Which entry level AV receiver should I get?

Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV VSX-421.

I want to connect a satellite box, DVD player, CD player, USB HDD for music and video and maybe also a cassete deck and record deck.

I'd appreciate opinions on which is better or if I should consider an alternative - though availability might be an issue as I live in Spain.

cheers

In uk.media.home-cinema, Spex wrote:


Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED
TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not
sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV
VSX-421.

I don't have any experience of either, although people say good things
generally about Onkyo. It pains me greatly to say this, but you'll get
immediate and decent answers over at the AVForums, if you can't find the
info already with a search over there.

http://www.avforums.com/

--
Tony Evans
Saving trees and wasting electrons since 1993
blog - http://perceptionistruth.com/
books - http://www.bookthing.co.uk/
[ anything below this line wasn't written by me ]

Many thanks Tony

It depends on whether you want speakers in another room or not, but the Sony
STRDH820 is probably the best value for money on the market.

Richer had STRDH5x0 for as little as £100 at one time and indeed the
STRDH510 is remaindered for £99.99p on their web site - bit basic though.


"Spex" wrote in message
...
Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED
TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not
sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV
VSX-421.

I want to connect a satellite box, DVD player, CD player, USB HDD for
music and video and maybe also a cassete deck and record deck.

I'd appreciate opinions on which is better or if I should consider an
alternative - though availability might be an issue as I live in Spain.

cheers




--
Spex

On 2012-04-01, R. Mark Clayton wrote:
"Spex" wrote in message
...
Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED
TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not
sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV
VSX-421.

I want to connect a satellite box, DVD player, CD player, USB HDD for
music and video and maybe also a cassete deck and record deck.

I'd appreciate opinions on which is better or if I should consider an
alternative - though availability might be an issue as I live in Spain.
It depends on whether you want speakers in another room or not, but
the Sony
STRDH820 is probably the best value for money on the market.

Richer had STRDH5x0 for as little as £100 at one time and indeed the
STRDH510 is remaindered for £99.99p on their web site - bit basic
though.

It's not current, but I'm running a Sony STRK740P at the moment and
find it to be quite locked down in terms of settings. No paramters to
adjust PLII decoding, no control over crossover frequencies above
"Large" or "Small". I'd rather have a system with more granular
control.

I don't know if this is normal for Sony kit or not.

--
-Toby
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject to circumvent my email filters.

In uk.media.home-cinema, Toby Newman wrote:

On 2012-04-01, R. Mark Clayton wrote:
"Spex" wrote in message
...
Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED
TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not
sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV
VSX-421.

I want to connect a satellite box, DVD player, CD player, USB HDD for
music and video and maybe also a cassete deck and record deck.

I'd appreciate opinions on which is better or if I should consider an
alternative - though availability might be an issue as I live in Spain.
It depends on whether you want speakers in another room or not, but
the Sony
STRDH820 is probably the best value for money on the market.

Richer had STRDH5x0 for as little as £100 at one time and indeed the
STRDH510 is remaindered for £99.99p on their web site - bit basic
though.

It's not current, but I'm running a Sony STRK740P at the moment and
find it to be quite locked down in terms of settings. No paramters to
adjust PLII decoding, no control over crossover frequencies above
"Large" or "Small". I'd rather have a system with more granular
control.

I don't know if this is normal for Sony kit or not.

I've got a Yamaha RXV565BL and I don't recall there being many settings I
can change on that either (although it's a while since I looked or added
any new sources).
--
Tony Evans
Saving trees and wasting electrons since 1993
blog - http://perceptionistruth.com/
books - http://www.bookthing.co.uk/
[ anything below this line wasn't written by me ]

"Toby Newman" wrote in message
...
On 2012-04-01, R. Mark Clayton wrote:
"Spex" wrote in message
...
Completely new to Home Cinema gear, I've recently got a Samsung 40" LED
TV (not 3D) and I've narrowed my choices down to 2 AV receivers but not
sure which would suit me best - an Onkyo TX-SR309 HD 3D or a PIONEER AV
VSX-421.

I want to connect a satellite box, DVD player, CD player, USB HDD for
music and video and maybe also a cassete deck and record deck.

I'd appreciate opinions on which is better or if I should consider an
alternative - though availability might be an issue as I live in Spain.
It depends on whether you want speakers in another room or not, but
the Sony
STRDH820 is probably the best value for money on the market.

Richer had STRDH5x0 for as little as £100 at one time and indeed the
STRDH510 is remaindered for £99.99p on their web site - bit basic
though.

It's not current, but I'm running a Sony STRK740P at the moment and
find it to be quite locked down in terms of settings. No paramters to
adjust PLII decoding, no control over crossover frequencies above
"Large" or "Small". I'd rather have a system with more granular
control.

I doubt a newby to Home Cinema is likely to be that interested in messing
about with fine settings. The Sony comes with a microphone and you plug it
in an let it auto set up on your speakers - works - even spotted where my
partner had unplugged and replugged a rear speaker the wrong way round.

I almost always run mine direct / flat anyway.


I don't know if this is normal for Sony kit or not.

If in doubt down load the user manual BEFORE purchase - I do this for most
techie goods.


--
-Toby
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject to circumvent my email filters.