AV Receiver Recommendaions forNew TV watching Room

You may want to research Sonos before buying in again I've seen some articles saying they are having issues. I'm not sure what as I'm not interested in Sonos for anything.

eARC did work good on my older Marantz receiver. My impression it could vary depending on brand. I suspect it's been around long enough that most have the bugs out.
 
Sonos had a lot of issues with their new control program. Supposedly they worked more on incorporating the new headphone, and kind of “left off” and had bugs, with many of the major portions of the rest of the suite. Much of this has been corrected. Several heads rolled, and their stock is down. Rumors of being acquired abound. The system is working better, and they have introduced some pretty good (expensive) gear of late.

As we have used Sonos for decades now, the wife is not interested in changing. Also, much of the ‘problem’ with Sonos is the networking. I had issues with units coming and going. My system was a mix of wired and WiFi units, with a “normal” WiFi setup. (Pretty much just set up, in a simple fashion)

I have mostly installed a UniFi system in my new house, and have learned many things about setting up the network for Sonos. After reading the “best practice” report from UniFi when using Sonos, and several deep dives into the Sonos networking issues, I am setting up the following:

1) All my Sonos will be on WiFi (must all be WiFi, or all be wired) (including the W4S modded “Port” device in my room)
2) A separate WiFi network for the Sonos units (2.4 hz only) (consumer UniFi WiFi units can do up to 4 WiFi networks)
3) Using the “Home” VLAN to keep all the Sonos able to see iPhones, and computers
- this is needed for my wife’s computer to play on Sonos from her Spotify app
4) There will be an involved setup for the units to be sure they are all, only, on the correct network and updated.
- each one has to be plugged into Ethernet, updated, and configured to use the correct WiFi.
5) We left many of the older units in the old house. Still have to determine what we need in new house.

Never a bad thing to re-evaluate a new thing before setting up a new place though. Anyone had luck with one of the other multi-room systems? HEOS and the like. Some of the AV receivers included HEOS. I don’t think the Apple HomePods have enough versatility, but I need to look more.

We would want to use Spotify, Qobuz (Qobuz Connect coming soon?) and play from the music library.
 
Another thumbs up for Marantz. Years ago I had an AV7005 powered by a cheap Emotiva amp, and the sound was just beyond belief. I would consider that combination one of the biggest bang-for-the-buck surprises that I've ever experienced. Watching the "Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's" Blue-ray through that rig was one of the high points of my life when it comes to pure musical enjoyment. I don't have any experience with the slim or smaller Marantz pre-pros, but I don't see how you could go wrong with the brand.
 
It seems that now the Apple Home Pod 2 will support streaming from Roon and Spotify. Has anyone tried this? Multi Room, and from a Mac Laptop. I guess if I want to try those, I would need an evaluation unit.

The Marantz units do support HEOS, so that bears more attention as well.

I mostly likely will get the Marantz, and then see how much of my Sonos equipment shows up next month with the movers.
 
Latest news. I probably will go with a generic Sony AVR. Will mesh with a Sony TV, it is "Sonos Ready" and will work well with the rest of the home Sonos System with the addition of at "Port" device. I already have one of those, and can try it out. It also meshes with a Sony wireless sub.

This system has to work easily for the wife, to esoteric, or multi remote controls will be an issue.

At least, that's what I think today...
 
Bones13 said:
Latest news. I probably will go with a generic Sony AVR. Will mesh with a Sony TV, it is "Sonos Ready" and will work well with the rest of the home Sonos System with the addition of at "Port" device. I already have one of those, and can try it out. It also meshes with a Sony wireless sub.

This system has to work easily for the wife, to esoteric, or multi remote controls will be an issue.

At least, that's what I think today...
Click to expand...
Easy does it. One BIG advantage of Sonos.
 
Bones13 said:
I have 2 rooms I am working on setting up.

My Main System will be in my man cave, and will continue to be a 2.0 setup with audio fed to the system via TOSLink.

The den that I am discussing on this thread already has in wall speakers for a 5.1 system. My old Sony Receiver was left at the old home.

I am currently trying to decide between the nice Marantz Cinema 70s, or one of the Sony AV receivers, particularly if I end up choosing a Sony TV.

Does eARC work as well as described?

Still deciding whether to stream from the AppleTV in the Den system, or rely on TV apps. I would really like to use only a single remote to power, and control this simple system. In my old den, I used a Logitech universal remote with one of those Harmony hubs. More limited universal remotes out there it seems. Has the consumer universal remotes out there just disappeared? I guess more of the control functions have migrated into modern A/V gear, and simpler "all in one" remotes will handle the job.
Click to expand...
If you use Apple TV, you can use the Apple Remote to control your TV (On/Off, volume control, usings apps, etc.). It works perfectly with my TV (Samsung). So no need for using two remotes.
 
Bones13 said:
Latest news. I probably will go with a generic Sony AVR. Will mesh with a Sony TV, it is "Sonos Ready" and will work well with the rest of the home Sonos System with the addition of at "Port" device. I already have one of those, and can try it out. It also meshes with a Sony wireless sub.

This system has to work easily for the wife, to esoteric, or multi remote controls will be an issue.

At least, that's what I think today...
Click to expand...
Food for thought: A 5.1 system was the norm, like, 25 years ago.
Since you are going through the effort of setting up a HT today, independent of what brands you choose to go with, you should seriously consider upgrading the existing 5.1 system to Atmos. That would require adding additional channels (including height channels). If you do it right, you might end up spending more time in the den listening to music than in your man cave.
 
nicoff said:
Food for thought: A 5.1 system was the norm, like, 25 years ago.
Since you are going through the effort of setting up a HT today, independent of what brands you choose to go with, you should seriously consider upgrading the existing 5.1 system to Atmos. That would require adding additional channels (including height channels). If you do it right, you might end up spending more time in the den listening to music than in your man cave.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. The time has passed, this round, to consider more wires, and drywall repair. If I were to remodel this room, I would definitely consider adding a few more speakers. Currently the "surround" speakers are on the back wall of the room, not ideal for the surround position. If I were to redo this room, I would put in some speakers in a better surround position, and some presence speakers in the ceiling. This would result in a lot of room damage, and needed drywall repair/painting. Not in the cards for now.

Oh, and did I mention this house is built like a fortress, and most, if not all of the drywall is backed by plywood? The poor electrician that put in my audio circuit, and ethernet runs had to cut all those holes through 1/2 in drywall and 1/2/-3/4 plywood? It is even hard to determine where the studs are.

Perhaps next round, if we do anything else, particularly if we do a round of repainting. If I go to that much trouble, I will add in a better receiver into the mix.
 
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