Jim Carter's Technology Blog
Posted 7/10/2008
There is such a big variance between the cheap receivers and the expensive ones; it is hard to understand why you would want to spend the extra money. I am here to help you spend that money (it's what I'm good at). Some of the easy things to tell receivers apart are things like wattage and number of inputs. What isn't as obvious are things like types of inputs, versions of surround sound and quality of amplification which I will talk about here.
Most receivers are now surround sound. There are still a few that are stereo only but they are very limited. The only real use for the stereo models are if you are going to have one room that you are only listening to music in and you don't need surround sound. The receiver is really the heart of your system. It is what everything plugs into and is controlled through.
Most receivers are used as video switching devices now in the new home theater systems, so getting a good quality one becomes more important than ever since not only your audio is going through it but the video is too. Getting a lower quality receiver that you are going to use as a video switcher can affect your picture quality quite a bit, especially if you have a high definition TV set. The higher end receivers also can take an original analog video signal and convert it into digital. The advantage this gives you is that you only need to have one cable coming out of your receiver that would plug into the TV set for video. This makes for less of a mess of wires in your system and also makes the system easier to use since you won't have to switch the inputs on your TV and on your receiver when you want to switch between, say your cable box and a DVD/Blu-ray player. When looking at receivers that can do this kind of converting, generally speaking the higher end receivers are going to have higher quality processing for the video signal. What this means for you is that the signal coming out of the receiver will be closer to the original signal than that of the cheaper receivers that have lesser quality processors in them. In some really nice receivers they can even improve the quality of analog video signal that is coming into it. It still won't look as good as high definition but hey, better than the original signal isn't half bad.
When it comes to the types of surround sound that receivers have, they can vary by model as well. Most of the entry level models only give you the ability to have the older versions of surround sound which consist of 5 speakers and a subwoofer. The higher end models give you the flexibility to take advantage of the newer versions of surround sound that consist of 6 or 7 speakers and at least 1 subwoofer if not more. The newer versions of surround sound that have been introduced by Blu-ray disc take full advantage of the 6 or 7 speaker systems, they are Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD Master Audio. They not only give you more directional sound but also give better sound quality than the older versions (Dolby Digital and DTS). This is because Dolby Digital and DTS were compressing the audio so it could fit onto the disc and still give you a good picture. Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD Master Audio allow for what is called "loseless" audio which can sound even better than a CD!
The last piece of the puzzle on the higher end receivers is the wattage they produce. Basically, the higher the wattage, the better the sound can be for a couple of reasons. One; when you have more power, you have more of an ability for a receiver to handle transitions from really quiet to really loud parts. This translates into a more accurate representation of what is going on in a scene. The other advantage more wattage can give you is if your speakers can’t play music very efficiently (which can happen especially with nicer speakers) they need more power to sound better. A lower wattage receiver on an inefficient speaker would need to be turned up louder which means that there is more possibility of distortion and distortion is bad!
One last advantage to the nicer receivers is the ability to do basic whole house music. What this will do for you is you could be watching a movie in the main room where the receiver is and someone else in the family could be listening to the radio in another room; all working off of the same receiver! How cool is that! Two systems in one box! How it works is you can have your main system work with 5 speakers instead of 6 or 7 and have the other two channels of amplification that are in the receiver power the other room of music. With the purchase of a speaker selection switch you could even have up to 10 other rooms with music playing! Of course if you are like me and have to have the full 7.1 sound in your theater room then you can just attach a stereo receiver to an output on the main surround sound receiver and have the best of both worlds.
As you can see there are many reasons to get a better receiver than your basic $200 one. Most people can find at least one of the reasons above adequate enough to spend the extra cash. So what are you waiting for? That old receiver you bought back in college is nice but come on, don’t you want to feel like you are in that X-wing fighter with Luke Skywalker fighting off all those Tie Fighters while your spouse is getting lost in the sounds of the world of Yanni?
Most receivers are now surround sound. There are still a few that are stereo only but they are very limited. The only real use for the stereo models are if you are going to have one room that you are only listening to music in and you don't need surround sound. The receiver is really the heart of your system. It is what everything plugs into and is controlled through.
Most receivers are used as video switching devices now in the new home theater systems, so getting a good quality one becomes more important than ever since not only your audio is going through it but the video is too. Getting a lower quality receiver that you are going to use as a video switcher can affect your picture quality quite a bit, especially if you have a high definition TV set. The higher end receivers also can take an original analog video signal and convert it into digital. The advantage this gives you is that you only need to have one cable coming out of your receiver that would plug into the TV set for video. This makes for less of a mess of wires in your system and also makes the system easier to use since you won't have to switch the inputs on your TV and on your receiver when you want to switch between, say your cable box and a DVD/Blu-ray player. When looking at receivers that can do this kind of converting, generally speaking the higher end receivers are going to have higher quality processing for the video signal. What this means for you is that the signal coming out of the receiver will be closer to the original signal than that of the cheaper receivers that have lesser quality processors in them. In some really nice receivers they can even improve the quality of analog video signal that is coming into it. It still won't look as good as high definition but hey, better than the original signal isn't half bad.
When it comes to the types of surround sound that receivers have, they can vary by model as well. Most of the entry level models only give you the ability to have the older versions of surround sound which consist of 5 speakers and a subwoofer. The higher end models give you the flexibility to take advantage of the newer versions of surround sound that consist of 6 or 7 speakers and at least 1 subwoofer if not more. The newer versions of surround sound that have been introduced by Blu-ray disc take full advantage of the 6 or 7 speaker systems, they are Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD Master Audio. They not only give you more directional sound but also give better sound quality than the older versions (Dolby Digital and DTS). This is because Dolby Digital and DTS were compressing the audio so it could fit onto the disc and still give you a good picture. Dolby Digital True HD and DTS HD Master Audio allow for what is called "loseless" audio which can sound even better than a CD!
The last piece of the puzzle on the higher end receivers is the wattage they produce. Basically, the higher the wattage, the better the sound can be for a couple of reasons. One; when you have more power, you have more of an ability for a receiver to handle transitions from really quiet to really loud parts. This translates into a more accurate representation of what is going on in a scene. The other advantage more wattage can give you is if your speakers can’t play music very efficiently (which can happen especially with nicer speakers) they need more power to sound better. A lower wattage receiver on an inefficient speaker would need to be turned up louder which means that there is more possibility of distortion and distortion is bad!
One last advantage to the nicer receivers is the ability to do basic whole house music. What this will do for you is you could be watching a movie in the main room where the receiver is and someone else in the family could be listening to the radio in another room; all working off of the same receiver! How cool is that! Two systems in one box! How it works is you can have your main system work with 5 speakers instead of 6 or 7 and have the other two channels of amplification that are in the receiver power the other room of music. With the purchase of a speaker selection switch you could even have up to 10 other rooms with music playing! Of course if you are like me and have to have the full 7.1 sound in your theater room then you can just attach a stereo receiver to an output on the main surround sound receiver and have the best of both worlds.
As you can see there are many reasons to get a better receiver than your basic $200 one. Most people can find at least one of the reasons above adequate enough to spend the extra cash. So what are you waiting for? That old receiver you bought back in college is nice but come on, don’t you want to feel like you are in that X-wing fighter with Luke Skywalker fighting off all those Tie Fighters while your spouse is getting lost in the sounds of the world of Yanni?
Why do I want a better receiver?