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Want to get into home theater?

Want to get into home entertainment? Here's our take on the best AV receivers of this year, from simple 5.1 setups to insane Dolby Atmos surround sound monsters.


Video Receivers An audio-video (AV) receiver may be the quarterback of your home theater. It?s not just because it tells everything where to go, routing signals to different speakers and screens. It?s because a good quarterback makes the team better - and a good receiver will bring the very best from home theater speakers. The market is a crowded one, so we?ve picked out among the best AV receivers for this year for you to choose from - whatever your budget, or room size. When coming up with this list, we chose to only include receivers that have the ability to power speakers. You will not find any surround sound processors or preamps here ? just full, integrated AV receivers. And to complete your speaker setup, see our article on the very best Home Theater Systems.


What Does An AV Receiver Do?

Got multiple speakers? Thinking about a surround system? Then you need an AV receiver. We used a quarterback analogy earlier, but perhaps a better one is air-traffic control. A receiver takes all of the incoming audio and video signals, and reroutes in their mind their correct locations on the fly, sending audio out to your speakers and video from your games console (for example) to your TV. If it's a good receiver, it will sharpen and improve the signals before sending them on, which consists of converters and amplifiers to make things better.


Most of the picks on this list don't actually appear to be much. They are fairly dull, bland boxes with a bunch of controls in it, and a bewildering selection of inputs and outputs round the back. But without this box, your house theater setup is certainly going nowhere. There are several key components inside each box. There is a preamplifier and an amplifier, for handling audio signals, a couple of video inputs to work through where you can send the visuals, and a decoder to separate the two. In addition, there may be another surround sound decoder, which splices the audio into its different channels and ensures they get to the correct speaker. And incidentally, it's only functional if you have speakers to plug into it, or if you've got a complete home theater system where in fact the central component needs an upgrade. Good hunting!


You might have noticed the numbers 5.1, 7.1, and 9.2 floating around this article. What's up with that? Well, this number identifies the amount and type of speakers in the setup: the first (5, 7, 9, whatever) identifies the number of high end and mid range speakers, as the second one (the .1, sometimes .2) identifies the subwoofer, or low-end speaker. To put it simply, the more quality speakers you can find, the more rich and dynamic your sound may very well be. At the same time, you're likely to pay more the higher those numbers get.


5.1 and 7.1 are considered the standard - the basic number of channels which confirmed receiver might have. Any receiver above about $500 will almost always offer 7.2 channels, allowing for seven speakers and two subwoofers. Even cheaper models, just like the Denon AVR-S750H, include 7.2 speaker channels. A 5.1 system would include three front channels (a center speaker, designed to sit under your TV, and two bigger ones just off to the left and right), and two on either side of the listening position. A 7.1 would add two more, behind you. A 9.1 or 11.1 system is where you start adding height speakers - something only a few receivers can actually take, like the incredible Denon AVR-X8500H, that provides a massive thirteen channels. This sort of thing is usually undertaken once you have a large room, and do not mind doing some DIY to mount your speakers! Worth noting: the subwoofer channels (the .1 or .2) will require their very own power, meaning you'll work with a different connection to that from your speakers. We'll get into this in more detail below. And some receivers, like the cheaper Denon above, also permit you to expand your channel quota by adding more amps in to the mix.


To put it simply: surround sound aims to provide multi-dimensional sounds that maneuver around just as as objects would in true to life, by adding height to our aural perception. Surround systems depend on multiple speakers positioned in front of, behind, to the side and, sometimes, above your listening position. Why is surround sound possible are codecs: software code converting digital ones and zeros into an audible sound. They take the sound being sent into your AV receiver, and tell it where to go and how exactly to be reproduced. In the event that you?re not into reading tech specs, you can think of an AV receiver as a phone, and a surround sound codec being an app on that phone.


There are various, many surround sound codecs. Some are bits of legacy software, some have very specific applications, plus some are simply there because?we have no idea. Hardly anybody has ever used them. While we aren't going to break down every one (we'd be here all day, trust us) it's worth touching on several - we'll tackle six of the very most common ones. You might will never need to know what DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete is - honestly, we must look it up each time we come across it - but it's definitely worth knowing what Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are.


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Dolby Atmos is, as far as we are concerned, the best surround sound available. Where Dolby Atmos differs from conventional surround set-ups is by necessitating one, two or more extra pairs of ceiling speakers. Such elevated ?reflecting? speakers will be positioned above your existing floor-level surround speakers, allowing for sounds to go between top and bottom. If beginning with scratch, there are lots of Dolby Atmos enabled packages available to purchase, ready-in-a-box, including everything you need: AV receiver, amplification, and speakers. In the event that you?re upgrading an already existing home surround system, you'll require a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV Receiver. The biggest investment, though, will be for the additional elevated speakers - even for a minimal Dolby Atmos setup, you would need at least two ceiling speakers along with a regular surround set, or even four.


Now you?re probably thinking: really? Drilling holes in my ceiling? Fortunately, the people who make Dolby are wicked smart, and they?ve come up with an alternative solution. Instead of installing speakers in or on the ceiling, you can include speakers together with your existing towers, with drivers projecting upwards. Atmos-enabled speakers come with such drivers already built-in, and you may buy Atmos-modules that will use your existing speakers. Worth noting: These additional up-firing speakers have their own speaker terminals to make them into separate, dedicated channels. This needless to say increases the amount of amp speaker outputs needed - you may have to invest in additional amplification if you have already used up your entire amp?s available speaker connections. If you are looking for a good pair of up-firing Atmos speakers, we recommend the Klipsch RP-500SA (full review here).


Dolby Atmos have their very own method of naming their height-elevated setups, because surround sound systems weren?t confusing enough already. A 5.1.2 Atmos set-up would be just like a traditional 5.1 surround system (put simply, five speakers and a subwoofer) but with an added couple of ceiling speakers (or Atmos modules): the '2' in 5.1.2. Similarly, a 7.1.4 Atmos set will be just like a 7.1 conventional surround setup with two extra pairs of ceiling speakers or Atmos modules (hence the 4 in 7.1.4).


DTS:X is the easiest one out of the lot to integrate in a already existing 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup, and therefore it?s ideal for beginners. If you?re just getting started in surround sound, and you also already own some speakers or anticipate getting a basic setup, this can be the one to choose. DTS:X?s method of improving the listener?s experience is by ?freeing the audio content from specific speaker channels? and is purely software based - there are no physical requirements for the number of speakers or their locations when establishing the system. It?ll work with any conventional speaker setups, around 32 speakers.


With a DTS:X-enabled receiver connected, the rest of the setup is easy, really - the auto-calibration system optimizes all dialogue and sound files feeds for you. The machine?s menu also allows user-definable level adjustment, and will even boost hard-to-hear dialogue above the other sounds. Plus, older format movie and game soundtracks and also stereo music files can all be played through DTS:X - the conversion (from non-DTS:X sources) uplifts the content with an added spatial audio realism. For best results, it is recommended that you play content (Blu-ray discs or streaming Digital Media) optimized for DTS:X.


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