Help with Budget HT receiver

[just4surf]

I am looking for a new/used HT receiver. I have LCR Sierra1 and 170s for the sides. Room is small to medium size. I have a stereo receiver that mates well with the Sierras. I am looking for a budget HT receiver. Would like to know how much watts would be needed and what brands would be best fit for Sierra's. Need not be the latest HT gizmo stuff. I am more of a music person with occasional movie watching. As long it does, HDMI should be good.

Second question, I don't have a sub due to space restrictions. Will 3 Sierra 1 and 2 170s be adequate for movies or will I be missing something. Will try to avoid a sub if possible, unless there is a major need, esp for movies, maybe also for music? Any suggestions or experience from other folks who have similar setup is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Vic

[Todd WI]

Hi Vic,

I recently bought a Sony STR-DN850 as a budget AVR that I’m pretty impressed with. I believe it is an old model that Sony is in the process of replacing. Amazon was rather persnickety, first offering it as an Amazon prime product at $299 (MSRP of $499), then it wasn’t available, then it was, then it wasn’t and finally they sold it to me at $299 but I had to wait a week as it was out of stock but it shipped directly from Sony.

Pros I've experienced:
• Bluetooth for streaming from phones
• (front panel) USB connection compatible with I-products (I've used Ipod)
• Wireless streaming of FLAC files from NAS
• Easy hookup
• Fairly decent sound quality
• Relatively decent power (although I only have it in a 3.0 system in small room 7’ from speakers)
• Decent for music and direct mode seems to improve sound quality (although they may be playing games and just increasing the volume in direct mode, I haven’t tested)

Cons:
• The stated power is over-rated as they rate it as 150W into 6 ohms (not 8 ohms)
• No front HDMI
• No component inputs
• It seems somewhat limited in movie codecs
• The automatic speaker setup is a relatively weak
Documentation is weak

I’m impressed with it, especially for 3 bills.

There are calculators which will help you determine how much power you may need, here’s one:
http://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

As for a sub, I’m running LCR Sierra 2’s in my main family room with a $300 hand-me-down sub. It is a fairly large room (4000 ft^3?) and I definitely prefer both movies and music with the sub on. A sub may not be as important given your room and placement of speakers in the room. You may not miss having a sub (at least until you have one and then try to remove it)

Todd

[just4surf]

Thanks Todd for your kind reply. Interesting you mentioned about the Sony, I was also looking at an entry level Sony, but different model. In my experience, Sony's remote were the most reliable and best for heavy family/kids use. I was looking at STRDH550. This one does not have wifi or Bluetooth and cheaper.
I am OK to sacrifice these features. How does the Sony sound in the stereo mode, are you happy with the quality? Does it sound thin, bright etc?

Also, for HT, does it give a good experience, esp with dialouge?

Thanks for the info on the sub. I am still double minded. Intergrating a sub has been a challenge. I could never get it to sound right for all music/HT material. I found myself tweaking it for different source material. Got tired and sold it. Now, I am considering it again. But, the Sierra's have been awesome. Unfortunately, I did not have the sub when I got the Sierra's. I had the 170s.

Thanks,
Vic

[Todd WI]

Hi Vic,

It’s really up to you if you want/need the wifi and Bluetooth. Both will get used at my house. I’ll use wifi to play FLAC files I have on an external drive and my daughters will use Bluetooth to play music (Pandora->phone->Bluetooth->AVR).

The Sony is part of a secondary system in my den and it is currently only hooked up to LCR speakers. The LR are nothing special, just some old paradigm bookshelves. It actually sounds pretty good without a sub, maybe I wouldn’t miss a sub? Maybe it’s room dependent?

Initially the dialogue was hard to understand. Lots of potential contributors to this, simple solution though was to raise the center level by 3db. No more problem, dialogue is great and there are no apparent balance issues created by running the center hot.

I think it sounds good in stereo mode. I don’t find it to be thin or bright. It has a “pure direct” mode which turns off the display (and other unused circuits?) that seems to improve the sound quality. Although I have this suspicion that Sony may have programmed in a slight increase in volume to give that impression.

It’s a budget AVR and I don’t expect it to sound like the best of the best. Ironically, this adds to enjoyment. Last night I was watching a movie and I realized that I was lost in the movie. With my primary system I’m normally obsessing about the system (Is that sub on?, what codec is being used? is my streaming being throttled?, etc.) but with the Sony I wasn’t. I need to fix me. :)

For $300 I think the 850 does a very respectable job. The model you listed appears to have a lot in common with the 850.

Hope that helps
Todd

[just4surf]

Hi Todd - Thanks for your detailed response. I will most likely finalize on one of the sony models. Thanks again.