Need to upgrade my home theater receiver...

[edgar_allan_poe]

hey guys...I need to upgrade my receiver for my surround sound in my living room and have a few questions.

1. I have a small room(20x15). Is there any reason I would want 100+ watts?

2. I am very interested in the upconverting feature but I am skeptical of the performance. Does anyone have one of these receivers that upconvert a normal signal to 1080? How does it perform? Worth the extra $$$$.

3. I have been looking at some of the receivers on Audio Advisor, any of these look good?

Audio Advisor

Thanks in advance guys... A little over 1K is fine, but getting into the multiple thousands just isn't going to happen.

[Mike Lee]

After going through this for the past 2 years, I'd recommend the latest Denon models.

I have an NAD T775 and it's been in the shop 3 times. First for updating of corrupted firmware, and the second two times for hardware updates due to various issues. NAD is a great old hi-fi company that made great performing components at reasonable prices. More than mass market prices, but much better sound quality. The looks were basic, but that was the idea - put the money where it counts. It has killer amps, and sounds great, but it's just had lots of annoying issues.

Unfortunately, NAD and many other great hi-fi brands have fallen on their faces with all the new HDMI stuff. It's just too much software and computer hardware integration for the specialty brands. Harmon Kardon has had even more trouble.

It seems that the Japanese companies are the only ones with the resources to get all the SW/HW integration done right (mostly, there are still some issues). That means Onkyo/Integra, Denon, Yamaha, etc. I'd avoid Sony due to their woefully underpowered and over-rated amplifiers. Pioneer if OK but no better than the first three I named.

Upconversion in an AVR is pointless for most people. You DVD and/or Blu-ray player probably upconverts to 1080p as well or better the the AVR. Your HDTV might do just as well with it's own internal scaler (my HDTV's do). Cable boxes may benefit from AVR upconversion if their internal scalers really suck (many do), and your HDTV's isn't that great.

People who really need upconversion are those using something like a projector with a 1080p input and no internal scaling, or something like that. For most people it's much ado about nothing, and most of the scalers in mid priced AVR's aren't that great.

I've been using a Denon 4310ci for the past few months (NAD was in the shop) and it's been great. Maybe that's because it's actually made in Japan unlike almost everything else that's made in China or worse. It does have an excellent video processor - Anchor Bay VRS, which is the same processor as in the Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player. Mostly I just pass set it to pass through my various HDMI signals. It's got plenty of power, and more features than anyone needs. For less money, look at the Denon 3310ci which can be had for what you are looking to pay. The networking feature allows firmware updaters to happen automatically over the internet. This is a BIG deal, as these are basically computers that look like receivers. Without network updates, you may be stuck having to send the thing in for service if it needs an update, and they ALWAYS need updates.

Power depends on how loud you listen and the efficiency of your speakers, like always. But if you have a powered sub and cross it over at 80 Hz, you significantly lighten the load on the AVR.

Something I have learned is that Audyssey Room correction really does work. It makes a big difference on my already excellent speakers - smoothes the highs, evens out the mids, and eliminated bass boom and mudiness. I won't buy an AVR without it - MultEQ at the minimum, and MultEQ XT preferred.

Onkyo has the best price-performance tradeoff, but I don't like their stuff as much as Denon. The 807 might be a good choice. But they run HOT and need lots of space for cooling. Denon runs cooler.

[tomteriffic]

I got a Marantz from Audio Advisor when it was being closed out in favor of a revised model with some extra bell/whistle. I'm generally happy with it. Some observations.

The Audyssey correction really does help. They pointed out just how placement fussy my subwoofer is, too.

The video upscaling only works on component (analog three-plug) connections. I doubt I'd use it anyway.

Power is 90 WPC. I have a set of moderately efficient JBL's across the front and Athena AS-B1's in the rear. They get plenty loud with this, but the more power you have, the more headroom.

The Marantz remote is very counter-intuitive, very little differentiation between buttons and the manual section on it isn't much help.

You need good ventilation around it.

If I'd had the funds, I'd have gone with a Denon or Onkyo.

[edgar_allan_poe]

The reason that the upconverting was appealing to me was because not all of my channels are in HD. Am I misunderstanding this? I was figuring that it would upconvert the non HD channels to 1080. I have a Sharp that is a couple of years old so I doubt that it has any upscaling that would be worth using. The way my system works now, I have my HD channels that look awesome but there are several channels that have some cool stuff that are in 480 and when I switch over it looks like shit. I was hoping that this unit would alleviate some of this disparity between channels.

If I am off base with this please let me know because it would be a waste of money for me to spend the extra $$$ for that feature.

Also, one of the only problems I have with Direct TV is the inconsistency between the volumes on different channels. Some of these units have a feature that eliminates this issue.

[JohnnyB]

Audio Advisor is really behind the curve on the HT processors and receivers. Don't bother with them for this yet. Onkyo led the way on reliable implementation of HDMI 1.3a. They're already in their 3rd or 4th generation of HT receivers that do 1080p HDMI 1.3a, decoding of TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, Audyssey speaker setup, etc. As Mike says, Denon has some great offerings now too. The Onkyos that ran hot were the 2nd gen. versions from 1-2 yrs ago. They have had a new line for about a year since. Also, Onkyo and Denon are two of the few affordable HT receiver lines that have high current capabilities for driving low impedance speakers. Sony ain't one of them. They leave the woofers to flap in the breeze. Rotel HT receivers also sound very good and drive the speakers well, but I don't know if their models decode the latest lossless sound codecs yet.

Upconverting std DVDs over HDMI to the TV really works. It can't be as sharp as Blu-ray because it's only working with 1/4 as many pixels, but it's better than std. def DVD even over component video connections connected directly to the TV. Although your TV will upconvert any signal it receives to its native mode, the resulting picture quality will vary depending on how good an upconverter your TV has and how clean the signal is coming in. I got noticeably better results setting an upconverting DVD player (or blu-ray) for 1080 output than sending 480p from the player for the TV to deal with. Having HDMI video switching and upconverting in the receiver gives you the convenience of controlling, switching, sound-decoding, and upconverting multiple HDMI sources. Very convenient.

[hamerhead]

JB - what do you think of this Pioneer? It gets good reviews (plus it's cheap, and I need to upgrade, too!).

[Mike Lee]

I don't think Pioneer is any better than the others, and they don't use Audyssey, so it's a non-starter for me.

Poe - it depends on your TV. My Sony XBR4 46" does a great job on it's own, no matter what I feed it. HDMI or component, upscaled in the BD player, receiver, or TV, it all looks pretty much the same, unless you are looking at benchmark tests, which prove the Oppo BDP-83 and Denon scalers de-interlace 1080i to 1080p much better than the XBR4. But some HDTV's have lousy scalers so it really depends.

If your Sharp HDTV has 1080p native resolution, it HAS to upconvert 480i to 1080p display it. But if it just pixel-doubles and stretches a little bit it might look bad compared to a scaler that interpolates new pixels and smoothes the edges. Doesn't your DirectTV box allow you to set the output to a fixed resolution and perform all scaling internally? It should allow you to output a fixed 720p or 1080i for all channels. Try it and compare to the Sharp - if it doesn't look any different, chances are the scaler in the AVR might not help.

Audyssey Dynamic Volume offsets the volume between sources, and applies variable compression. The compression curve is based on actual tests with people who "ride the volume" during movies to make the quiet dialog more audible and tame down the loud explosions. There are three settings on my Denon - day, evening, and night which correspond to greater compression settings. It does a good job leveling out the volume without sounding squashed. Works great for TV viewing, but it's better to turn it off and crank the volume for Blu-rays and music.

Dynamic EQ works in concert with Dynamic EQ, which is like a variable loudness control. It automatically adjusts the EQ based on how far you have attenuated the volume from reference level, which for properly mastered movie discs is 75 dB in-room as measured and set during self-calibration with the included Audyssey microphone. Anything else is a crapshoot because there are no mastering standards for TV. I find that Dynamic EQ makes my system sound too bassy, especially male voices, so I usually have it set to a 15 dB offset (flat at 60 dB instead of 75 dB). Just to make things more complicated, Dynamic EQ has to be activated to use Dynamic Volume.

But here's the punchline - all consumer grade AVR's have video processors with upconversion in the price range you're looking at (and much lower prices as well) so you're going to get one whether you need it or not. Buy something you think will fit your needs, and give it a try. Just get it from someplace where you can return it in 30 days if you don't like it.