I need a new A/V Receiver, so I’m going to let you in on my thought process of searching for a new one.

My current unit is a refurbished Onkyo HT-R500. It does a great job, it’s just an old receiver (and a low-end one at that).

The things I like about it are:

• Configuration flexibility – It has many options for speaker level and EQ for its price. All those options are pretty standard now, but I like them.
• Power output – It can drive my speakers plenty loud without obvious distortion.
• Good range of inputs for its age – It has optical, coaxial, and analog multichannel inputs. I use all of them and I’ve appreciated the analog inputs since I was able to buy a Blu-ray player with HD (high-definition) audio decoding and pass the HD audio through the receiver.
• Price – I don’t remember how much I paid (it was at least 5 years ago), but it was pretty cheap.

So why do I want a new one? Here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »