Denon, Onkyo, or Sony for a receiver?

Question

Okay so I have 10 Polk RC80i speakers installed in the ceiling through out the house and a 1080p LCD, I am looking at these three brands to supply the power I need for these speakers or if anyone can recommend anything else. I will be installing a speaker selector to be able to segregate speakers in the rooms. Any ideas? thx

Answer 1

Whatever brand you prefer, make sure you pick one from the list of receivers at the bottom of this link: http://www.avtruths.com/uncompressed.htm...

All of these models include hardware for decoding the latest surround formats included on Blu-ray Disc.  It sounds so much better than DVD.

Make sure it's got "DolbyTrueHD" and "DTS-HD Master Audio".

Answer 2

I have installed all three and my preference is onkyo, One key thing to remember is to find one with zone 2 or one with zone 2 and 3. By having this you will be able to listen to different things in two or three locations in the house.

Answer 3

leave sony at the door. no high current design, small sound stage, not going to give you want you want.

denon and onkyo both have a high current design, durable chasis and loaded with features for multiroom audio.

the denon of choice i would recommend for you would be the 4308ci. here is the stat sheet:     The AVR-4308CI is taking surround receivers to the next level.  In addition to many of the standard features you have come to enjoy from Denon receivers, custom integration capabilities to home networks and A/V systems has been expanded making this surround receiver the true heart of any high end home theater networked or non-networked.  The AVR-4308CI also brings with it the new surround formats that HD has to offer, making the home A/V theater experience like none you have seen or heard before.  Add to this the improved connectivity for portable devices for ease of use, and you will see why this receiver has already received awards for product of the year.

140 watts x 7 channels

Wi-Fi and Network capable

Ethernet network port

World's first Vista certified receiver

HD Radio and XM ready tuning

Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio

DDSC-HD digital Dynamic Discrete Surround Circuitry

Expanded HDMI v1.3a ports with Deep Color, xvYCC, and SACD support

Pure Direct mode & Advanced AL24 Processing Multi Channel

DENON LINK III, enabling high-speed, high-grade digital signal transmission

Audyssey MultEQ XT & MultEQ Pro calibration installer ready

Audyssey Dynamic EQ calibration installer ready

Dedicated iPod port for optional ASD-1R or new to come ASD-3N/3W D-docks

New GUI menu support

Comes with dual remotes - EL backlit learning and standard pre-programmed types

2-way remote capability with optional RC-7000CI and RC-7001RCI remote system. this reciever may help you eliminate the need for a speaker switch also.

enjoy

Answer 4

Those are all good choices. Denon is well known and so is Onkyo. I personally dont have any experience with Denon but they do have great reviews. Sony provides lots of power for the price. However I own an Onkyo 7.1 channel reciever and im very happy.  Now im not sure if in your case if you are looking to set up a home theater or simply provide audio through out your home. If you are looking for a home theater reciever I would suggest going with Onkyo. Their recievers are great for video switching and there are so many processing options for every audio source that is available. Also alot of their recievers have Audyssey2EQ which automatically calibrates the reciever to achieve the best sound for your room. When you are looking for a home theater reciever, look for one that HDMI switching. A lot of new Onkyo recievers include HDMI switching as well as analog to digital upconversion. So if you have video sources connected tthrough component/s-video/composite it would be upconverted to be ouput in HD through the HDMI. Onkyo recievers also are satelite radio ready and also have availible iPod docks. So if you are looking for a home theater I would suggest an Onkyo.

If you are looking for a reciever to power your entire homes audio, I would suggest a Sony. This is because their recievers are high powered and they would probobly work best in your case. If you want to get a nice Sony reciever I would suggest spending more than 400 dollars. Most of their higher end recievers include satelite radio exceptional video switching.

If you have any questions feel free to email me as I know it is pretty tough when looking for an A/V reciever/

Answer 5

GREAT QUESTION!

Denon is going to be the best value.  You can't go wrong with Onkyo either, but their remotes are not as well designed as Denon's.  

Forget Sony, they make great video equipment, but their audio receivers have always been problematic (except their ES line, but even there, the remotes are weak.)  

Denon has excellent build quality and good, solid, high-capacitance, plenty of power in reserve for movie soundtracks.  Sony's regular line poops out when the going gets tough.

Also, make sure you're using a quality-built impedance-matching speaker distributor box (Niles or Russound) - or perhapos you have impedance-matching volume controls in each of the speaker rooms locations, just be careful about how you wire them all together at the head end.