Anyone know anything about Home Theater (audio)?

[grumbler]

I need a simple receiver for 100-200 dollar range.  My piece of crap died and I've been using even crappier USB cable speakers in my living room and they cut out alot.

Do you actually need a receiver, or will an amp do?  Are you looking at stereo, 2.1, 5.1, or what for output?

[The Minsky Moment]

I don't use 7.1.

Once you get beyond two channel, you get into the world of surround sound processing, and that almost always means some level of distortion. (exception - surround audio recordings on SACD or DVD-A which are all 5.1 only).  The more channels one piles on, the more work the surround processor has to do, the more the power needs are, and greater the risk of distortion or "clipping".  The problem is compounded because for any given speaker budget, you are going to be able to get 5 higher quality speakers for the price it takes to buy seven.  (Other points favoring 5.1:  Fewer wires.  Proper placement and calibration is easier with 5.1.   The "weight" of the sound is more in the front where is should be.  Dolby Digital 5.1 is the most commonly encoded format).

My 2c is that the extra two channels don't really add much in immersiveness to justify the disadvantages.  For some movies, 7.1 can be kind of fun for the scenes where sound richochets around, but outside of the occasional gimmick clip, I don't really see the need for extra speakers. 

On a budget like Berkut is talking about, IMO 5.1 is a new brainer.

[viper37]

So what is the mistake though?

Not needing it does not preclude not regretting buying it anyway.

a movie in 6.1 or 7.1 will sound better in a 7.1 system than a 5.1 one.

and my speaker setup is 5.1.

And if in the future you want to add 2 other speakers/satellites, you can.
And also, usually, the 7.1 systems are little more high end, so they include nice features the other systems don't.

[viper37]

Once you get beyond two channel, you get into the world of surround sound processing, and that almost always means some level of distortion. (exception - surround audio recordings on SACD or DVD-A which are all 5.1 only).  The more channels one piles on, the more work the surround processor has to do, the more the power needs are, and greater the risk of distortion or "clipping". 

Yamaha has a long standing clipping problem.  Onkyo has HDMI problems.
But in the mid-range AVR, I've never heard of any Denon issues.

Besides, with Blu Ray and HD-DVD, lossless sound codecs are more usual, and many movies get 7.1 soundtrack.

The problem is compounded because for any given speaker budget, you are going to be able to get 5 higher quality speakers for the price it takes to buy seven.  (Other points favoring 5.1:  Fewer wires.  Proper placement and calibration is easier with 5.1.   The "weight" of the sound is more in the front where is should be.  Dolby Digital 5.1 is the most commonly encoded format).

Modern AVRs do a good job of simulating the extra channels even when you don't have the 2 other speakers.

[The Minsky Moment]

Decided I did not really need 7.1, 5.1 is more than enough.

a mistake.

I thought I didn't need it, but I still bought a Denon 7.1.  No regret.

The least expensive Denon 7.1 is the AVR -1910.  Retails for $550, lets say you can get it for $450.  Now you need decent speakers.  Even say budget Infinitys will set you back $400 or more for a 7.1 set up.  But you still need input devices and cords.  There is no possible way to do this within Berkut's budget.

[Berkut]

Decided I did not really need 7.1, 5.1 is more than enough.

a mistake.

I thought I didn't need it, but I still bought a Denon 7.1.  No regret.

The least expensive Denon 7.1 is the AVR -1910.  Retails for $550, lets say you can get it for $450.  Now you need decent speakers.  Even say budget Infinitys will set you back $400 or more for a 7.1 set up.  But you still need input devices and cords.  There is no possible way to do this within Berkut's budget.

Oh yeah - that is way beyond what I want am allowed to spend.

[The Minsky Moment]

Yamaha has a long standing clipping problem.  Onkyo has HDMI problems.
But in the mid-range AVR, I've never heard of any Denon issues.

But that is well outside Berkut's budget.
Second, can't really talk about issues with respect to a receiver without first knowing what speakers it is going to be driving.  Yes, you can get good results using quality high efficiency speaker (like grumbler's favorite Klipsch).  But that costs money.

Besides, with Blu Ray and HD-DVD, lossless sound codecs are more usual, and many movies get 7.1 soundtrack.

Cable output is almost all 5.1, not 7.1.  DVDs - which most people have much larger legacy libraries of, are also mostly 5.1 encoded.

I just went to blue-ray.com and looked at their top sellers.  Of the top 20, only one has been encoded in 7.1 (two others had TBA).

[derspiess]

Decided I did not really need 7.1, 5.1 is more than enough.

a mistake.

I thought I didn't need it, but I still bought a Denon 7.1.  No regret.

I borrowed some speakers from my brother to try out 7.1 on my Denon, and didn't think it was worth having to buy two more speakers.  So I bought some ultra-cheap outdoor speakers & mounted them outside on my deck to use for the Zone 2 feature, which is awesome except that you can only use an analog source for them

[Darth Wagtaros]

I meant to put all that in my post.

I have 2 speakers, don't need anymore and will not add more.  I'd like stereo.  I would be connecting a media PC and a CD player to it.  I'd like it to have the radio built in.

I need a simple receiver for 100-200 dollar range.  My piece of crap died and I've been using even crappier USB cable speakers in my living room and they cut out alot.

Do you actually need a receiver, or will an amp do?  Are you looking at stereo, 2.1, 5.1, or what for output?