Mid price receiver

When you say "side outs" are you referring to speaker outs for side surround speakers, ie a 7.1 receiver?

harman kardon

Yes, side speaker outputs.

Used Arcam AVR100 or AVR200.

HK may be a better choice, compared to Denon or Sony. But you are in the best spot. Check out the gon.

OK I'll check those out. We're far away from big cities and the offerings here are Sony, Marantz, Yamaha, Panasonic and Rotel.
I prefer Yamaha in this bunch, Rotel is out of the price range.
Long live home delivery!

Homer, if you mean outputs for speakers that will be mounted on the side walls, any 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 receiver will do the trick. Typically Dolby labs recommends mounting the "surround speakers" on the side walls in a 5.1 system, however most people I know have theirs mounted on the back wall. If you go 6.1, you add a single speaker in the center of the back wall, and 7.1 adds two speakers on the back wall.

Just look for any current Home Theater or Surround sound reciever. If it has Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, Dobly EX, etc., it has, by default, "side speaker" outputs. They are listed on the receiver as "surround L" and "surround R". If it is a 6.1 or 7.1 channel reciever, it probably also list them as "surround L&R" and list the rear wall speaker outputs as "back L and back R" or "Rear L and Rear R".

If you are looking for a surround sound/HT receiver that supports speakers in the front (L, R, Center), sides (surround) and back (rear wall), go for any 7.1 channel receiver. It will, by default, have outputs for "side" speakers.

Enjoy,

TIC

Your friend might enjoy Googling "Outlaw Audio".

Thanks Reubent. I mean "side" when I say "side", much like the outputs that I have on my Lexicon decoder. 7.1 would be the proper term I surmise.

I just picked up the Harmon Kardon AVR 240 for my home theater setup, and it is amazing. I started with an Onkyo TX-SR304 which had a really nice sound to it (only 5.1 setup) and switched to a Sony STR-DG800 for the extra rear surround outputs (7.1 setup). It turns out that the Sony sounded so much worse than the Onkyo that I had to return it and get something else. I opted for the Harmon Kardon AVR 240 which has a 7.1 setup, and it even sounds way better than the Onkyo.

It's affordable, and I can vouch that it sounds amazing. It's only rated at 50 watts per channel, but that's an honest continuous power rating that will produce PLENTY of high quality sound in that price range.

Homer,

Take a look at this link from Dolby Labs:

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_entertainment/roomlayout.html

As I stated earlier, Dolby intends the primary surround speakers to be at the side location. So, in DD 5.1, the speakers are L, C, R and L side, R side. For 6.1, you add a center back speaker and for 7.1 you add a L back and R back.

In the instance of your Lexicon, they went a step further and actually labeled the surround outputs as "side", which is where Dolby recommends the primary surround speakers be placed.. However, in my experience, this is not typical. Typically HT receiver manufacturers label the default surround outputs as "surround" L and "surround "R". This would correspond to the ones marked "side" L and "side" R on your Lexicon.

If the receiver supports additional channels of processing/amplification, they are typically marked as "surround back" for 6.1 channel receivers and "surround back L" and surround back R" for 7.1 receivers.

Sorry I've replied so late, but this may also help folks who search the topic in the future.

Enjoy,

TIC

I managed to get a Yamaha HTR-5960 7.1 system for approx. $300 bucks + ship (though the site where I got the price no longer sells at this price)...

Check around through one of the shopper sites and see what you can find!

Be sure whomever you go with is honest!

Good luck!

I second Deecee's recommendation. The 5960 (which is identical to the RXV-659 except it doesn't offer multi-zone operations) is the only receiver in its class that uses Brown Burr dacs, so unless you feel like you can't go with HDMI switching, it's great choice.

You should also look into the Pioneer Elite VSX-80TXV.

It includes a auto setup feature which is indispensible.

Good Luck!*>)

Ended up buying a Harman Kardon DPR2005, very happy with it.
Very nice machine, has a lot of the same design as my Lexicon DC1.