Help choosing new receiver around the £250 mark

[gtimadman]

Hello after some advice from your good self's
firstly my sytem currently consists of a sony bravia 37" 1080p lcd and a sony blu-ray 360 player ,wharfdale diamond pro front floor standers with matching centre and generic rears(speakers will be upgraded soon)

Now my system is being let down by a ageing sherwood receiver which is ok but its technology ends at dolby prologic lol

now budget is around the £250 mark so was looking at the sony STRDH800 but seems to be a mixed bag of views on this one? will be mainly used for normal tv and ocasional music use so obvious question is this a good amp for the price or could i do better?

 

[safcalibur]

Hey mate,

Both the sony 800 and the onkyo 507 would do you well. They're both within your £250 limit and will pair well with your wharfedale speakers and they are both able to handle HD audio from your BD player. Theres not much in it between both these amps so really i dont think you can go wrong with either.

Cheers

Saf

Edit: Here's a review for both to help yo make up your mind

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Sony-STR-DH800/

http://www.whathifi.com/Review/Onkyo-TX-SR507/

 

[PSM1]

The 800 is a good budget reciever so would be a worthy upgrade for your current reciever. It should also match your speakers well.
You could also look at the Yamaha 565. This is £270 but gives imho an improvement over the Sony. However, it produces a different sound to the Sony (Sony is bright and the Yamaha is warm), I would go demo them to see which one you prefer. Maybe get a dealer to connect them to some current Warfedale speakers to understand how they will sound in your setup.

 

[gtimadman]

cheers guys they dotn seem to like the onyko at all:S

bright meaning tinny lacking depth?

 

[ParisV]

I have the sony STR-DH800 and am very happy with it. I think both the sony and the onkyo received similar reviews, maybe ask for a demo at Richer Sounds to see which one you like best?

Plus since your other kit is Sony you can use the Bravia link, not sure how much of a bonus that is??!

 

[safcalibur]

cheers guys they dotn seem to like the onyko at all:S

bright meaning tinny lacking depth?

Can do, depends on what you like the sound of. Usually bright would mean, crisp, clinical, exciting, but can sound shrill, tinny. Usually has emphasis on the higher frequencies and less on the bass. If you pair it with suitable speakers then you will have a nice sounding system (if you like a bright sound).

Bright/warm/neutral - def something to consider but tbh i wouldnt put too much importance on this. At the end of the day its whatever sounds good to you that matters!

 

[gtimadman]

bravia link er um whats that lol havnt got the blu ray player yet?

aw cheers guys going to sevoaks sound/richersounds tommorow so will see what they say!

 

[safcalibur]

Good luck mate, hope you find something you like

 

[PSM1]

Bravia link allows you to use one Sony remote to control all your Sony equipment. To be honest i would not bother with it and instead get a good all in one remote like the Logitech Harmony.

 

[gtimadman]

Aha the oen that you can hack with hehe

just reading the sony amp can bi-amp.?
I will only be using it as a 5.1 so could i use my big thick gale 315 wire to bi amp to my floor standers as they have 4 terminals on each or is this not possible or pointless??

cheers

 

[PSM1]

IMHO bi amping will give you some benefits. Since you are not going to use the rear channels anyway and have the speaker cable already it is not going to cost you anthing other than time to try. So I would definately give it a go.