receiver problem / upgrade

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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12,926
Hi,

i currently own a Onkyo Sr308 which has worked flawlessly for a number of years, however recently i think the HDMI ports are failing as when on say Xbox it will sporadically flash blue, then back to normal. This is getting worse and no amount of fiddling with the settings / changing the HDMI leads etc seems to resolve the issue.

As a result I think I'm looking to upgrade as the above is annoying and tbh I now ideally need more than the 3 hdmi ports the Receiver offers.

I bought the amp and speakers i have at the same time which were (as the wife wanted smaller speakers) Canton 85 CX or 80CX at the time they were rated quite highly and I was advised that the speakers could definitely take a amp upgrade in the future compared the the onkyo I purchased.

I fully expect that speaker and amp tech has moved on massively since then, but as it stands it will only be the amp I am looking to upgrade.

I currently only have need for 1080p but will be upgrading to a 4k tv in the future to take advantage of netflix / prime etc.

My budget is around £250-300 so what would be the amps to look at / go for ? Ive been looking at the Yamaha RXV679 available for around £300 and the Onkyo 444 at around £250 is there any others i should be considering at that sort of price range ? and will I notice any difference in sound quality over the amp I already have with the speakers I currently own ?


Thanks for all help :)
 
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Soldato
Joined
24 Aug 2005
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Top of the world
Hi,

i currently own a Onkyo Sr308 which has worked flawlessly for a number of years, however recently i think the HDMI ports are failing as when on say Xbox it will sporadically flash blue, then back to normal. This is getting worse and no amount of fiddling with the settings / changing the HDMI leads etc seems to resolve the issue.

As a result I think I'm looking to upgrade as the above is annoying and tbh I now ideally need more than the 3 hdmi ports the Receiver offers.

I bought the amp and speakers i have at the same time which were (as the wife wanted smaller speakers) Canton 85 CX or 80CX at the time they were rated quite highly and I was advised that the speakers could definitely take a amp upgrade in the future compared the the onkyo I purchased.

I fully expect that speaker and amp tech has moved on massively since then, but as it stands it will only be the amp I am looking to upgrade.

I currently only have need for 1080p but will be upgrading to a 4k tv in the future to take advantage of netflix / prime etc.

My budget is around £250-300 so what would be the amps to look at / go for ? Ive been looking at the Yamaha RXV679 available for around £300 and the Onkyo 444 at around £250 is there any others i should be considering at that sort of price range ? and will I notice any difference in sound quality over the amp I already have with the speakers I currently own ?


Thanks for all help :)

For budget av amps I would stick with yamaha or sony, the one you've looked at is a good one or a bit more money look at the sony 1060.
As for will you notice a difference in sound quality probably not, your still looking at low end amps with low end dacs and low end power delivery. If you want a substantial upgrade then you need to treble your budget really.
I bought a yamaha rx3067 a few years ago rrp was £1500(was the top of the range model) I got it for £700 in the sales and its an awesome amp so much so that I have no intention of upgrading again.
Just googled your speakers and to be honest they are pretty low end so unless you intend on upgrading them to something in the £1000 range then stick to the <£300 av amps.
You could always add a better sub in the future if you want that would be an upgrade you would definitely hear.
These are what I use
http://www.whathifi.com/kef/iq5se/review
http://www.cnet.com/products/kef-iq60c/specs/
http://www.cnet.com/products/kef-iq1-speakers-wired-series/specs/
http://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_13_4/svs-sb12-plus-subwoofer-11-2006-part-1.html
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
12,926
that's definitely a sweet set up you have there :)

Pretty much what I thought with the speakers etc that I currently own, unfortunately the mrs wont let me get any bigger ones and has taken to even turning off my sub in the hope I wont notice as she doesn't like the bass :(

Is it worth looking for future tech in the new amp i.e DTS:X and atmos etc, on reading up a bit on atmos I think you have to buy atmos rated speakers but for DTS:X its just an evolution and can be used with existing set ups ?
 
Soldato
Joined
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Have you thought about headphones.:D
I wouldn't worry about atmos or dts x they only come on the more expensive amps anyway, atmos needs more "height" speakers and hardly any blue rays have dtsx soundtracks anyway. In our small British living rooms 5.1 is plenty.
 
Soldato
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18 Nov 2007
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Deepest Darkest Essex!!
I wouldn't worry about atmos or dts x they only come on the more expensive amps anyway, atmos needs more "height" speakers and hardly any blue rays have dtsx soundtracks anyway. In our small British living rooms 5.1 is plenty.

i'll 2nd that. I drew the line at 6.1 12 years ago. I did a deal with the seller to get said speaker package, so I could get DTS-ES & DD-EX soundtrack on DVD's. There isn't a huge percentage of said soundtracks on DVD or 7.1 soundtracks on blu-ray either to my knowledge. I cant see the hollywood studios updating their back catalogue for atmos & DTS-X either. OK said new formats will take a while to grow but I think it will be more or less a 'niche market' like the other earlier formats I mentioned.

I came to this conclusion while working as a Telly salesman many years ago. the type of customer I served wasn’t interested in surround sound, they just wanted the biggest size screen available for the money they wanted to pay. a 56" rear projection model was the largest telly I sold (£3.5K). Just a shame I'm not in that trade now, with the view you can get the same size telly for less than a quarter of that money.
 
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