Firstly, I must confess I am very much new to all things related to hi-fi audio equipment. I have been doing research on my own, but there are still many areas where I feel I need the help of your hard-earned knowledge and expertise. Anything you can throw my way would be kindly appreciated.
Specifically, I was wondering if you guys could recommend me several options (I am based in Sweden and thus don't have access to absolutely everything the market offers, so tracking down a single product might prove challenging) for budget surround sound receivers, say within the $500-$700 range.
My main interest is listening to music. I am not looking for the ultimate home theater set-up and as such I don't even care much for the DVD playing capabilities (although SACD support would be a nice). As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind buying a solid stereo receiver at the moment as I am just beginning to get into this stuff, but I want to be able to scale up my set-up should my ambitions grow in the future without having to get a new receiver.
The receiver would be coupled with a pair of B&W DM601 S3 or DM602 S3 front speakers and needs to able to play back music from my computer (I've got an Audigy 2 soundcard) and sound from my Xbox 360 via digital optical cables. Also, while I do realize power and sound quality tend to go hand in hand, being a an apartment-dweller myself I am certainly not looking to upset my neighbors with sheer volume! :D So being able to play music very loud is not really an issue for me, it's more about the quality.
So the bottom line is, I am looking for kind of receivers that deliver the best music listening experience for under $700 that I can use to play music from my PC. Apologies if something doesn't make a lot of sense, and do feel free to educate me if I am way off in some regard here. This stuff can be quite overwhelming for a beginner to grasp at first.
Harman/kardon, if your just wanting it for music listening I would look at the 3480 model, you can pick it up for about 250-300 dollars now. it has pre-in/outs so you can upgrade if you like. this will give you the best quality that can easily out perform amps/receivers in the $1000 range.
i would look into getting used equipment. Since you are in europe it might be easier for you to get stuff like Marantz though I could be completely wrong. Try looking up Rotel, NAD, Marantz. Those would be my top three for budget used equipment. I have a whole setup with Rotel and Marantz that is mainly off of ebay and audiogon used that works great and got it for pretty cheap for what it was worth during its time of production.
I posted something earlier but I am guessing it was deleted seeing how I referred to a non-HM receiver. I hand't realized until now this was a Harman Kardon-focused board.
Thanks a lot for your help Shawn and Christopher. I will look into the HK-3480 and maybe check out some used equipment.
When you say "playing back music from my computer", does it mean mp3?
As far as I'm concerned, you wouldn't need B&W quality to reproduce "low quality" mp3.
So, maybe, a cheaper digital receiver might do a "fine job" for you - it's more about power, not refinement (with the disclaimer: I'm not saying all-digital receivers mean low quality, since I never heard one).
Anyway, concerning "sound quality", I agree with Christopher; you can't go wrong with Rotel or Marantz to match your B&Ws (and eventually play SACD).