Decent AV reciever without spending a lot

[Killer2005]

Chaps, you'll have to excuse me as I'm not massively up with things in the audio visual world.

Anyway a mate wants a decent AV reciever for Christmas, I'm not massively sure of the budget at the moment but I will ask his mrs as she is buying.

The basics that I know he wants, along with what I know he'll be using with
- needs 7.1 sound
- has Sky Hd and a PS3

And then he'll be needing new speakers too

[TEKNOPUG]

200 quid to 10 grand plus.

Really need a budget....

Best value will be to hunt out a recently discontinued model which you can usually pick up for the same price as a new, lesser model.

[Dr G]

Update of the 810 I have, what hifi 5 starred it anf I've not been able to fault it at all.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s...

200 quid.

[nickfrog]

Yes I have the Sony 820 and it's unbeatable VFM in my experience. Only problem is you need some warm speakers, which rules out quite a few.
What's you budget for speakers ?

[probedb]

Dr G said:

Update of the 810 I have, what hifi 5 starred it anf I've not been able to fault it at all.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s...

200 quid.

Don't trust What Hi-Fi? reviews, they're quite biased towards certain companies. Hunt around on the web to see what people actually think.

[Podie]

Another here very happy with his Sony 820.

The Yamahas are worth a look too.

[nickfrog]

probedb said:

Dr G said:

Update of the 810 I have, what hifi 5 starred it anf I've not been able to fault it at all.

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/s...

200 quid.

Don't trust What Hi-Fi? reviews, they're quite biased towards certain companies. Hunt around on the web to see what people actually think.

True but that doesn't mean that everything they like is rubbish either. In this intance, the 820 is genuinely very good, despite WHAT HIFI.

[Killer2005]

Good news, my mates mrs has sorted the AV reciever out, a Onkyo TNXR414

I now need to find some speakers. Is it possible for ideally less than £100 at least?

[nickfrog]

Great AVR although it's not 7.1, just 5.1. I thought it had to be 7.1 ?

Did you mean £1,000 for speakers? As a rule of thumb, you need to spend 2 to 3 times the price of an AVR in 5.1 speakers, otherwise it defeats the object.

If he's gonna have cheapo speakers, it might have been better to buy a Onkyo 309 at £99 from Richer Sounds...

[melvinolotus]

Have a look at a second hand Arcam 350, very pleased with mine, should pick one up around £300-£400.

[Hoover.]

I've a Yamaha V765 which I purchased between Xmas & New Year last year for around £200..... fantastic value in IMHO does everything I want from it.....

Probably be able to get a latter model now at a good price