Home Theater people - new receiver and sub?

DSG2003Mach1

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Keep an eye on best buy open box, especially if you're not in a hurry. I just picked up a marantz sr7011 for $450 (currently $1750 on amazon). It was missing the power cord ($5) and the wifi antenna ($10). Good deals to be had there, but you have to be patient.

good thinking, I go past one a couple times a month
 

CobraBob

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Not neccessarily, you can use audio-return-channel(arc) to play sound from the TV through the reciever as well. But plugging directly to the rx is certainly the simpler approach.
Thanks for that info.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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View attachment 1625708

You, sir, are a life saver! LOL. You're the first person I've connected with about this who has said the Firestick 4K streaming device has to be connected to the receiver. Sure, that makes perfect sense. LOL. Thanks for the solution that's eluded me for months. I'm going to set it up tonight. ;)

my TV has an optical audio out, I ran an optical cable from the tv to the optical audio in of the receiver. My receiver doesn’t have enough hdmi inputs so most devices are connected to the tv and sound handled by that optical cable
 

DSG2003Mach1

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Big fan of chromecast. They allowed all of my old 'dumb' receivers to be used as 'smart' receivers and I can now stream music all over the house. I think I have 6 or 7 zones total (requires a chromecast for each zone). You can set up 'groups' and it allows you to control the volume to each chromecast in the group. I don't use them much for video, in fact they are mostly the old audio only chromecasts.

it does not appear iTunes music and chromecast play well together
 

2000GTSTANG

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my TV has an optical audio out, I ran an optical cable from the tv to the optical audio in of the receiver. My receiver doesn’t have enough hdmi inputs so most devices are connected to the tv and sound handled by that optical cable

That’s like so like 2005 lol.
 

2000GTSTANG

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Also I recommend Klipsch for some budget speakers or subs. Best Buy has their Reference line which were basically the old Icon line with copper colored drivers. They go on sale every November near Black Friday for half off, it’s the best time to buy IMO.

I have two of their rw-12d subs and it ****ing rocks the house. One would do just fine but I like the whole distributed bass setup.
 

PhoenixM3

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Denon receiver here and it is unnecessarily complicated to set up.

Klipsch tower speakers up front? Klipsch center, and surround speakers. The surrounds are just small satelites.

FYI $1000 for a receiver and 5.1 is not an easy task, unless you aren't much of an audiophile.

Edit: You can also buy used.
A75FE332-5BBA-4E47-8562-D828401FC847.jpeg
 

08mojo

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it does not appear iTunes music and chromecast play well together

Bummer. I do not use iTunes...program frustrated me to no end, so much that I dropped Apple when the Android product caught up to iPhone and never looked back (many, many years ago). Chromecast does work well with: spotify, pandora, youtube, google play music...pretty much every other music service available. If you don't have spotify, I'd highly suggest giving it a try.
 
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DSG2003Mach1

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Bummer. I do not use iTunes...program frustrated me to no end, so much that I dropped Apple when the Android product caught up to iPhone and never looked back (many, many years ago). Chromecast does work well with: spotify, pandora, youtube, google play music...pretty much every other music service available. If you don't have spotify, I'd highly suggest giving it a try.

eh, I got something like 12 years out of the current receiver, can't complain I guess. Its been a while since I tried spotify so who knows what may have changed.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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with my layout I've pretty much gotta have book shelf speakers up front, I could do towers in the rear. I currently have book shelf style on a pedestal
 

CobraBob

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my TV has an optical audio out, I ran an optical cable from the tv to the optical audio in of the receiver. My receiver doesn’t have enough hdmi inputs so most devices are connected to the tv and sound handled by that optical cable
I have already tried that. Doesn't work for me for some reason. I have GeekSquad coming in about 30 minutes. I'm going to have them properly set up my audio, once and for all. My goal is to have switchable audio to either the TV or the home theater speakers.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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I have already tried that. Doesn't work for me for some reason. I have GeekSquad coming in about 30 minutes. I'm going to have them properly set up my audio, once and for all. My goal is to have switchable audio to either the TV or the home theater speakers.

Id be interested to know what they do to make it work. Some TVs you have to go into a menu and turn on the optical out which I thought was odd (or it could be broken, a vizio at our place in NC had the optical out go bad). I have my TV volume turned off, never use it for sound for anything
 

08mojo

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eh, I got something like 12 years out of the current receiver, can't complain I guess. Its been a while since I tried spotify so who knows what may have changed.

In that case, go for a new receiver. You'll be pleasantly surprised with the features of the 'low-end' models. I'd definitely suggest denon or Marantz. They're the same company and their HEOS app pulls in a lot of music streaming services--it's pretty awesome! My only real complaint is the Marantz (and presumably denon's) phone/tablet controller/app is really battery intensive.
 

TerminatoRS

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My only real complaint is the Marantz (and presumably denon's) phone/tablet controller/app is really battery intensive.

Do you use bluetooth on your Marantz at all? Just curious. Mine (SR7009) struggles to pair with my phone every so often.
 

08mojo

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Do you use bluetooth on your Marantz at all? Just curious. Mine (SR7009) struggles to pair with my phone every so often.

No, I haven't tried. I just use the heos app, all over WiFi. I also use Chromecast a lot, as that way I can stream the same source over the whole house.
 

CobraBob

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Id be interested to know what they do to make it work. Some TVs you have to go into a menu and turn on the optical out which I thought was odd (or it could be broken, a vizio at our place in NC had the optical out go bad). I have my TV volume turned off, never use it for sound for anything
The rep was very knowledgeable and made a number of changes in my settings and cables. That included turning Optical on with the TV settings. To make everything easy going forward, I went with a Logitec universal remote and he programmed it for me. So now my Apple TV, Firestick, Oppo BluRay player and LG TV are all assigned to buttons on the remote. I'm still getting used to the new remote.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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The rep was very knowledgeable and made a number of changes in my settings and cables. That included turning Optical on with the TV settings. To make everything easy going forward, I went with a Logitec universal remote and he programmed it for me. So now my Apple TV, Firestick, Oppo BluRay player and LG TV are all assigned to buttons on the remote. I'm still getting used to the new remote.

Yep, stupid you have to turn that port on

I love my Logitech harmony remote. Make sure you learn how to bring up the help feature where it’ll reflash all the settings for your activity and usually fixes it if something was on the wrong setting
 

CobraBob

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The rep did explain the Help feature. It works pretty well. The only issue I am now having is that I can use the Apple TV and Firestick apps just fine through the Harmony remote. But if I pick up and try to use either the Apple TV remote or the Firestick remote (sometimes they work best on their own), they don't work. Tried using Help but that didn't do anything. I have to call the rep this morning to see what I'm doing wrong, because he said that I could use the Apple TV remote at any time, as well as the Firestick.
 

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