AV receiver - movies and music, no games; ease of use, good remote
July 13, 2023 11:16 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend a good AV receiver? The goal is good 5.1 sound for movies and music from a connected Mac - no game playing at all. Ease of use and setup is important, and solid remote capabilities (maybe a remote app?). No streaming audio services; no voice control. Thoughts?
I've seen the latest Wirecutter recommendations and a few other comparison reviews, but I'd love to know what MeFites know and love.
Ultra-expensive not necessary, but no specific budget.
Thanks!
I've seen the latest Wirecutter recommendations and a few other comparison reviews, but I'd love to know what MeFites know and love.
Ultra-expensive not necessary, but no specific budget.
Thanks!
Honestly, you should expect that any of the current crop of receivers will be pretty similar.
You plug everything in, turn on the tv and the receiver, and it should walk you through the setup process. You select the right number of speakers, you plug the provided microphone into the receiver, it makes horrible noises and tells you to move the microphone around between a few and very many times, making more horrible noises at each step. Then they push you through some questions about video setup.
The only really notable difference is that Onkyo/Pioneer/Integra receivers mostly come with Dirac Live room correction, which also involves software on your mac. It's still easy unless you really want to get into the weeds for some reason.
Denon/Marantz, Yamaha, and Onkyo/Pioneer/Integra all have web interfaces to their receivers, once you get them on your local network. Not sure about Sony. These make it simpler to change the display name from hdmi1 or bd-dvd to "The Tee Vee" or "Computer!" or whatever because physical keyboard. Also I've generally found the web interface to be simpler to deal with than punching through multiple layers of setup screen (this is on a pioneer 305).
THE BIG PICTURE is that you should expect all of them to be pretty easy to set up. Once set up, they should all be pretty easy to use, especially if it's just sitting in between a mac and a tv. The only buttons you should deal with on a daily basis are power and volume. You should feel pretty comfortable going with your gut, for something currently on sale, etc.
If there's really no specific budget and you're okay at the x1700h price point or a bit higher, I'd recommend getting *something* that supports hdmi 2.1, which might be labeled as 8k or 4k 120hz. A, because you might pick up some games during the life of the receiver and B, you might want 4k120 for non-gaming reasons. We mostly use an nvidia shield that I've set to 1080p120 instead of 4k60 to eliminate pulldown stutter as many (android) apps don't auto-change the output frequency for 24hz content like movies.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:21 PM on July 13, 2023
You plug everything in, turn on the tv and the receiver, and it should walk you through the setup process. You select the right number of speakers, you plug the provided microphone into the receiver, it makes horrible noises and tells you to move the microphone around between a few and very many times, making more horrible noises at each step. Then they push you through some questions about video setup.
The only really notable difference is that Onkyo/Pioneer/Integra receivers mostly come with Dirac Live room correction, which also involves software on your mac. It's still easy unless you really want to get into the weeds for some reason.
Denon/Marantz, Yamaha, and Onkyo/Pioneer/Integra all have web interfaces to their receivers, once you get them on your local network. Not sure about Sony. These make it simpler to change the display name from hdmi1 or bd-dvd to "The Tee Vee" or "Computer!" or whatever because physical keyboard. Also I've generally found the web interface to be simpler to deal with than punching through multiple layers of setup screen (this is on a pioneer 305).
THE BIG PICTURE is that you should expect all of them to be pretty easy to set up. Once set up, they should all be pretty easy to use, especially if it's just sitting in between a mac and a tv. The only buttons you should deal with on a daily basis are power and volume. You should feel pretty comfortable going with your gut, for something currently on sale, etc.
If there's really no specific budget and you're okay at the x1700h price point or a bit higher, I'd recommend getting *something* that supports hdmi 2.1, which might be labeled as 8k or 4k 120hz. A, because you might pick up some games during the life of the receiver and B, you might want 4k120 for non-gaming reasons. We mostly use an nvidia shield that I've set to 1080p120 instead of 4k60 to eliminate pulldown stutter as many (android) apps don't auto-change the output frequency for 24hz content like movies.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:21 PM on July 13, 2023
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posted by alchemist at 11:44 AM on July 13, 2023