Help with AVR choice

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Help with AVR choice

flynkiwi

152 posts

Master Geek

#151893 9-Sep-2014 11:39

Hi All
My Home theater is slowly coming together.
I am about to start the final stages soon of putting a new ceiling on the room ready for stopping and painting.
I am in the process of looking at AVRs and have some JB HiFi vouchers that I can use to put towards an AVRs from there.
My Choices are either the Sony DN850 or the Onkyo 636 that will drive some KEF E305 5.1 speaker package.
I will put a couple of rear height speakers to complement the KEFs but have yet to buy these.
I could possibly stretch to the Sony DN 1050.
The appeal of the Onkyo seems to be ATMOS but the Sony seems to be a strong contender in the sound quality department.
Has anyone got/demoed these AVRs or have a recommendation?

kendog

325 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1125264 9-Sep-2014 19:18

ATMOS could be areal game changer, we will know over the next month or so as content is released and reviews start coming in.

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#1125423 9-Sep-2014 22:57

atmos may work in a full sized theatre environment but from what has been seen so far for the home market it's all rather half-baked and points to a big yawn.

there are existing high end 5.1/7.1 systems that do a great job of re-creating a three dimensional soundfield without the complication of extra circuitry and additional speakers.

atmos is shaping up to be the next 3d.

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/5-reasons-dolby-atmos-is-doa

flynkiwi

152 posts

Master Geek

#1125775 10-Sep-2014 14:37

Thanks for the feedback. I must say I am at a bit of a cross roads when it comes to Atmos.

There seems to be just as many who are supporting the format as those that are against it. With my ceiling currently off I need to make a quick decision if I put speaker cable in the ceiling ready for Atmos or just save the money and not worry about it. Same site - different opinion http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/why-dolby-atmos-will-succeed

My ceiling is due to go on in the weekend so I need to make decision soon. For the extra $100 I may just go with the insurance policy and put it in there just in case it takes off.

The AVR can always wait a little longer I guess. It does seem to be about end of September that the Onkyo gets the firmware update to be able to play Atmos and they have just announced the latest Transformers movie as being the first Atmos Blu-Ray so its only a few weeks to wait to see if I can hear a demo somewhere.

My JB HiFi vouchers expire in November so I do have a little bit of time to make a decision.

heylinb4nz

656 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#1125790 10-Sep-2014 14:54

I've owner Sony, Pioneer and Onkyo recievers and always found the Pioneer and Onkyo sound quality more to my liking.

I currently run Pioneer and Polk Audio 5.1 setup

RE: Atmos, I assume this is sound imaging based on the info I did a quick google on.

Personally I dont get tied up to much with those type of features. Most of your mid level Pioneer will have MCACC to sort out speaker timing \ distance and get your sound within kui....then let your ears be the judge and fine tune levels, corssovers and EQ from there.

Top 3 things ive always focused on

1) Amplifier power and quality (RMS and THD per channel in Stereo and Surround)

2) Level of adjustments for fine tuning (Crossover freq, speaker size, speaker distance)

3) Style (its gonna be there in full view under your TV)

RE: all the whizz bang things like Atmos, Spotify, Network capability etc etc. Considering the price points of amps keep getting lower and lower, they must be taking out quality somewhere to fund the whizz bang stuff...usually this will be from areas that matter more (ie the amplifier quality).

See whats happened to Panasonic with their ST/VT/GT Plasma series. the market has demanded big cheap smart TVs, so they have canned production of this series to deliver that...at the expense of what really matters PICTURE QUALITY

Anyway this would be my pick

http://www.jbhifi.co.nz/jb-hi-fi-home-audio/receiver/pioneer/5-2-channel-av-receiver-sku-278575/

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#1125798 10-Sep-2014 15:04

guess it won't hurt to pre-wire.

how big is your theatre room going to be ?
that will determine whether you go for a x.x.2 or x.x.4 or whatever.
in an average sized room i wouldn't bother.

to illustrate that there really is nothing new under the sun...

back before home theatre became mainstream, guys with high end surround systems were already getting good dimensional sound effects like the circling helicopters from apocalypse now or the over head battleships from star wars from two-channel pcm soundtracks off laserdiscs using the best processors of the time.

sound quality that still eludes most mainstream equipment.

personally i would buy the hardware from a specialist retailer and use your jb vouchers on movies.

fahrenheit

757 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1125854 10-Sep-2014 15:54

Domestic Atmos in a small room will be better suited to reflected speakers (up-firing) because you get proximity problems when the speakers are too close to the listening position (something that is mitigated in large auditoriums).

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#1125968 10-Sep-2014 17:45

bose !!!

bwhahaha

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33coupe

988 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1126098 10-Sep-2014 20:35

I really cant see ATMOS taking off unless you have a big dedicated home cinema.

My mate was recently in the market for a receiver, and he eventually went with the Sony 1050 (after reading excellent reviews). Early stages so far but he's really pleased.

The Onkyo 636 (and other selected Onkyo) in the UK comes with free Onkyo Atmos speakers, I wonder if the same will happen here?

flynkiwi

152 posts

Master Geek

#1126101 10-Sep-2014 20:40

The room is about 4 meters wide by 5.5 meters long.
Its a kids playroom/home theatre so I could get the Wife Acceptance Factor to modify the room in the first place - the things we do ;-)
The ceiling is quite low at only 2.2 meters so I am thinking up firing may be the way to go but I would have to do that with wall mounted speakers since they have to be out of the way of destructive toddlers ;-)
my thoughts were it would be a 5.1.2 System as the budget is tights. The Onkyo 636 I believe can be either a standard 7.1 or with Atmos 5.1.2. I am not sure if the second zone stays a second zone or you can use them to augment the atmos system?

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#1127052 12-Sep-2014 10:14

ilovemusic:
guess it won't hurt to pre-wire.

how big is your theatre room going to be ?
that will determine whether you go for a x.x.2 or x.x.4 or whatever.
in an average sized room i wouldn't bother.

to illustrate that there really is nothing new under the sun...

back before home theatre became mainstream, guys with high end surround systems were already getting good dimensional sound effects like the circling helicopters from apocalypse now or the over head battleships from star wars from two-channel pcm soundtracks off laserdiscs using the best processors of the time.

sound quality that still eludes most mainstream equipment.

personally i would buy the hardware from a specialist retailer and use your jb vouchers on movies.

Agreed.
Spend your money on quality, not quantity.
A receiver with multi-channel pre-outs and a power amp is the way forward :-)

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#1127491 12-Sep-2014 21:12

and a further warning to early adopters of atmos...

it is most likely the first generation of atmos avr's will be short-lived as dts are also working on an object based audio codec (dts mda) for home use.

not surprising as they rule the roost when it comes to delivering hd sound (dts-ma hd on bd) to the home.

flynkiwi

152 posts

Master Geek

#1127644 13-Sep-2014 08:35

Guess that's the challenge with any new technology it's always going to have a competitor that follows with their version. (apple watch anyone?) I see transformers 4 will be the first atmos enabled blu ray.

LennonNZ

2459 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1127677 13-Sep-2014 09:59

33coupe: I really cant see ATMOS taking off unless you have a big dedicated home cinema.

My mate was recently in the market for a receiver, and he eventually went with the Sony 1050 (after reading excellent reviews). Early stages so far but he's really pleased.

The Onkyo 636 (and other selected Onkyo) in the UK comes with free Onkyo Atmos speakers, I wonder if the same will happen here?

Nope :-(

kendog

325 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1128091 13-Sep-2014 22:03

ilovemusic: atmos may work in a full sized theatre environment but from what has been seen so far for the home market it's all rather half-baked and points to a big yawn.

there are existing high end 5.1/7.1 systems that do a great job of re-creating a three dimensional soundfield without the complication of extra circuitry and additional speakers.

atmos is shaping up to be the next 3d.

http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/5-reasons-dolby-atmos-is-doa

Or it could be awesome, as many many people who have heard it are saying.
http://www.audioholics.com/audio-technologies/why-dolby-atmos-will-succeed