AV Receivers
As always, your first thought should not be what AV receiver to buy, but how – and to what – you ...
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As always, your first thought should not be what AV receiver to buy, but how – and to what – you are going to use your new AV receiver. An AV receiver consists of an amplifier for surround sound with a radio built-in to it. To the AV receiver you connect five or more speakers, video sources and a screen, like a DVD, a TV set or a projector. The other components such as DVD, TV set or speakers might not come from the same manufacturer, but sometimes it helps regarding connections, remote controls and so on.
The number of channels and therefore speakers needed depends on what surround decoding standard is built-in to the amplifier. The more channels the more surround effect you’ll get. The placement of the speakers is also important, so consult the manual for the best possible result.
As it is supposed to handle both audio and video sources it is important to have as many connections possibilities as possible. The rapid evolution of AV receiver has resulted in a variety of different standards for connection possibilities and several different standards for surround sound like Dolby, dts, THX and others. As an AV receiver should be the audio/video master in a home movie system, it needs to have both digital and analog connections for sound as well as for video players. It is likely that you’ll want to connect your AV receiver to a media center or computer so make sure that such possibilities are available.
Even if connection possibilities are important, the main issue is the sound quality. Listen to both music and movies so that you buy an AV receiver that can handle both. Unfortunately, there are some AV receivers that tend to focus more on the movie sound and effects than true music sound quality. For some models it can also be worth taking the time to check out the remote control, as some are user friendly but others require a NASA degree to operate. In some cases it is better to buy a separate remote that controls all of your equipment - the TV set included.
There are some AV receivers that work with only two channels and one to three speakers. These AV receivers try to simulate a surround effect with more or less good results, but they will never deliver full surround sound. Should space or money be an issue, it might be an acceptable compromise.
After deciding which AV receivers to choose between, read test of the interesting models. Bring some of your favorite CDs to the store so that you can compare sound quality with familiar music before buying an AV receiver.
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Some models have an USB connection or a memory card slot which can be a convenient way to access the music you download from the internet if you can’t connect the AV receiver to a computer.