right i am looking into buying a new home cinema amp, looking at spending 400 ish quid, was thinking of maybe the Onkyo 606, any thoughts?

 

what speakers are you running and what other equipment do you have?

 

i have a Pioneer Kuro 42" tv, sky HD fitted V soon, PS3, Xbox360, Wii, Kef 1005.2 (the 5.1 version, so will be looking to add some bigger front speakers at a later date to go 7.1)

 

come on, there has gotta be some audio dudes around?

 

What Hi Fi are raving about the new line in Sony amps! Cant remember the one, but its 350 and they say its much better than onkyo of similar price etc.

 

cheers dude thats very helpfull

 

I think this looks ok, it supports up to 7.1 sound and also the dolby digital and true hd formats so you are compatible with the latest sound formats. The only downside is there is only two optical in connections although it does offer 4 hdmi inputs.

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...KY-TXSR606-BLK

 

but my TV has 2 optical inputs + output so that should give me 3 total?

 

That sounds ok, but you can also get a splitter box to offerextra ports if/when needed. avforums have some great advice on the amps etc..

 

does any one have any experience with an alterative to my suggestion?

 

The Pioneer and Yamaha amps are very good, ive owned both, i have to say the Pioneers VSX1017 av amp is incredible, its in www.richersounds.co.uk at Ł349.95.

Or if you can afford one Rotel and NAD make very good av amps too, but if it was my money id have the pioneer.
Hope this helps

 

I have an Onkyo 605 and i am chuffed with it. the 606 is the newer model so i would imagine it would be just as good

 

personally i'd go for the brand new yamaha dsp-ax763 model at around Ł350, its a brand new 2008 model and is supposed to be excellently specced and has had some rave reviews.

only drawback is it only has 2 HDMi inputs, but they are the 1.3 version that carry audio as well if needed (some dont).

this is the amp i will be looking to get in the next few months

regards

rory

 

I'm speccing a system up at the moment too. I've looked around at a load and will probably be going for the Onkyo 606 as well.

Other similar priced units don't have as many HDMI inputs [onkyo has 4]...

1. PS3
2. Sky HD
3. DVD/CD player - for her to play DVDs on without fucking up my PS3 and CDs without having to turn the TV on to see what track you're at.
4. Future expansion, projector maybe?

I don't know a lot about all this stuff but the main competitors around Ł400 seem to be the Denon 1909, the Yamaha AX763 and some of the Sony gear.

I don't know the full specs of the others to fully compare but the 606 does use HMDI 1.3 as said above and also upscales other inputs to 1080i.

 

go for the pioneer !

 

I had a look at this too, only 2 HDMIs and they're 1.3 not 1.3a like the onkyo, so they don't carry multi-channel audio?

Like I said, I'm no expert but the onkyo does seem the best spec for the money.