AV Receiver

Put this on HFC forum but thought I would try here as well:

Hello everyone,

I am trying to decide on an AV receiver as a present, maximum price of £200.
The three I have got it down to so far are the Marantz SR4400 at £210, Denon AVR1803 and the Yamaha RXV440RDS, both at £200.

Does anyone know which of these is best, I can't decide?

Thanks

Andrew

 

marantz best for music, denon best for movies, yamaha a compromise on both counts.

however, i'd go for the Marantz for the simple reason that it has preouts so you can upgrade with extra power amps

 

Rory's comments regarding best for music, MOvies and compromise sound about right. So, I guess it also comes down to where your priorities are regarding this amps use. Will it also be getting used as your stereo/music amp? Or will it just be for MOvies?

Rory, don't either the Denon or Yamaha have pre outs? I'd have thought this was included with MOst amps now.

 

Movies

The system will be used for Movies only as there is a better 2 channel setup in the same room.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

If there is already a two channel system in the room, why not go for a yamaha e800 processor. It will plug into the existing amp and power the centre and two rears. I use one and now have the best of both worlds. You should be able to pick one up within your budget.

Rod

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, I eventually decided on the Marantz SR4400 because it looked similar to the others and I got the hifibitz points from it which are always useful.

Andrew

 

the Yamaha's dont' have preouts till the '640 range and I believe the Denon's don't until their £450 equivalent (forgotten model no.)
Sony's first pre-out contender is £500.


Well done on the Sr4400 purchase Andrew. Have fun with it

 

Thanks Rory, I bought it as a birthday present for my Dad but I will let you know what I think when I try it out, should be a fair bit better than the current Kenwood amp he has, doesn't even do DTS!!

Andrew

 

Careful that it doesn't burst into flames the second you switch to Dolby Digital...

My mate had a SR4200 which did this as soon as he'd set it up (it worked OK in stereo); he had it repaired, and 5 months later it happened again. It was a write off.

Mind you, he also had this happen on a Sherwood processor, so I guess he's either very unlucky or can't set up systems for dick...

 

SR4300

I have an SR4300 and have never had nay problems wiht it. Great sounding too. Is there any update between the SR4300 and the 4400?

Alastair

 

don' t think so Alastair- just a couple of mods to the power supply, change of some caps and things.

Power, speaker outputs etc are all the same so I wouldn't recommend buying one as an 'upgrade' on what you have.

 

too late now I suppose, but I have been happy with Denon 1602 & then s/h 2802 for AV purposes. Music was OK but lacking, hence pre-out config as below.

also remember that an active sub does make a difference for 5.1 as it removes a load from the AVamp to the benefit of the 5. and the use of the stereo amp for 2 of the 5 improves the remaining 3, as well as delivering the biz for stereo music.

I bought the Denon 2802 second hand for £300 some time ago, so there would be bargains about for the xxx2 series, which does what most folk want from AV 5.1 with Dolby Pro II.

hth anyone else in similar position