I want names...come on home theater lovers

[digitalandanalog]

Throw out any and all names of home theater receiver makers that you know.

I am looking to replace my current HT receiver with something much better. It was purchased at a time when I had no real spending power and my good receiver gave up the ghost. While it was a great temporary fix, I was never satisfied with it from day one.

I am willing to spend in the neighborhood of $600. I know it won't buy me any flagship models, but I have seen some of the options and they are nothing to sneeze at.

[Harold Tuttle]

I have a 10 year old Onkyo that has been quite robust

[Myself]

I had an Onkyo that ran for over 15 years before it developed problems.  Replaced it with another one.

[bedlamite]

Mine is Marantz, about 10 years old with no problems.

[robear]

Denon and Yamaha are two of the popular ones.

Don't forget:
  Sony
  Pioneer
  Harmon Kardon
  Marantz
  NAD
  Panasonic
  Sherwood
  Adcom

[Fly320s]

Go here and look around: www.crutchfield.com

I'm not recommending them, just a reference.

[erictank]

Denon and Yamaha are two of the popular ones.

Don't forget:
  Sony
  Pioneer
  Harmon Kardon
  Marantz
  NAD
  Panasonic
  Sherwood
  Adcom

For not-terribly-expensive stuff, I had a JVC 5.1 setup (AM/FM receiver/amp plus speakers) which still worked fine when I got rid of it, 10 years after I bought it.

We also donated to the Salvation Army my wife's ex-husband's Kenwood tower 5.1 system (AM/FM receiver/amp, 5-disc CD, dual cassette deck, speakers) which he left with her, not too long ago.  Dated back to '95, IIRC, and the only reason it didn't work quite right (ever, according to her) was, as I found when I took down the rear speakers, someone had mounted the rear speaker wires to the wall with heavy-duty staples.  Right through the wires.   

[MicroBalrog]

My Dad loves and I mean LOVES classical music. He bought a custom Sherwood thing.

[HankB]

I have a 10 year old Kenwood receiver that does what I want it to.

The amplifier is probably going to be the most "perfect" part of a HT setup - unless you drive it to clipping or it's faulty, you ought not be able to hear a difference; speakers are much more significant.

[AJ Dual]

How about a nice KLH from Sam's Club?

Just kidding... 

[Paragon]

I've been more than happy with the Harmon Kardon I've had for a few years now.  I've heard great things about Onkyo as well, and both of these brands are pretty affordable (in the grand scheme of recievers, anyway). 

[Sindawe]

Many years ago set up a home theature system around a Denon receiver that came strongly recomended by true audiophiles, driving a pair of Definitive Technology's floor speakers, equivilent to their current BP7002 at the time and a pair of Rock Solid pods for the high end. This coupling produced best sound in the showroom with my choice of demo music (Judas Priests's Sad Wings of Destiny, Vivaldi The Four Seasons & Devo's Oh, No!  Its Devo) and was just phenominal in my sub grade apartment of the time.

A few years back the orginal reciever developed an annoying electronic hum, and so was replaced by another Denon, this time the AVR 1707.  Same speaker set up, sound is even better for music, movies, video games (the bark of the BAR in Brothers in Arms has worried the neighbors a few times) and even mono TV sounds great.

For my money, Denon is the only choice.

[mfree]

Go check out Crutchfield, as above recommended.

Once you've used their excellent web site to figure out the best option.... hunt it down on Amazon :)

Yeah, I do that fairly often, but to offset I have and occasionally do buy things from Crutchfield, particularly car head units.

[zahc]

speakers are much more significant

qft

[Kwelz]

Yamaha, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon. 

Avoid Sony, etc. 

[cfabe]

I have a Denon AVR-1600 which was their lowest end model a number of years ago. Have been very pleased with sound quality into a set of Klipsch speakers and the unit has given me no trouble. Only complaint is the remote control sucks and the user interface is a little tricky to figure out.

[Brad Johnson]

Denon has a solid rep for their equipment, especially in the value/$$ department.

I've used Yamaha the last two times I've bought and been very happy with their stuff.  The unit I run now has full switching and internal upconversion capability.  Nice to have if you have a mix of components and want to single-source the signal to your TV.

Brad