After a couple of years I am looking to replace my HK DPR1001 which completely disappointed me in it's performance. I am looking at spending up to $1000 but would be perfectly happy spending less if I could get something that will do the job. It is driving Legend in-wall speakers and a Proficient sub and will be mostly for HT use. Currently I am hooking up a HD DVR (HDMI or component), a HD Dish receiver (HDMI or component), a DVD player (component) and a few other miscellaneous components that can go through s-video. My future may include a HD gaming system, a HD DVD player and who knows what else. I initially was ready to order an Outlaw 1070 receiver based on positive reviews and their good reputation but I looked into Pioneer and Denon and found a few other options. Below is my short list with a few reasons as to why these particular models stood out.
Pioneer 1016 - Price, can have up to five seperate HD sources including two 1080p, price, upconversion to component (I don't really need upconversion to HDMI), price, feature rich, price. As you can see I like the price on the 1016 compared to my other options.
Denon 2807 or 3806 - Upconversion to HDMI (as I said I don't need it but I'll take it), the input components can be renamed which is nice but I don't know how much it is worth in the big picture, plenty of digital audio inputs, several HD feeds including two 1080p feeds and basically any other feature I could wish for. The price is over double that of the Pioneer though - is it worth it? I have also read that Denons sometimes do not drive speakers as well as some other brands.
Outlaw 1070 - Has all of the features I would NEED right now (but maybe not in the future), has a great build quality and from what I've heard great performance, however, it seems to be a little limited in the features department. For example, from reading the manual it appears that it can only drive three HD sources even though it has three component and two DVI inputs - I don't think the inputs are assignable. Basically it seems like a high quality unit without all of the bells and whistles - but I kinda like some of the bells and a few of the whistles.
One other thing about all of these receivers is the DVI/HDMI input quandry. I have heard that HDMI is migrating to a 1.2 and even a 1.3 standard and there may be future compatibility issues with the 1.1 standard which I believe comes on the Pioneer and Denons and the new 1.2 and/or 1.3 components. Any truth to that? I don't really mind not getting additional features that 1.2(3) might offer, I just want any new components with HDMI to work with my receiver. And I don't know how this all relates to the DVI interface on the Outlaw. Any insight here?
My gut is saying that the Pioneer will do everything I want and will perform reaonably well and will save me alot of money. The Outlaw I think would be the choice when it comes to quality and performance and the Denon has tons of features but at a price. What do you guys think? Can you recommend any of the above or another option that I might want to look at? Thanks in advance for any input.
It will by far and wide be for home theatre useage. Maybe 90% home theatre and 10% music. I wouldn't mind it being able to put out some nice music but my focus and pretty much the only reason I'm getting it is for home theare.
Let me add a little to my previous posts. I have done a little more research this morning and one thing I noticed on the receivers is that the Pioneer and Outlaw are pretty limited on video inputs. The Pioneer has only four choices for video inputs. They actually have several physical input options but in the setup menu there is only four inputs that they can be assigned to, but they are all assignable to hdmi and/or compoent so at max I could have four video sources which could all be HD to some extent. The Outlaw has four as well (not including the front because I generally won't use it) but they are not assignable. So, only three are available as component and two of those three can be DVI. The fourth input is only s-video or composite I believe. The Denon, however, has seven video input options and up to five of them can be configured as component or hdmi. This definately gives the Denon a leg up in the HT video category - plus there is the conenienve of being able to customize the component labeling in the Denon. I can easily see five components in my system that would utilize a hdmi or component connection (HD DVR, HD sat receiver, HD DVD player, HD gaming station, HD media player) so that brings the Denon back near the front of the pack but I just don't know if I want to pay that much for a receiver when I can get the Pioneer for so much less and only lose one HD input. At the same time I don't want to get the Pioneer or Outlaw and be kicking myself because I am left with not enough inputs. I also don't know how the Denon compares in other categories to the other receivers. In particular, my HK just couldn't drive my speakers very well (even though they seem to be fairly efficient at 91 dB) and I don't know how the Denon is in that department.
In any case I am more confused than ever and in need of some serious advice. Thanks for listening.