Should I upgrade my AV Receiver?

[DaDude]

I have the Onkyo TX-NR509 5.1 AV Receiver which I've own for about 10 years now. For over 5 years, I've had random audio dropouts with this receiver when using the HDMI ports. And here's the funny thing, it happens once in a blue moon... maybe once every 6 months or so. That's how rare it is. And in the over 5 years it has been happening, it hasn't gotten worse. Truth be told, deep down inside, I've hoping that it does get worse so it gives me a reason to upgrade to a 4K AVR, but it still only happens rarely. I've switched to different cables, different ports and even upgraded to a 4K TV a couple of years ago, and the dropouts still occur. So, it's obvious that the problem lies with the HDMI board on the receiver.

 

Given the fact that this is a problem that rarely happens, do you think it's time that I retire this AVR and upgrade? Or should I just save my money and put up with the dropouts since it rarely occurs. Was thinking of maybe upgrading to this...

 

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/yamaha-5-1-ch-4k-ultra-hd-a-v-home-theater-receiver-black/6198554.p?skuId=6198554

 

[adrynalyne]

You be the judge. We don’t need to tell you. 

[spikey_richie]

I'm in a similar position with a Sony STR-DN1000. It has no 4K HDMI pass-through so I have to use the optical output of the TV as an input into the receiver.

 

10 years is a good run, I would say it's time to upgrade.

 

Yamaha is a good brand, I've had Yamaha AV stuff in the past and it has been pretty solid. 

 

Why not go for something with Atmos support? This one has the same power output, but has Atmos support, 4K pass-through, 7.2 vs 5.1 and a MUCH lower harmonic distortion rating, and it's not that much more expensive. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-7-2-ch-with-dolby-atmos-4k-ultra-hd-a-v-home-theater-receiver-black/6219445.p?skuId=6219445 it does only have 1 HDMI input though, according to the spec sheet on Bestbuy (which I find hard to believe actually)

 

Edit: Yeah, the spec sheet is wrong on BestBuy. It has 4x HDMI inputs, and 1x HDMI output.

[spaceelf]

New receivers are great, but unless you actually need something from them why spend the money?

 

I would suspect if it's that rare its a problem with the electricity in your house or something.

[DaDude]

11 hours ago, spikey_richie said:

I'm in a similar position with a Sony STR-DN1000. It has no 4K HDMI pass-through so I have to use the optical output of the TV as an input into the receiver.

 

10 years is a good run, I would say it's time to upgrade.

 

Yamaha is a good brand, I've had Yamaha AV stuff in the past and it has been pretty solid. 

 

Why not go for something with Atmos support? This one has the same power output, but has Atmos support, 4K pass-through, 7.2 vs 5.1 and a MUCH lower harmonic distortion rating, and it's not that much more expensive. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sony-7-2-ch-with-dolby-atmos-4k-ultra-hd-a-v-home-theater-receiver-black/6219445.p?skuId=6219445 it does only have 1 HDMI input though, according to the spec sheet on Bestbuy (which I find hard to believe actually)

 

Edit: Yeah, the spec sheet is wrong on BestBuy. It has 4x HDMI inputs, and 1x HDMI output.

 

Don't you need special speakers for Atmos? Like ceiling speakers or something? I don't have that fancy setup.... just the usual 5 speaker setup. I live in an apartment, so the 5 speakers is all I need or I'll get neighbors knocking at my door.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

Many of the older Onkyo's suffered from failures of the HDMI boards. In fact, I had fail just out of warranty but Onkyo replaced it at their cost. I did have to take the received to an authorized repair facility but that turned out easy since there was one about 5 minutes from my office.  We replaced ours after the HDMI board eventually failed again.  As to y our situation, well, its up to you. It's likely going to fail completely at some point. In both cases for us it started at an intermittent issue and gradually became permanent. 

 

While it still runs you have a good opportunity to look into eventual replacement units. Find features you need and upgrade accordingly. Better to do that now and be ready than wait until it dies completely. 

[spaceelf]

15 minutes ago, Biscuits Brown said:

Find features you need and upgrade accordingly. Better to do that now and be ready than wait until it dies completely. 

Spend money on stuff you don't even need that might be outdated by the time you need it so you don't have to spend money later, eh?

 

....ya lost me on that one.

[DaDude]

Why are AVRs so hard to find now? I'm trying to shop around for one and there's very limited selections. I find none on the shelves at PC Richards or Best Buy and there's only a few online that's available to buy. In fact, that Yamaha RX-V385BL that I had my heart set on is no longer available to order on Amazon, Best Buy or PC Richards. What's going on? Are AVRs becoming obsolete?

[spaceelf]

30 minutes ago, DaDude said:

Why are AVRs so hard to find now? I'm trying to shop around for one and there's very limited selections. I find none on the shelves at PC Richards or Best Buy and there's only a few online that's available to buy. In fact, that Yamaha RX-V385BL that I had my heart set on is no longer available to order on Amazon, Best Buy or PC Richards. What's going on? Are AVRs becoming obsolete?

Stimulus payments are going to useless crap, the shipping industry is so screwed up they're leaving containers in countries that don't need them at all and making a bad situation even worse because they don't know how to deal with it, there's a problematic semiconductor shortage, and stock is gone.  Just like video cards and consoles.

[spaceelf]

Crutchfield is expecting stock of that model in early April.

[DaDude]

3 hours ago, LostCat said:

Stimulus payments are going to useless crap, the shipping industry is so screwed up they're leaving containers in countries that don't need them at all and making a bad situation even worse because they don't know how to deal with it, there's a problematic semiconductor shortage, and stock is gone.  Just like video cards and consoles.

Oh man, that sounds bad. I better order an AV receiver ASAP as soon as I see one in stock then.

[spaceelf]

20 minutes ago, DaDude said:

Oh man, that sounds bad. I better order an AV receiver ASAP as soon as I see one in stock then.

Once the vaccine rollout is clearing it should clear up a bit.  And console stock should be stabilizing in the next three months.

 

I expect this all to mostly go away by or very soon during the second half of the year.

[DaDude]

13 minutes ago, LostCat said:

Once the vaccine rollout is clearing it should clear up a bit.  And console stock should be stabilizing in the next three months.

 

I expect this all to mostly go away by or very soon during the second half of the year.

That's good to hear. Honestly, I'd really want to wait as long as possible and save up or wait for a sale on the Yamaha RX-V685. I don't need Atmos or the 7.2 channel, but it's just an all-around better receiver with more ports and I know I've seen Amazon have it on sale for as low as $400, which is not a bad price at all if I could ever find that deal again. I don't think my current receiver is going to die completely any day, so there's really no rush. So might as well use this opportunity to get something really good.

[WaRRioR]

I just recently upgraded my AV to a Yamaha RX-V6A, and I have to say it rocks bigtime.

 

I had a Yamaha AV for 15 years prior and this one just kills it in every feature.

[DaDude]

My friend has a Costco membership and he let me use his login to order this:

 

https://www.costco.com/denon-avr-s750h-7.2-channel-4k-av-receiver.product.100505535.html

 

It was $400, which when you think about it, it's only $120 more than the Yamaha RX-V385BL that I linked earlier. But you get a whole mess of extra bells and whistles, most of which I probably won't even use.. especially Atmos since I don't have the speaker setup nor the space for that. But the two extra HMDI ports really sold me, since I always worry about running out of ports. And I've heard nothing but great things about Denon receivers, in general. I can only imagine this will blow away my 10 year old ancient Onkyo AVR.

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

46 minutes ago, DaDude said:

My friend has a Costco membership and he let me use his login to order this:

 

https://www.costco.com/denon-avr-s750h-7.2-channel-4k-av-receiver.product.100505535.html

 

It was $400, which when you think about it, it's only $120 more than the Yamaha RX-V385BL that I linked earlier. But you get a whole mess of extra bells and whistles, most of which I probably won't even use.. especially Atmos since I don't have the speaker setup nor the space for that. But the two extra HMDI ports really sold me, since I always worry about running out of ports. And I've heard nothing but great things about Denon receivers, in general. I can only imagine this will blow away my 10 year old ancient Onkyo AVR.

I have a Denon AVR-S940H, for atmos you can actually get speakers that bounce the sound off of the ceiling that sit on your fronts.

[DaDude]

On 21/03/2021 at 01:26, Matthew S. said:

I have a Denon AVR-S940H, for atmos you can actually get speakers that bounce the sound off of the ceiling that sit on your fronts.

I'm not sure if it's even worth going through the trouble and expense of buying those speakers. I currently have the Polk Audio Monitor40 Series II for my fronts, the Polk Audio CS1 Series II for my center and Polk Audio Monitor30 Series II for the rears. I really love these speakers. They were pricey, but so worth the money because the clarity on these are amazing! In fact, I had an old pair of lower end Dayton Audio B652 bookshelf speakers that I had stashed away in my closet and I tried to hook them up on my new Denon, since this receiver is compatible to up to 7 speakers and it actually worsened the quality of the surround effects. The Dayton speakers have great bass, but lack in clarity. So you get a boomy, but muffled sound. So I took them off and went back to the 5 channel surround system. This is good example of where quality trumps quantity.