Need a new AV amp

[J4CKO]

I bought an Onkyo TNR-TN626 a few years back, fairly cheap thing from Richer Sounds, its been playing up so will have to replace it, not all that bothered about having anything fancy, cheaper the better so what do you recommend, its got some very old Tannoys on the front and some Wharfedale surrounds.

[steve-5snwi]

I've just upgraded, sorry changed from an Arcam 250 to a Denon 3400, i wanted the extra features a modern AV receiver gives as well as a working remote, i'd love to say how good it is but i've not unpacked it yet.

[hornmeister]

I'm on my third Yamaha having to upgrade as new standards and resolutions come out.

If you're not fussed about 4K or the latest sound formats then go 2nd hand.

[davek_964]

Not sure I'd buy Denon again - I know they're an established brand, but I haven't been that impressed with my avr-x6200w.

Only had it for just over 2 years, but I have problems with the sound. Center channel is clearly not right and will vary between very quiet and normal volume - sometimes with some crackling thrown in. Although the other channels mostly seem ok, certain tones sound wrong on them - for example the sound my PS4 makes when I'm turning it off doesn't sound clean.
Even apart from the sound problems - I sometimes find that when I change channel on the humax box, the decoding fails and I simply get white noise on the tv - I have to change to another and back again to get a proper picture.

Overall, it's just not good enough. I upgraded a Sony just to get some extra decoding options / HDMI ports but overall it's not been a particularly good 2 years. I think that very shortly it will end up in the bin and probably be replaced by an Arcam.

[steve-5snwi]

davek_964 said:

Not sure I'd buy Denon again - I know they're an established brand, but I haven't been that impressed with my avr-x6200w.

Only had it for just over 2 years, but I have problems with the sound. Center channel is clearly not right and will vary between very quiet and normal volume - sometimes with some crackling thrown in. Although the other channels mostly seem ok, certain tones sound wrong on them - for example the sound my PS4 makes when I'm turning it off doesn't sound clean.
Even apart from the sound problems - I sometimes find that when I change channel on the humax box, the decoding fails and I simply get white noise on the tv - I have to change to another and back again to get a proper picture.

Overall, it's just not good enough. I upgraded a Sony just to get some extra decoding options / HDMI ports but overall it's not been a particularly good 2 years. I think that very shortly it will end up in the bin and probably be replaced by an Arcam.

Thats what scares me with the Denon i've purchased, my Arcam has been faultless other than the batteries melting in the remote but thats not really Arcams fault. However i couldn't justify spending a few grand on a new one for the use that i give it. I was tempted by the Marantz although thats only a Denon in drag or a Yamaha but again it would have been another £300 on top of what i'd spent.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

What's the budget?

[vixen1700]

On my second Yamaha. Love the tone they have.

[J4CKO]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

What's the budget?

There isnt one !

Wast expecting a three year old amp to conk out, apparently its a very common problem, however I ordered this last night and its due tomorrow,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071153VTK/ref...

I am not into the Home Cinema thing massively, so £429 is plenty to spend for what I want and this gets a very good write up, was going to be £200 plus to repair the Onkyo so I thought as may spend a bit more than the bare minimum and it seemed to be a good trade off in terms of performance and features versus price.

[davek_964]

J4CKO said:

There isnt one !

Wast expecting a three year old amp to conk out, apparently its a very common problem, however I ordered this last night and its due tomorrow,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071153VTK/ref...

I am not into the Home Cinema thing massively, so £429 is plenty to spend for what I want and this gets a very good write up, was going to be £200 plus to repair the Onkyo so I thought as may spend a bit more than the bare minimum and it seemed to be a good trade off in terms of performance and features versus price.

If my experience is anything to go by, you should be fine. The Sony I replaced was an ancient STR-DA5200ES. Only replaced it because it was doing some very odd things when trying to decode dolby digital from Amazon Fire.

[J4CKO]

davek_964 said:

J4CKO said:

There isnt one !

Wast expecting a three year old amp to conk out, apparently its a very common problem, however I ordered this last night and its due tomorrow,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071153VTK/ref...

I am not into the Home Cinema thing massively, so £429 is plenty to spend for what I want and this gets a very good write up, was going to be £200 plus to repair the Onkyo so I thought as may spend a bit more than the bare minimum and it seemed to be a good trade off in terms of performance and features versus price.

If my experience is anything to go by, you should be fine. The Sony I replaced was an ancient STR-DA5200ES. Only replaced it because it was doing some very odd things when trying to decode dolby digital from Amazon Fire.

Am really disappointed with Onkyo, it was always alright but three yeas for my £300 odd quid doesnt seem great, ever seemed very slick, lik the screen graphics seemed to be from a generic 2002 video player but it did the job, hoping this will be a lot better.

My previous Denon was killed by the kids, hardly had any use from it and they used to crack the volume up high and leave it for their brothers to find to make them jump, my original speakers got killed during a party of theirs, there were others as well.

[davek_964]

J4CKO said:

Am really disappointed with Onkyo, it was always alright but three yeas for my £300 odd quid doesnt seem great

Count yourself lucky, I think I paid about £1,200 for my Denon in June 2016, and it's been playing up since before June of this year!

[J4CKO]

davek_964 said:

J4CKO said:

Am really disappointed with Onkyo, it was always alright but three yeas for my £300 odd quid doesnt seem great

Count yourself lucky, I think I paid about £1,200 for my Denon in June 2016, and it's been playing up since before June of this year!

Oww, my sympathies, not as easy to turn your back on that kind of investment and tip it.

[Kermit power]

davek_964 said:

Count yourself lucky, I think I paid about £1,200 for my Denon in June 2016, and it's been playing up since before June of this year!

DId you try taking it up with Denon? It might be a bit harder now it's over 2 years, but by any standards I think you'd have a decent case in a small claims court if it came to it to say that any reasonable person would expect a £1,200 piece of kit to keep working properly for more than a couple of years.

If you do decide to take that approach, start out by googling the model number and a couple of words summarising the problem to see if it shows up as a common fault amongst other owners.

The only time I've ever bothered actually initiating a small claim was on specifically the grounds that anyone would reasonably expect a £300 electronic device to run for more than two years. I never found out whether I would've won, because as soon as I forwarded the details of the filing to the company in question, they promptly paid me what I'd asked for plus the costs of lodging the claim, presumably because it would've been cheaper than turning up in court to contest it.

There's every chance someone will be along in a minute to bemoan my "compensation culture" approach, but frankly it strikes me that most businesses deliberately try and be as obtuse as possible over reasonable grievances in the hope that people will give up and go away, so I'm no longer prepared to tolerate it personally.

[heisthegaffer]

a it late but in my 4th yamaha and all have been faultless. Due to various reasons my erm daily driver so to speak is an 11 year old 750SE WITH a 6 year old 2067 in my home cinema.

I am a huge fan

[J4CKO]

Sony arrived yesterday and got it set up today, very impressed, definitely superior to the Onkyo.

Managed to get my Sub working as well, its been a bit intermittent, so pulled it out from its hiding spot and set it up next to the amp, the sub cable wasnt a great fit but the main problem was the plug losing power, took it apart and the fuse holder was loose, bent the metal in a bit and its perfect now,

Still need to do a bit more setup but it will do for now, there is a lot of cabling with an AV amp ! took the opportunity to put Dymo labels on all of the wires.

Only listened to music so far and the sound seems more engaging, the menus are much nicer and easier to navigate.

Might look at replacing my Tannoys with something newer but I do quite like them, just interested to try something else.

[triple5]

steve-5snwi said:

I've just upgraded, sorry changed from an Arcam 250 to a Denon 3400, i wanted the extra features a modern AV receiver gives as well as a working remote, i'd love to say how good it is but i've not unpacked it yet.

Would be interested to know how you get on with the 3400, I’m a little disappointed with mine. Sound quality is just about acceptable, it’s the Heos and the Remote App which are very confusing and frustrating to use. Switching between functions seems to occasionally loose the sound settings, there’s a lot of fiddling about.

[old'uns]

J4CKO said:

I bought an Onkyo TNR-TN626 a few years back, fairly cheap thing from Richer Sounds

by any chance no sound on startup for a few minutes then sound for a minute or so then off again for a few minutes ?
sound goes off switching to another source along with nothing on screen re: the new source?
anynet+ settings found but won't connect to sky+ box?

3 pin reset and it works all day long until the following morning from cold...possibly the well documented Onkyo 'dry' joints PCB?

mines gone into Richer Sounds, 1 month left on ext 5yr warranty, will the b****y thing do it there !!!
resorted to taking video on start up and filming all sorts of scenarios to 'persuade' them of said issues, i'm not holding my breath TBH and can see myself looking at a new one at some stage

[JackReacher]

How are you getting on with the Sony? I’m tempted by one based on the good reviews, and its that or the Denon x2500h.

It’s to replace an old Denon 1610 which isn’t giving me 4K or HDR to my LG OLED, so not making the most of it at all since all video goes through that currently via a PS4, which I think I also need to upgrade to a pro to ensure 4K Netflix, YouTube etc.