# Best AV Receivers Under $500



## peekatoad

The Denon x3500 on accessories 4 less is listed for $479 right now.... which would be better than most on that list.


https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...7.2-ch-x-105-watts-a/v-receiver-w/heos/1.html


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## p5browne

There's still on going audio upgrades going on, so unless you actually need a new AVR right now, it's best to hit the patience button until all the dust settles.


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## Audiohobb

It really depends on what speakers you have. Different receivers have different sounds and it’s good to pair your speakers with the appropriate amp.


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## TuteTibiImperes

p5browne said:


> There's still on going audio upgrades going on, so unless you actually need a new AVR right now, it's best to hit the patience button until all the dust settles.


I've been a bit out of the loop, but what's coming up on the horizon? The only thing I can think of is HDMI 2.1, but that's more of a video thing than an audio thing.


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## rennyrb

HTML:







TuteTibiImperes said:


> I've been a bit out of the loop, but what's coming up on the horizon? The only thing I can think of is HDMI 2.1, but that's more of a video thing than an audio thing.


One thing with that is it will include eARC across the board. Some components currently have it with HDMI 2.0 or 2.1 ports, but it's still a bit hit or miss. eARC will benefit audio by allowing full uncompressed audio over the HDMI connection. 
I don't think this is that big of a deal with receivers, since you're typically plugging your components into it for input switching and already getting full bandwidth. But it is a bigger deal for soundbars where you may only have one HDMI port - with eARC you can use your TV's ports for switching and still get full audio transmission.


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## suffering

*Marantz all the way*

Had Pioneer most of my life including Elites. Just got tired of some of the issues I had with them and starting doing my research. Landed on Denon and Marantz and chose the Marantz. What a night and day difference immediately compared to the Pioneer Elite it replaced. Sound and stage were dramatically better. So much so I replaced and old Pioneer in my office with one of the slim Marantz receivers. Love them both!


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## teetertotter

I'm partial to Denon AVR's over the years: https://usa.denon.com/us/product/hometheater/receivers


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## TuteTibiImperes

I picked up a Yamaha TSR-7850 a week or two ago after my HK DPR1001 blew something internally and would no longer function. So far I really enjoy it, I'd lost the HK room correction microphone many years ago so being about to run YPAO improved the sound in my room considerably, and it has a really nice feature set overall. I miss Logic7, but this is a placeholder unit until I finally do a major overhaul and go with one of the JBL Synthesis units down the road.


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## teetertotter

peekatoad said:


> The Denon x3500 on accessories 4 less is listed for $479 right now.... which would be better than most on that list.
> 
> 
> https://www.accessories4less.com/ma...7.2-ch-x-105-watts-a/v-receiver-w/heos/1.html


I don't see any X3500 [2018 Model] but maybe sold out. The 2019 X2600H is on a nice sale price at $499 where others are at $599 sale price. I'd go for the X2600 if the TV were not first right now.


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## Panson

For Yamaha AVR consideration under $500, Yamaha RX-V685.

Specs:

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-v685_u/specs.html

Review:

https://tekverge.com/yamaha-rx-v685-review/


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## eaadams

What about if you don't need 7.2. Due to decorating restrictions I am limited to 5.1. What is best choise for


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## Guest

eaadams said:


> What about if you don't need 7.2. Due to decorating restrictions I am limited to 5.1. What is best choise for


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## Panson

eaadams said:


> What about if you don't need 7.2. Due to decorating restrictions I am limited to 5.1. What is best choise for


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## ColdBrew

Do any of these receivers have analog inputs for 5.1 from a PC?


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## MRG1

I'm not an expert. But I talked to a few, read a few manuals online, and these are the conclusions I came to.

If you look at reviews on Amazon, most brands of modern AVR often go bad within a year or two because they assume most buyers keep wanting the new features. For Denon, nearly half the reviewers complain of this. Be sure to look at all the verified buyer reviews for what you buy. In contrast, my 40 year old JVC receiver that sold for a few hundred dollars, only recently started to go bad.

So, before you go buying that new under $500 AVR, which is pretty low end, read the reviews, download and read the manual about limitations affecting inputs and outputs, especially if you want to do something like plug in surround sound headphones with digital optical input. To check input and output restrictions like those below, download and read the manual! Typical restrictions:

If your input sound source is HDMI, most AVRs can only output sound to speakers or HDMI, unless you use the headphone jack - which is only 2.0 analog stereo.

If your input sound source is analog, most AVRs can only output sound to speakers or the headphone jack, or if they have it, pre-amp output. 

If your input sound source is digital optical, most AVRs can only output sound to speakers, digital optical, or the headphone jack.

If you don't have 5 speakers, many modern AVRs simply discard those inputs completely. OMG.

If you need a moving magnet cartridge turntable input, be sure to get it. A properly equalized good pre-amp adds a lot to cost.

Believe it or not, many AVRS don't let you adjust individual speaker volumes, or make that hard. At the very least, you sometimes want to adjust the front center channel, where most TV dialog is. But automatic speaker volume adjustment isn't good enough, because many streaming sources are very poorly balanced.

Many AVRs have ridiculously high THD distortion figures, at any price level. Read the manual to find yours. 40 years ago a decent mid-range receiver like mine had 0.02 - 0.05% THD. So I assume anything over that might sound bad, but might be wrong. Reported THD is partly hype, because it is measured for only the best frequency and volume level, but I can't imagine paying $500 - $1000 or more for an AVR with more.

Many people say speaker quality is much more important than AVR quality, and most of your money should go there, by a factor of 5 or more.

5.1 sound may not be good enough, with modern speakers, most of which do bass worse than the old ones did. You may at least want 5.2, including a good sub-woofer.

I think 7 frequency band EQ correction is probably the minimum to be much good, and compensate for issues with your hearing or even some room acoustics. That's what mine has, but I wanted more. Few AVRs have even that.

One option to consider, which is what I did: Buy an old used home theater system with a good AVR and speakers. Possibly an order of magnitude cheaper than the new stuff, and will probably sound just as good, unless you want Dolby Atmos. It will probably also last longer. But if you want modern UHD video, only use it for sound, not video; use a good "audio extractor" to break out the 5.1 audio, yet pass through modern video to the TV, for $50 or less. (I don't have a 4K TV, so didn't do this yet.) If you need it, an HDMI switch that handles modern HDMI formats can switch between multiple inputs. You can buy used about an order of magnitude cheaper than buying a modern AVR and modern speakers, and they are more likely to accept analog inputs from sources like some PCs. 

New or old, make sure the AVR has the inputs you need for all your sources, and read the manual to see how many channels it takes from each.

I don't know why, but most used AVR owners don't keep the calibration microphone, if there was one. You can buy used ones on eBay. Believe it or not, many AVRS don't let you adjust individual speaker volumes, or make that hard. At the very least, you sometimes want to adjust the front center channel, where most TV dialog is.


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## Panson

MRG1 said:


> ....Believe it or not, many AVRS don't let you adjust individual speaker volumes, or make that hard. At the very least, you sometimes want to adjust the front center channel, where most TV dialog is. But automatic speaker volume adjustment isn't good enough, because many streaming sources are very poorly balanced....
> 
> ....*I don't know why, but most used AVR owners don't keep the calibration microphone*, if there was one. You can buy used ones on eBay. Believe it or not, many AVRS don't let you adjust individual speaker volumes, or make that hard. At the very least, you sometimes want to adjust the front center channel, where most TV dialog is.


I like manually setting speakers in AVR. Dialog lift setting is useful, too, as is choosing a DSP mode that separates dialog as needed.

Auto is easy, but in my experience doesn't provide optimum return. Nowadays, even inexpensive AVRs afford these options. It requires extra time, but well worth it. Cheers.


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## MRG1

Panson said:


> I like manually setting speakers in AVR. Dialog lift setting is useful, too, as is choosing a DSP mode that separates dialog as needed.
> 
> Auto is easy, but in my experience doesn't provide optimum return. Nowadays, even inexpensive AVRs afford these options. It requires extra time, but well worth it. Cheers.


Well, my Yamaha AVR RX V863 AVR was VERY inexpensive - $30, used, including extra cables, surge protectors, and programmable remotes. (I should have dickered over the price, but didn't feel like it.) (Price new was about $1000.) It has many of the desired options, but they are very complicated to get at. Perhaps the more expensive and fancy the AVR, the harder it is to adjust.

There are some things I want auto. E.g., compensating for room acoustics. E.g., In theory, with any given speaker geometry and room acoustics, there are some locations where, by default, any given frequency sound will cancel out or be reinforced (destructive and constructive interference). Hopefully, the auto setting tries to adjust for this, at the microphone location, by playing with relative timing at every frequency. And it is nice to have it do an initial speaker volume calibration at every frequency. Also, in theory, though I don't know if this is done, it would be possible to cancel out excess room reverberation.

But it is very common for a given AV source to mess up balance. E.g., on any given source the left or right front channel might be too loud. And many sources - e.g., the CW channel - often make the dialog softer than the background music. Finally, I have high frequency hearing loss, and need to adjust things to compensate. Finally, headphones interact with the timing and acoustics of one's ears, so it is impossible for any given headphones to work well for everyone. When I was only using two channels, I just used an old 15 band stereo graphic equalizer someone gave me through Freecycle. (More bands would be even better.) But with more channels, I would need a lot of graphic equalizers to do it right. And they don't adjust timing.

My inexpensive-to-me used AVR doesn't let me adjust timing - not even relative phases. Even if it did, it would be a lot of work to do at every frequency.

To me, a really nice AVR would let me hand adjust (analog style, with a knob or trackball) each speaker's volume and timing, in every frequency, and would cancel out reverberation by letting me adjust things to create very short pulses at my listening location, though the last part COULD be done automatically. It would also have a built in tone and pulse generator that would make it easier to do the adjustments. And it would have a separate adjustment setting for using my headphones. It should remember all those settings, but let me easily adjust for a given AV source on the fly.

However, that is just a pipe dream. Oddly enough, $30 used didn't buy me custom electronics.  I suppose I COULD program a reasonably powerful PC with a very nice sound card to do exactly what I wanted. But programming PCs has become very complicated.


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## Panson

MRG1 said:


> Well, my Yamaha AVR RX V863 AVR was VERY inexpensive - $30, used, including extra cables, surge protectors, and programmable remotes. (*I should have dickered over the price*, but didn't feel like it.) (Price new was about $1000.)....


Review from 2008.



> The Yamaha RX-V863 is the top of the new line offering from Yamaha. At a paltry $999, I was surprised that Yamaha didn't have an offering at a higher price point. Frankly, $1k isn't that much for a higher end receiver and competitors usually have one or two at higher price points. This made me wonder if the RX-V863 had skimped on features. Fortunately I was mistaken.
> https://www.audioholics.com/av-receiver-reviews/yamaha-rx-v863


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## MRG1

Yes, the review sounded like it was very nice.

You need to bear in mind that manufacturers buy good reviews from the big review places. In some cases just by sending free AV equipment, but sometimes they send money too. That sort of thing has been going around for some time. E.g., a long time ago a newspaper movie reviewer told me that - that everyone in the review industry gave the best reviews to the move producers who paid for those good reviews. And then I found out the same was true of computer magazines - most of the good computer reviews were paid for too. So a good review doesn't always mean something.

Unfortunately, once you start reading the manual, there are a lot of limitations, like the ones I noted.

I try not to buy things before downloading and reading the manual. But, since this was used and cheap, I only skimmed the manual.

I was seriously annoyed to realize that if input an HDMI source, I couldn't hear the sound on my surround sound headphones, which only have an digital optical input. (OK, they also have stereo analog output through the headphone jacks, which my headphones could also take, but I wanted to boost the center channel volume.) Also that I haven't been able to figure out how to use those analog stereo outputs with a center channel boost. It seems like such a simple thing to do...

When I then carefully read the manuals of other units, I found that every old AVR I could find had similar restrictions. I wonder whether it is a requirement imposed by the HDMI copy protection people...

I could probably get around it using one of those "audio extractors", but I'm not sure.

Incidentally, a rep at a high end AV store (a BestBuy "Magnolia Center", which they try to tell people they need to spend about a million dollars on their home theater system!, not the usual BestBuy store) told me that you need to spend at least $600 to get an AVR with separate power supplies for each channel - and that if you don't, you get substantial cross-talk between the channels. I wonder how that relates to these newer $500 systems - and how much it actually matters.

Another issue that surprised me on this AVR was that the "phono" input couldn't take a turntable with an old fashioned "moving magnet" cartridge, like mine. Somehow I just assumed that was what "phono" meant.

But I'm making do.


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## Johmei

MRG1 said:


> So, before you go buying that new under $500 AVR, which is pretty low end


You must not realize how overpriced AV receivers are. In fact, $500 can get you an entire 5.1 speaker system and yes I'm talking about the all in ones and no, you wouldn't notice. Granted they don't have the same features and fall flat in a lot of areas (not audibly) but I am confident that in a blind listening test, there would be plenty of low cost all in one systems (not just any of them though) that nobody could tell the difference in sound quality from a $5,000 setup. You people are under a placebo effect. That's not to say there aren't benefits to more expensive systems, obviously there are, not they just don't scale with the performance and features well at all.

Additionally, not only are none of these receivers under $500, but many of them are over $800. Not sure what is going on there. I know prices fluctuate but that much?!


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## MRG1

AFAICT, AVRs are expensive in large part because the manufacturers have to pay licenses to people like Dolby and DTS. I t think that is the reason why many lower end AVRs, including mine (which was rated in best of class at $1000 10 years ago, though only paid $30 used), can't take sound out of an HDMI stream, and recode it to digital output (optical or coax), even if they have all the connectors you think would be needed: they would have to buy another license. I wanted that, because my headphones can take in digital surround sound audio, and presumably do something nice with it.

I actually have a well rated $500 home theater system (I bought it used for $45), though I only use the speakers. The speakers are noticeably worse than ones I have listened to in a high end store. I don't notice the high frequency loss because I don't hear them, but they also have poor low frequency response, and they are much muddier than my headphones. As an example, it is much easier to distinguish musical instruments with my headphones, perhaps because attacks are much cleaner. The frequency response is also noticeably uneven , though there are ways to deal with that. In addition, it is harder to understand the words in TV shows than on my headphones - despite the fact that I played with frequency equalization, using an external pro-grade analog frequency equalizer (old, but I got it free), and also tried playing with equalization software.

I don't have audiophile level equipment, though my headphones are on the borderline, and I am listening for specific things (things even an amateur musician, like I was up to high school, has been trained to look for in their own performances - tone quality and variation, clean attacks and releases, etc.) - in my case it isn't a placebo effect. I suspect the speech understandability effect comes directly from unclean attacks and releases, BTW.

I notice the non-Atmos non-DTS:X used AVRs tend to be quite cheap. Because most of the people buying new AVRs are looking for the newest greatest thing. For example, when Costco had a Good Friday sale, I seriously considered getting one of the $200-$300 Denon AVRs. Then I looked at the Amazon reviews of them, and of similar Denon models. At least half the reviews complained the AVRs had stopped working - often in under a year, and usually after they did a software update. I know that people who have problems are much more likely to post, but that scared me away. I decided I could make do with a used AVR, and used speakers. 

I am personally quite annoyed there isn't a way to "future proof" AVRs by buying a cheap box that would convert the new proprietary sound formats into simple analog outputs, that could be input by an old decent quality AVR. I contacted HDFury to see if any of their devices could do it - and they said the licenses would cost too much to make it worthwhile.


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## Robert2413

Mark Henninger said:


> *AV receivers are the heart of your home theater system, but you don’t have to break the bank getting one – it just depends on what you’re looking for.*
> 
> The upgrade from the stereo sound to 5.1 surround sound from an AVR based system was one of the largest leaps you can take, in terms of AV fidelity. Crucially, even affordable entry-level AVRs now sport at least 7.1 sound, and often includes Dolby Atmos capability. These days, you can easily score a highly capable AV receiver for not a lot of money.
> 
> We’ve compiled the A/V receivers for under $500 that just might suit your needs, from a variety of different channel configurations to different wattages, down to stream-ability and different connectivity options.
> 
> 
> _We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works here ._


A great resource is Amir M.'s Audio Science Review site. He does the most serious and detailed receiver measurements I have seen. Here is his review of the Denon AVR-X4700H, for example:









Denon AVR-X4700 AVR Review (Updated)


This is a second review of the Denon AVR-X4700 AVR. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me. It costs US $1,700 from Amazon including free shipping. I will explain the reason for the revision in a bit. For now, I will cut and paste some of the information from the first...




www.audiosciencereview.com


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## darkxangel55

anyone know where i can get a Receiver for 499.99 CAD that has like 2 hdmi outs is 7.2 has dolby atmos and dolby vision DTS-x etc... has wifi, bluetooth, Apple Air Play or Air Play what ever you want to call it and etc... etc... the closest thing is the Sony STRDN1080 its on sale for 599 but thats it. most reviews are good but the bad ones have me a bit worried on that sony.


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