Topic: new home theater receiver

[ice8888]

looking for a new home theater receiver, and found a couple i liked over at circuit city.  specifically the harman kardon avr-230 and avr-330.  i'm not going to purchase them from circuit city, probably will acquire one off of ebay and save a couple of hundred dollars, but can anyone else give me some suggestions that i might want to look at?  honestly, i'm on a budget, and this seemed like a good sub-$500 option.  i've got a very solid denon dvd player, a nice samsung digital (not HD compatible) tv, and a couple of really nice floor standing infinity speakers to hook up to this thing.  i'll need to add a center channel speaker and some rear's for surround sound, but other than that i'm covered.  i'd like to hook up a dvd-a player or possibly a pc for some 24/48 and 24/96 playback eventually as well.  actually, the pc is already in place and could take care of this via spdif or firewire.  anyway, anything else i need to look at for the receiver?  thanks!
ice

[ice8888]

link to the avr-230:
http://www.harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?Region=USA&Country=US&Language=ENG&cat=REC&prod=AVR%20230&sType=C

link to the avr-300:
http://www.harmankardon.com/product_detail.aspx?cat=REC&sType=C&prod=AVR+330

[jpschust]

i might consider looking at some used denons on audiogon as well.

[dnsacks]

sounding like a broken record, but the sony strda2000es is, imho, a must audition piece at this price-range. 

[scb]

you might be able to find an arcam avr200 on audiogon for close to 500. 

[MBecker]

same as what scott said, you could even go with the arcam avr 100 as well.  I've got the avr 200 and i'm a big fan.  Might be worth checking out the marantz line as well.  Couldn't hurt using/abusing myer emco's/tweeters 30 day money back guarentee (no restocking fee).  Pick one of the receivers up and see how you like it before buying one off ebay/audiogon.

[Nick's Picks]

sounding like a broken record, but the sony strda2000es is, imho, a must audition piece at this price-range. 

I'll flip this record and play it again....
definetely worth going out of your way to hear one of these.  It has to be the 2000es or higher.  the 1000 sounds like ass.
there are certain aspects of music re-creation that these Sony amps can do to a degree that they have absolutely no business to do so at there price point.
its not the end all, be all.  but its pretty close and for the money I dont think you could find a better piece for detail, soundstage and imaging.

[silverbullet]

I've got two different HK AVRs myself. Happy with both of them.

[Nick's Picks]

there are certain aspects of music re-creation that these Sony amps can do to a degree that they have absolutely no business to do so at there price point.

me no speaky good english some times.
like I said in another post eslwhere..."they dont call it dope fer nothin' "