Looking for a new amp, between £400 and £600

[Nimmo]

Howdy folks, I'm back in the amp-buying market after being out of the loop for a good couple of years, so I'm turning to you all for advice, just like last time!

Currently, I'm using my Yamaha DSP-AX757SE which I've had since early 2005ish I think, but I've only used it for audio and not for video. Now I fancy an amp that'll do both well - I don't watch much TV but play plenty of 360/PS3/Wii games as well as watching the odd Blu-Ray film, so I'm after something that'll let me plug all of those in (VGA/HDMI/Component respectively), and will upconvert the Wii to 1080p as well. I've had a look around the interwebs for advice, but everywhere seems to say that every amp is great, so I thought I'd come to you for some..."proper" advice.

My main concerns are:

-I don't want a huge loss in visual quality; like I said I've not used an amp for visual inputs before so I'd prefer any loss in quality to be as minor as possible!

-I'll be wanting one that does both video and audio through HDMI. I don't fully understand but I've read that some only do video?

-I don't want to have a drop in quality compared to what I'm using at the moment.

-My budget is between £400 and £600, but I'd prefer to stay nearer the bottom end of the budget if it can be helped!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Banksie]

you should look at the onkyo tx-sr605 which also is HDMI 1.3 compliant as is your ps3 so it will carry the new hd sound formats I believe this model retails for £399 there are about 6 new models in this range.http://www.onkyo.co.uk

 

[norealplan]

I'd check out the Onkyo 605 (around £400), the Onkyo 705 (around £600) and the Sony DG910 (around £275) for starters.

Also it may be worth noting that upconverting and upscaling are different things. You won't get an amp within your budget that displays the Wii at 1080p.

Upscaling comes at a price. The Onkyo 875 is around £1000.

 

[Nimmo]

Ah, I had no idea that upscaling and upconverting were different things. Still, that's really the "bottom-of-the-pile" in things I'm looking for.

The Onkyos - do they have VGA inputs? It didn't look like it from the pictures I was looking at but I can't be sure...

Thanks for your replies.

Edit: Ah, the 705 does. Can anyone recommend a better amp than the 705?

 

[Nimmo]

I'm looking around, but is the 705 actually out?

 

[norealplan]

I'm looking around, but is the 705 actually out?

It's only started to appear in the last week or so. My local SuperFi store got a few in on the Friday just gone, so give it a few more weeks and I'm sure you'll see more about.