Help Choosing new AV Receiver from shortlist

jawilson59

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Folks, some advice needed.:lease:

Current System
Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000
Sky+HD box (new ish one with HDMI out - have the old component one knocking around somewhere too)
Denon 1930 DVD Multiregion upscaler
PS3 Slim - 160GB
Xbox 360 (original type, with either HD out via component or VGA cable of which I have both)

Mission 773E front speakers
Mission 77C1 centre speaker
Mission 77DS surround speakers
Paradigm PS-1000 subwoofer
Gale audio speaker cable
QED HDMI 1.3A performance cables

BT Home Hub 3 Type N Wireless
Apple friendly home environment!!

Living room about 5m wide by 8m long, carpeted, with solid walls as opposed to stud walls, suspended wooden floor and standard wooden ceiling construction.

New AV Receiver shortlist
Onkyo TX-NR609 or above
Pioneer VSX-1021 or 2021
Denon AVR1912 or above
Yamaha VX671 or above
A N Other

This is my needs ( I think!!, and current process of elimination)

1. Will have two Zones, living room and dining room behind it (will drill hole in base of wall to feed cables through to dining area), which will have a set of Tannoy Mercury 2.5 speakers to be driven by the Zone 2 outputs, therefore Zone 2 needs to be powered.
2. Xbox 360 & Sky+HD will need 2 digital optical inputs for outputting DD5.1.
3. Denon 1930, Sky HD & PS3 all going in via HDMI.
4. Xbox going in via Component (i could go in via vga but this as far as i know would limit me to the onkyo).
5. living room setup is 5.1 with zone 2 as described in point 1 above.
6. Single HDMI cable going to TV.
7. Would like to have a receiver with HDMI input on front panel (for sporadic laptop connection) and have 3 optical inputs as 2 will be taken up as described in point 2. Don't want to spend hundreds of pounds and then have no further capacity, even if at this stage I don't need it.
8. Would like Airplay to be built in as if i get Apple TV for the Onkyo, it can't be output to Zone 2 as far as I know. The pioneers can output Airplay to zone 2. Have not checked if Denon or Yamaha can output Airplay to Zone 2.
9. My 773E front speakers support biamping, but in order to do it and have zone 2 i would need a 9.1 receiver.....dont think my budget can stretch to that ( ~ £700)
10. Aesthetically pleasing, which for me and my girlfriend sort of rules out the yamaha and denons as their fronts are very cluttered.
11. This leads me to the Pioneers....
12. Future system upgrades may include Philips 58PFL9955 and a dedicated philips blu-ray for the subtitle shift options. PS3 will then just be used for media streaming, films, etc.
13. We are big movie lovers, so system primarily for this, although music to zone 2 would be used also, so some amount of audio prowess is needed.
14. Built in WIFI would be nice, but more than likely will use a Netgear WNCE2001, cheaper than manufacturer specific adaptors, possibly more reliable!!
15. Regarding upscaling, I will probably let the Denon 1930 continue upscaling SD DVD's due to the chip in it. I will probably have to experiment with SD sky outputs to see whether the Sky box, Sony Bravia or the AV Receiver do the best job of upscaling.

Concerns
Living in Northern Ireland, near Belfast, don't have too much choice for home demoing, therefore wanted to know if anyone had grave concerns over use of mission speakers with the pioneers or any of the others? The speakers are 8 ohms, so should be no problem for any of the above receivers.
Should there be any other receivers I should be considering other than those listed above?
Is the Pioneer VSX-2021 worth the extra spend over the 1021? Is the SD upscaling chip better?
If the Sky HD HDMI out and optical out are assigned to one of the receivers inputs, when the receiver is off and I want to watch sky (late at night - girlfriend in bed), will the sky stereo signal be transmitted to the TV by the hdmi standby pass through?
 
The Pioneer VSX-2021 is the only model that fulfils all your criteria.
 
In terms of just the 3 opticals? I could let that slide if there were valids reasons for choosing another?

Can u recommend the pioneer or have any experience of it?
 
The VSX-1021 looks like it would suit if you don't need the three opticals. Only Denon and Pioneer have airplay. Do a search on the models you're interested in. There are a few threads on them.
 
Hello,
Afraid that I've only just bought the 2021 so can't really add much...except think your looking at the right few. same choice that I had to make, think that I was irrationally swayed by the brand as have a liking for pioneer as I've owwed plasma's from them for many years now.

You're correct in that its either Bi-amp or zone two.
It's face does look nice, although it's quite a monster.
You should be able to buy the wifi adapter for <£40 when you purchase the receiver.
If you own an iphone or ipad then the remote control app looks magic, I've an android phone and that appears to be lagging behind currently...(although several of my friends are apple fan boys, one of the reasons for buying the device!)

Although I'd be careful if you're considering buying from tottenhamcourtroaddirect as there price seems too good to be true.. google them and AV forum and read the various posts....first ( I could be wrong in which case I apologize :()

I'm also very keen to get an answer to this, as haven't a chance to play/setup my receiver properly yet:
If the Sky HD HDMI out and optical out are assigned to one of the receivers inputs, when the receiver is off and I want to watch sky (late at night - girlfriend in bed), will the sky stereo signal be transmitted to the TV by the hdmi standby pass through?

One of the reasons against the 2021 and for the Onkyo is that that does 2k/4k resolutions.....(several years away yet) although recently there has been rumours regarding 4k apple tv's (which could of course be BS!).... bearing in mind there is no media for 4k and the internet in this country isn't fast enough to stream it etc...
 
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The Pioneer will pass through the HDMI signal whilst in standby. Usually it is the last selected source that is passed, so you need to make sure it was sky before turning the receiver off. This is why I have a Harmony activity setup on my remote to always switch to Sky before going off. To be honest, I never use the TV speakers though.
 
The Pioneer will pass through the HDMI signal whilst in standby. Usually it is the last selected source that is passed, so you need to make sure it was sky before turning the receiver off. This is why I have a Harmony activity setup on my remote to always switch to Sky before going off. To be honest, I never use the TV speakers though.
Apologies to steal the thread, but as the OP asked the question himself, figured it might be ok!?

Do you know if the 2021 will pass the last used HDMI through while in standby to both its HDMI outputs? (ie HDMI out 1 and HDMI out 2?)

As I'm currently using a old HDMI spliter to do just this, as I wasn't aware that the receiver would do while in standby. I send SKY HD to the bedroom TV (in HD) this way.

Many Thanks
 
Regarding the 4k capability of the onkyo, its only an upscaling capability isnt it and the hdmi sockets on the onkyo and the pioneer are both 1.4... Just really wondering what benefit the 4k would be. Could the upscaling chip in the pioneer be updated to do 4k with a future firmware update???
 
Regarding tottenham ct rd direct, couldnt really find any negative press apart from that one yahoo comment. If i did buy from them i would be protected by my credit card. Also as long as the one that arrives is bring new and unboxed then i will b happy. If its a return or anything else it goes back under the distance selljng regs... But lets try and be optimistic!!
 
davepuma said:
The Pioneer will pass through the HDMI signal whilst in standby. Usually it is the last selected source that is passed, so you need to make sure it was sky before turning the receiver off. This is why I have a Harmony activity setup on my remote to always switch to Sky before going off. To be honest, I never use the TV speakers though.

Yes, but will the video be accompanied with the stereo audio that sky outputs over hdmi?
 
Ignore it, it's a pure marketing gimmick. By the time we have affordable 4k displays and the source material to actually play on it, we'll probably be getting movies projected on to our eyeballs. Well maybe not.
 
Yes, but will the video be accompanied with the stereo audio that sky outputs over hdmi?

Of course it will. The whole point in passthrough is that the audio and video are passed straight to the display.
 
Hi all,

I spoke to Pioneer on Monday and they told me that Sky would not function in its HDMI standby pass through, as the Sky is not HDMI controllable (CEC).
Can anyone verify what equipment they have in the new line of Pioneer receivers that actually allow the pass through in standby?
 
Hi all,

I spoke to Pioneer on Monday and they told me that Sky would not function in its HDMI standby pass through, as the Sky is not HDMI controllable (CEC).
Can anyone verify what equipment they have in the new line of Pioneer receivers that actually allow the pass through in standby?

Yes, but does sky need to be controllable?

if the receiver is in standby and the tv is switched on and on the channel for the received hdmi input, then you turn sky on, surely the signal (video and stereo audio) then just comes through to the tv......

i am not looking the tv to switch the sky on etc via hdmi control or anything...
 
I don't use HDMI CEC and Sky passes through my Yamaha okay, so I'm not sure I understand the logic there.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied.

Didnt really get any commentary on the mission speakers / paradigm sub mix but I am sure it will be fine.

Think I got a great deal. Peter Tyson price matched TCR Direct for £619 but I got a 3 year warranty included instead of just a 2year one.:thumbsup:

Having dealt with Peter Tyson previously I am more than happy to be dealing with them again.

Looking forward to setting this bad boy up and even though it probably has twice as many connections / features than I need, it ticks all the boxes and future proofs me as much as reasonably possibly!!:smashin:

Now I just have to get the living room ready for the new setup!!!!
:hiya:
 
So did you go for the 2021 ? let us know how you get on with the Sky passthrough....
 
Did you get it ? How does it sound ? What about Sky ? I am demoing a 2021 and yam a810 next week.. So very interested in the Sky situation...
 
Got it yesterday and had a quick look last night. Looks class!! Havnt hooked it up yet but Cant wait. Have to put surrounds up on wall etc. will try to get done tonight and then start hooking up tomorrow....
 
One thing i dont understand is why sky hd box and tv need to be hdmi cec compatible for pass through to work.... My tv is an old sony without the bravia link i think. But if i have tv and sky switched on and av rcvr is pass-through capable, then images shd appear on screen. I am not that interested in switching one component off and the. Evrything powering down...
 
How you getting on ? More and more interested in the 2021.. But want to see how it deals with a sky setup, and of course what you think of it... Cheers in advance...
 
Speedluvver said:
How you getting on ? More and more interested in the 2021.. But want to see how it deals with a sky setup, and of course what you think of it... Cheers in advance...

Did u go for the pioneer in the end?
 
Yes I did.. Listened to that and the yamaha a810.. Pioneer was much better with my speakers.. The pass through issue is a bit of a pain, but getting used to watching sky through the amp.. Now watching shows in Dolby digital that I wouldn't have before.. Havnt got it sounding quite as I want yet.. But working on it..
 
Speedluvver said:
Yes I did.. Listened to that and the yamaha a810.. Pioneer was much better with my speakers.. The pass through issue is a bit of a pain, but getting used to watching sky through the amp.. Now watching shows in Dolby digital that I wouldn't have before.. Havnt got it sounding quite as I want yet.. But working on it..

Hows it sounding now? R u happy with it on the whole? Have seen some posts where people think the pioneer sounds thin....whateer that sounds like!! What make r ur speakers? Mine r missions.
 

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