Who makes better home theater receivers in the $500-$600 range?

[JohnD]

Yamaha or Onkyo?

I'm actually looking for the best receiver that upscales with no problems and has the best sound quality.

Also, what does it mean when a receiver can upscale to 1080i and 1080p?

I have a 1080p Panasonic plasma, so does that mean I have to get a unit that upscales to 1080p?

[RookerMan]

Yamaha. Better & a wide variety of DSP options; better construction design; and prettier layout.

[GrumpyMac]

Yamaha has a much better reputation for both music and home theater applications. Yamaha has been the 'top dog' of the industry for years and Kenwood, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon are all trying to become what Yamaha already is.

Having said that - Onkyo is shoving a lot of features into their TX-SR receivers and selling these at about $500 to compete with much more expensive Yamaha and Denon units. These receivers have been on some magazines "Recommended" or "Editors Choice" lists since last year.

Because Onkyo is trying harder - these receivers pack a lot more value than similar priced units from Yamaha.

UPSCALING

Your TV already does up-scaling to it's internal/preferred resolution. And there seems to be a big difference between basic and good up-scaling in the receiver according to a recent Home Theater magazine article. To get 'good' conversion - you have to buy the higher end receivers.

My advice - let the TV do what it does best (process video) and let the receiver do what it does best (process audio). At your budget of $600 you wont get the better video processing in the receiver anyway.

"..so does that mean I have to get a unit that upscales to 1080p?"

No. You could hook the old family VCR to that TV and the TV will handle it fine. (It will look like crap but most standard def sources look bad on a high-res display.)

[sheonmd]

1) Onkyo is much better than Yamaha in general.

2) Upscaling means it takes a lower definition image and converts it digitally to a higher definition image. The resulting picture is supposed to be more crisp than the original source material. 1080i means it upconverts the image to a definition that is (in a simple answer) half the resolution of a 1080p image.

3) Your TV can play both 1080i and 1080p images so you don't HAVE to get a unit that upscales to 1080p.

[sheonmd]

1) Onkyo is much better than Yamaha in general.

2) Upscaling means it takes a lower definition image and converts it digitally to a higher definition image. The resulting picture is supposed to be more crisp than the original source material. 1080i means it upconverts the image to a definition that is (in a simple answer) half the resolution of a 1080p image.

3) Your TV can play both 1080i and 1080p images so you don't HAVE to get a unit that upscales to 1080p.

[GrumpyMac]

Yamaha has a much better reputation for both music and home theater applications. Yamaha has been the 'top dog' of the industry for years and Kenwood, Onkyo, Harmon Kardon are all trying to become what Yamaha already is.

Having said that - Onkyo is shoving a lot of features into their TX-SR receivers and selling these at about $500 to compete with much more expensive Yamaha and Denon units. These receivers have been on some magazines "Recommended" or "Editors Choice" lists since last year.

Because Onkyo is trying harder - these receivers pack a lot more value than similar priced units from Yamaha.

UPSCALING

Your TV already does up-scaling to it's internal/preferred resolution. And there seems to be a big difference between basic and good up-scaling in the receiver according to a recent Home Theater magazine article. To get 'good' conversion - you have to buy the higher end receivers.

My advice - let the TV do what it does best (process video) and let the receiver do what it does best (process audio). At your budget of $600 you wont get the better video processing in the receiver anyway.

"..so does that mean I have to get a unit that upscales to 1080p?"

No. You could hook the old family VCR to that TV and the TV will handle it fine. (It will look like crap but most standard def sources look bad on a high-res display.)

[canderton01]

Everything I'm going to say is based on knowledge and experience. Right now I have an Onkyo 606(fairly new, I've had it for about 3 months) and my previous receiver was a Yamaha 5.1 receiver that I had for about 6 years. The first major improvement I noticed with the Onkyo is that it has MUCH more power. The Onkyo has a 660 watt power supply and the Yamaha only had a 240 watt powersupply BUT the Yammie was rated at 100wpc X 5(complete bs) and the Onkyo is rated at 90wpc x 7. So right off the bat, it's obvious that Onkyo is more honest about their power ratings. Secondly, the Onkyo sounds much more crisp and detailed imo. My main speakers are a pair of Cerwin Vega VE-12 towers and they sound a lot better.

Next, about upscaling. My Onkyo 606 supports 1080i upscaling. 1080P is better but 1080i is still good. And it does NOT mean that if you have a 1080P display that you have to get a 1080P receiver. If you have any 1080P sources(like a blu ray player or PS3) you can just set the receiver to "pass through" and the signal will remain untouched by the receiver and go straight to your tv. The only thing upscaling is used for is upconverting old analog sources to HD quality. So if you don't have any analog sources, upscaling is a useless feature.

But anyway, to answer your question, I would definitely go with Onkyo. You get more for your money imo.