Budget AV Reciever

[Bungleaio]

Way back in 2003 I bought myself a sony AV receiver (STRDB780) and a set of Gale 30 Series speakers to give 5.1 sound for watching DVD's and playing games through. Over the years they have (for me) been brilliant but I've upgraded my tv and blu ray player a couple of times and I'm now starting to notice a delay between the audio and what I'm seeing on the screen which is very annoying

As I can't slow the tv processing down or speed the audio up I'm looking to upgrade the amp to something that I can pass HDMI though so that I can watch movies properly again.

I'm not looking to spend mega money, ideally around the £300 mark, I can stretch but I really don't want to go above £400.

My setup is pretty simple samsung 3D 1080p tv, samsung blu ray player. Harmony one remote. The TV has optical out so I would like an optical in on the amp so that it can decode the audio from freeview and netflix. Amp sits next to the router so a hard wire network connection isn't a problem.

As I used them last time I'm defaulting back to Richer Sounds, I'm not tied to them but it's the only website I've looked at so far. They have a couple which have taken my eye

Pioneer VSX930 for £350 - http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/p...

Sony STRDN860 for £300 - http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s...

Both seem to be pretty much the same thing, the pioneer is winning for me as it has 4k upscaling and air play which would be great for future proofing and easy playing of music from my iPad. I'm not planning on adding any extra speakers

Any advice greatly received.

[welsh blackbird]

I've just bought this:-

Yamaha RXV677 http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...

Very pleased with it so far.

[sprouting]

Bought the same Yamaha amp a few weeks back, only running in stereo for now, but as it replaces another Yamaha amp bought back in 1995 ( only bieng replaced as its to big for it's new homw ) it gets my vote.
Great features and sound and easy to set up.

[BS30]

I have a Yamaha RX-S600 which is a couple of years old but it's half the height of the 677 so ideal where space is tight. I absolutely love it.

My only complaint is that the Anynet+ thing with my Samsung TB has a weird anomaly whereby whenever you first turn the amp on, after a few seconds it defaults to a particular input and won't automatically change to whatever's sending it a signal. So you turn the tv on with the tv remote, the amp comes on too, but then will turn away from whatever input you're on (ie Virgin box) to another input and you have to manually change it back with the amp remote. Any change of source after that initial powering on is dealt with automatically - just a minor annoyance as if it weren't for that I wouldn't need to use the amp remote at all

[Bungleaio]

The yamaha looks great but is slightly too tall, my tv stand has a gap of 170mm, New stand?

[BS30]

This is the RX-S600 which is 110mm tall, I was in the same boat as you for restricted space - it's great.

[BS30]

Sorry just realised I never posted the link! Doh!

http://www.weybridge-audio.co.uk/yamaha-rx-s600-sl...

[Bungleaio]

Cheers mate, I would need black which is out of stock but I appreciate your help. I have had a proper measure of my stand and there is actually a clear gap of 180mm so I have a bit more room to play with than I originally thought.

I went into Richer sounds today for a look and they have upped their prices a bit so I'm going to keep an eye on them for a couple of weeks and see what happens. I really want it for a christmas movie and whisky binge so I'm happy to wait

[Digitalize]

You'll want a bit of gap for air, they can get pretty hot.

A lot of very good amps for your budget now, higher up models are pushing new standards and specs so even the base models are well equipped.

[BS30]

Bungleaio said:

Cheers mate, I would need black which is out of stock but I appreciate your help. I have had a proper measure of my stand and there is actually a clear gap of 180mm so I have a bit more room to play with than I originally thought.

I went into Richer sounds today for a look and they have upped their prices a bit so I'm going to keep an eye on them for a couple of weeks and see what happens. I really want it for a christmas movie and whisky binge so I'm happy to wait

No worries! Yeah I have the black, I got mine from Weybridge but looks like they're out of stock as you say. It's an out of current production model but sure someone will stock it if you decide that's the one you want. As someone else said you'll want a good gap for air, I'm really glad I didn't try and shove the full size one in the gap I have as it does kick out some vey warm air as they all do!

[Bungleaio]

My current one is 161mm and I've never had an issue with that and I've had it on for a good few hour sessions. It's not in the main living room so isn't on constantly.

What to do with the old one though? I might have to rig it up in the garage.

[Bungleaio]

Just to update this I checked the shelf above the one that I have my current receiver on and that's got 200mm clearance so I've ended up buying a Yamaha RXV679 http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/y...

I'll set it up at the weekend, I'm hoping it will be a nice improvement over the current one.