Hey fellow Lumenlabers!

I need to decide on a new home theatre receiver for the new media room that I will be setting up. The room is 13x18. My speaker system is a little sub standard, but that's for another day. I'm going to start with the receiver since my current old dolby analog doesn't seem to seperate the chanels properfly from the htpc analog output.

Right now my top 2 canidates are:

Yamaha RX-V557
and
Harmon Kardon AVR-240 (refurbished)

I've heard really good things about the RX-V557, but a friend of mine swears by Harmon Kardon. So i'm not sure which way to go. What I'm really looking for is the best sounding HT receiver for under 300 bucks. I can get the AVR-240 refurbished for 200, and the RX-V557 is between 260 and 300. I'm a little concerned by the low wattage of the HK, but my friend said that a lot of other manufactorers will over rate wattage. Plus I read that 40 watts won't make a big difference in loudness anyway.

Anyway if anyone in the know could give me some tips I'd appreciate it. I'm trying to read up on all of the latest tek, but it's a bit daunting and I'm getting impatient.

Thanks.

I personally haven't heard either one of those receivers but both Yamaha and Harmon Kardon are known for making good receivers. Have you looked into the Pioneer VSX-1015TX? Its probably the most highly recommended receiver(at least the VSX-1014 was...1015 replaced it). Its probably about in the same class as that Harmon Kardon.If you happen to know somebody that works at Bestbuy you can probably get it for about $330 new, if I remember correctly(employee price checked about 2 months ago when I worked there).

Your friend is right about Harmon Kardons low power ratings. They show REAL power output, unlike most companies that show inflated, unrealistic power output. But that also doesn't matter because you will probably NEVER use the full power of the system anyways. So don't really even worry about power.

Another thing you want to look at when buying a receiver is whether the sound it produces is bright or warm so that you can get speakers that will level off the sound making it more neutral/realistic.

Check out Audioholics.com. They have some excellent articles on sound stuff that you should probably read up on if you haven't already.

Also, you should ask the same question at AVSForum? they are MUCH more likely to respond with very helpful information

HK's use high-current amps and generally show "lower" power ratings, but the power is always there and doesn't drop off. My friend has the flagship HK A/V receiver and it kicks a**! You really can't go wrong with HK. They have an e-bay store. They also own JBL so any of the HK speakers are JBL drivers.

Thanks guys for shedding more light on this. I think I need to really listen to both of these products.

Jayman, thanks for the Audioholics site. That's the exact type of site I've been looking for.

a panasonic sa-xr55 might pleasantly surprise you (both for the cost and quality of sound).

Yeah, HKs kick gonads. I have an HK 3270 Stereo receiver I got back in highschool, was really satisfied with it, when I got to college a buddy was bragging about his 100 W per channel JVC stereo. I had to show him what 65 W per channel was capable of.

Their high current design makes them capable of suppling the rated power all the time, even when the bass kicks in and you have it cranked.

I had 2 EPI speakers, 8 inch woofers, 3in mid and some small tweeters and a KLH 8in powered subwoofer. It was friday so me and my roommate decided to bump some loud music, cus the guys down the hall were trying to play some lame music. We just had to overpower em to let em know whats up, about 3 minutes later some girls were outside our window pointing in at us, so we closed the curtains. They come knocking on our door saying the bass was shaking their room 2 floors above.

Nowadays I have a lame Yamaha a/v reciever I picked up for 250 bucks because I was blinded by the desire for surround. I should have shopped around and tried to find a HK, but best buy was sooooo close, and no shipping delay. I sold my soul to the devil. Now I need to save up for an HK.

I don't dislike the Yamaha, but the HK got louder, and had better sound with the same speakers.

What did you end up deciding on?

I ended up getting the HK.AVR-240 It was cheaper, and so many people on the AVSForums were raving about it.

It was a bit of a risk though. I got a refurbished one from Newegg for 200 bucks. There's only a 15 day warrenty, and they couldn't garuntee what came with it (remote, calbes, or manual). When it came on Monday I ripped it open, and to my suprise not only was everthing there, but everything was sealed! It was brand spanking new. I hooked it up, and even with my crap ass speakers it sounded tremendous (take that with a grain of salt since I'm hardly the expert). I'm really excited about this receiver, but unfortunately I'll have to wait untill I get into the new house in 2 weeks to really set it up and see what it can do. For now I had to put it back in the box until we move. I'm glad I moved on it though. I think I got the only one available as it's now gone from their site.

$350 receiver for only $200? Yeah I'll take it.

I was at Circuit city this week as well, and they had the AVR-240 hooked up to this speaker system:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Infinity-Ho...roductDetail.do

I was very impressed with the sound. The reviews are positive as well. I think that's going to be my next purchase. A few sites online have them for around $450.

Hey Moods,

I think you'll like the HK...my main is a HK AVR-230. I used to have a newer Pioneer VSX something or rather, but it never sounded as "natural" as the HK. It's harder to notice the difference when listening to the usual home theater movie stuff, but I also listen to A LOT of music, and that's where the HK really shines.

For speakers, check out Paradigm. I use older Titans and Atoms for the surround channels, and they can take a beating, and sound really clean. Plus they're made in Canada. ; )

GENE

I was hoping my sales pitch for the 240 would be what swung you, but you made a fantastic choice. I bought one of these a few months ago, and I have never been happier with the quality of a receiver. I paired it up with some polk floorstanding speakers (brand loyalty)... I want some definitive technology speakers or some home-built Lowther voight pipes next time. You made a wise choice.

one thing to keep in mind is that a lot of people go receiver shopping and look at the watts rating, but when they go speaker shopping, they generally ignore the speaker's efficiency rating. take a wild guess at which one will actually have more impact on the sound and loudness of the system...

Lots of people also knuckle under when it comes to sales. All most of the salepeople are looking to do is push the model mentioned in yesterdays staff meeting...better comissions.

i do see that you're not opposed to buying used. have you tried looking at Audiogon? it's a great site. and have you looked into what companies like Denon, Onkyo and Marantz have to offer? those are all easily in the same class as HK and Yamaha and I'm pretty sure any receiver you'd get from them would be a solid high current design.

and allow me to clarify my earlier statement about speaker efficiency. efficiency is a measurement taken of the decibels a speaker will put out with 1 watt of power (i believe), so even a small difference in the efficiency rating can make a surprisingly large difference. and it's not all about loudness--the ability to play louder with less power is really important to the dynamic range of your system, and the health of your amp and speakers. when a system gets overloaded and clips, it's not the speaker doing it generally, it's the amp being unable to feed the speakers enough power. with efficient speakers this should never happen. i have a pair of horn-loaded Klipsch speakers with an above average efficiency rating and i doubt i've ever used anything beyond the first 15 watts of my amp, and trust me, it can get loud in here.