, Arcam, and some of the more luxury receivers, for home theater I would probably lean more toward the Denon, Yamaha, and Onkyo's of the world. Personally I would check out Onkyo. Think they making some great bang-for-buck receivers.

Check out "ecoustics.com" for reviews. Keeping in mind some of the reviews may be somewhat paid for just like many things in the advertising world.

[Bob Ross]

- Denon is a good choice.
- Yamaha isn't a bad choice (and fwiw my 20-year-old Yamaha receiver & CD player are both still going strong) but it's considered slightly lower on the food chain than Marantz or Denon (in terms of audio performance and reliability) by industry insiders, if that matters at all.
- A new Marantz would be a pretty good choice too, albeit perhaps indistinguishable from a new Denon.
- Pioneer Elite wouldn't suck
- my first choice would probably be an Integra (the slighty-higher-than-mid-fi division of Onkyo) due to their comprehensive-to-the-point-of-obsessive feature set, indestructability, and excellent customer support.

[Likes2ridefar]

- Denon is a good choice.
- Yamaha isn't a bad choice (and fwiw my 20-year-old Yamaha receiver & CD player are both still going strong) but it's considered slightly lower on the food chain than Marantz or Denon (in terms of audio performance and reliability) by industry insiders, if that matters at all.
- A new Marantz would be a pretty good choice too, albeit perhaps indistinguishable from a new Denon.
- Pioneer Elite wouldn't suck
- my first choice would probably be an Integra (the slighty-higher-than-mid-fi division of Onkyo) due to their comprehensive-to-the-point-of-obsessive feature set, indestructability, and excellent customer support.

i'd go for the last choice as well. if you consider used I regularly see Integra processors on audiogon heavily discounted from upgradeitis guys usually moving to 3d.

[pjm]

My old Arcam AVR350 was the best home theater reciever I've ever heard. Yamaha, Denon, Marantz - not even in the same league. For less money I'd go NAD. That being said, I got tired of the almost instant obsolescence of home theater equipment and went back to a 2.1 system.

[Likes2ridefar]

My old Arcam AVR350 was the best home theater reciever I've ever heard. Yamaha, Denon, Marantz - not even in the same league. For less money I'd go NAD. That being said, I got tired of the almost instant obsolescence of home theater equipment and went back to a 2.1 system.

I didn't want to say it, but that is what I did but space is a major issue for me and I can't have a rocking subwoofer either so I just have two very high quality tower speakers and an excellent integrated amp that also does digital. hooked to a home theater personal computer i'm quite happy with the current setup. took forever to setup, but it was worth it. XBMC is pretty amazing.

[zap]

- Pioneer Elite wouldn't suck
- my first choice would probably be an Integra (the slighty-higher-than-mid-fi division of Onkyo) due to their comprehensive-to-the-point-of-obsessive feature set, indestructability, and excellent customer support.

Pioneer Elite with ICE amp would be a great "economical" choice.

A few years ago I got tired of our Yamaha (can't recall model # but was top of the line amp/processor in the mid 90's) and replaced it with an Elite SC-05. The Yamaha truly sound like crap in comparison.

Integra would also be a great choice.

[grateful]

I have a Pioneer Elite SC-25 with the ICE 140 watt digital amplification. This is a great receiver (discontinued) that can be picked up relatively cheap. The only feature I would like that this doesn't have is some sort of volume level control (ie Dolby Volume). I am sure it is on the newer Elite receivers.

[CaliFly]

I just picked up a Denon 2113CI for right around $400. Extremely happy with the features and clean sound. Yamaha receivers always sounded too warm to me, and Pioneers too sterile. Onkyo have great features for the price, but some have complained of bad units. I never had a problem with mine...until it died after 14 years.

[bigman]

Appreciate all the suggestions, willing to spend around a grand. I have an older 5 channel carver amp, may check out a separate processor or just look into the Onkyo line.

[maunahaole]

I have a Denon and have been happy with it. The menus on the Denon are damn near incomprhensible and the manual to explain them is not much better. Good sound and a bunch of power. No complaints on performance.

I moved my old Yamaha to run the outdoor speakers on an apple airport. It has worked flawlessly for 20-ish years.

The key with home theater receivers is that you get the audio processing that is compatible with the content that you are going to be playing. The old Yamaha is a dolby pro-logic and doesnt translate new multichannel signals well. Two channel it works like a champ.