Sometimes it's the simple things that make you decide you've got to have a new piece of gear. In my case, there were four things to consider: H, D, M, and I.
I've already got a pretty good home theater receiver, but it's getting a little old. Exactly how old was brought home to me when I hooked up my son's new LCD TV to his PS3 during the holidays. One HDMI cable, and it was done. And the picture quality was noticeably better than what I'd been seeing before when his game console was connected to our family room HDTV. Even on his TV's smaller screen, there was a distinct improvement in detail.
And the convenience! One cable in place of the two bulky wires (component video and RCA stereo patch cables) we were using before. That clinched the deal — I had to get on the HDMI bandwagon. Problem is, my slightly older TV only has one HDMI input, so if I want to be able to connect more than one piece of HDMI-equipped gear I'm out of luck. And I can see a variety of HDMI-equipped gear in my future — a Blu-ray player, an HD DVR, new game consoles — the list goes on.
Most new home theater receivers sport HDMI switching to accommodate the need for handling multiple HDMI sources. But my older model was built before most engineers had even heard of an HDMI interface. So, my solution was obvious — upgrade to a new receiver with built-in HDMI switching. Run one HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV, and feed all the HDMI inputs to the receiver. Now that I had my purpose clearly in mind it was easy to whittle down the list to the one receiver that's on my wish list.
I've got an Onkyo stereo receiver in my living room (the TX-8255), and I've been impressed with the sound quality and rock-solid construction. It fills the room with sound that belies its rather modest power rating — a real testament to Onkyo's Wide Range Amplifier Techonology (WRAT). Knowing what I know about the quality of Onkyo gear and my budget (a very important consideration), the TX-SR606 was a no-brainer addition to my wish list. It covers all the bases: excellent sound quality, four HDMI inputs, dual-room, dual-source capabilities, and an optional iPod dock (perfect for when we want to crank some tunes when playing pool down in the family room.)
I'm saving my pennies — can't wait to add this piece of gear into my system.
Posted
Wed, Jan 14 2009 8:03 AM
by
KenSpike