Hi, just wondering if anyone had any advice, experience to help me decide between these receivers. They are all budget receivers. I don't want to start another war betwen Pioneer and Yamaha I've read 100's of those. So I went to the websites and made note of the differences I could find with each. Most of it I have no clue about but I'm sure people here will as to which is best.
Pioneer VSX-515 Power amp design: Thermal Compensation Transistor Design Digital Engine: Double-Pecision 48-Bit Motorola MCACC: Quick Setup
Pioneer VSX-516 Power amp design: Pioneer Hybrid Amplifier Design Digital Engine: New Freescale 180MIPS Prossing DSP MCACC: No
Those are the differences in specs I got off the Pioneer website. Most I have no clue what it means or if it even matters.
I'm also considering the Yamaha HTR-5835 SL and the HTR-5830 SL, leaning toward the Pioneer units though. Main differences I could find between these and the Pioneers are, both Yamaha units have Speaker A or B selection, the Pioneers don't. The 5830 has 5-Band Center Graphic Equalizer, the others don't
That's all I can make of the differences in specs, providing the info from the websites are correct and up to date. I'm thinking the power amp design might be the biggest thing to go on. At least that's what I get from what I've researched. All that seperates these units are $30 with the HTR-5830 being the lowest and VSX 516 being the highest. I'm going to order as soon as I can make a decision on a receiver. They are on sale now, the new models are coming in. Oh Yeah, the 5,6,7 channel difference really doesn't matter to me, I'll be doing a 5.1 setup. Room size is 16x12 if that matters. I've picked out my speakers. I'll list them below. Just need to make a decision on which reciever and get everything ordered. Any advice or comments would be appreciated. Thanks.
JBL E20 Front L & R E35 Ccenter E10 Rear Yamaha YST-SW015 Sub
The only thing that might make the difference it the MCACC. That is the ability for the receiver to set up it's speaker configurations automatically using a microphone (usually supplied). The rest is the their definitions of the wayt their amplification works (you should be able to get more info on their web site on that) and the "Engine" is their sound processing chip. One seems to be using a Motorola sound processor and they other one a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chip usually association Texas Instrument with, in this case 180 millions of instructions per second.
Honestly none of those will make any difference in what you are able to hear. If you like the ease of MCACC in terms of installations than go with it.
just my $0.01 opinion on this and experienced browsing HT's... the best gadget to test this is your own ear and preference and 2nd is the convenient of the unit itself like MCACC, types of surround modes, etc & lastly is budget.
Like what Gavin said if you can't test this in the store, make sure on line store have return policy (without re-stocking fee if you can) or if you can borrow a HT unit to test it at home with your speakers.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people in this forum will give you an idea or suggestion on this.