Best av amp for music

We use affiliate links and may receive a small commission on purchases. Read more about us. An audio-video AV receiver is the quarterback of your home theater. When making this list, we chose to only include receivers that have the ability to power speakers. You won't find any surround sound processors or preamps here — just full, integrated AV receivers. And to complete your speaker setup, see our article on the Best Home Theater Systems.

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Content:

• The best AV receivers in 2021
• Top 6 Best AV Receivers Under $500 On The Market In 2021 Review
• The Best AV Receivers for Most People
• Best AV Receiver for Music & Movies Reviewed
• Best AV receiver for 2021
• Turn it up with an AV reciever
• AV receivers & amplifiers
• Best AV receivers: The most complete Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and multiroom AV receivers you can buy

WATCH RELATED VIDEO: Top 5 - Best AV Receivers (2021)

The best AV receivers in 2021

Think of it as the traffic cop of your audio-video system, routing video from your sources to your display and sending audio to your speakers. Some AV receivers do much more than that—for a price. Which AV receiver is right for you depends on your needs, so we offer multiple recommendations for different situations.

The RX-V6A sounds great, features surprisingly good room correction, and checks all the right boxes in terms of features. It offers seven channels of speaker amplification and Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding , plus the ability to set up two overhead audio channels for even more immersive sound.

But it lacks some HDMI 2. The Denon AVR-SH delivers everything that most home-cinema fans want and need, but it lacks some of the latest features that may be important for gamers and 8K TV owners.

But it lacks support for other gaming-friendly HDMI 2. In fall , Denon announced a new version of this receiver that adds the latest features; see What to look forward to for more details. With better room correction, more amplified channels, and a host of advanced features, the Denon AVR-XH is a great pick for the home cinema enthusiast who wants a step-up option.

For the movie lover willing to pay more to get a higher-quality, more immersive home theater experience, we recommend the Denon AVR-XH. The 9. This receiver offers some HDMI 2. It also has an improved user interface with sharper graphics, as well as better multiroom capabilities to send AV signals around your house. But it does represent a big step up in price over our other picks.

If you want to assemble a basic 5. Over the years, he has auditioned more receivers, preamps, and amplifiers than he cares to count, and in recent years he has devoted an inordinate amount of time to learning about and testing room-correction systems of all varieties.

Some of this guide is based on the work of Wirecutter senior staff writer Chris Heinonen, who has spent hundreds of hours over the past few years testing AV receivers for previous versions of this guide. For those who want to get closest to the movie-theater experience at home, who have multiple sources to connect, and who want more flexibility in speaker selection and setup, an AV receiver is the way to go.

An AV receiver is the core of most home theater systems. It combines source switching, audio and sometimes video processing, speaker amplification, and volume control in one box. Plug your source components—your media streamer, gaming console, cable or satellite receiver, and disc player—into its inputs, then connect its outputs to your display and speakers, and an AV receiver will direct all of the AV signals to the right places and in the right formats.

Many receivers include built-in music streaming services such as Pandora, Sirius XM, Spotify Connect, and Tidal, along with the ability to connect directly to internet radio stations and local DLNA media servers.

And for those who prefer a more traditional approach, some receivers allow you to distribute audio sources and sometimes video, too to a second zone via wired connections. All of our current recommendations support 4K HDR displays and sources. Many new AV receivers also support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, newer sound formats designed to add an overhead element to the typical ear-level surround sound available for decades.

To enjoy Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound to its fullest, you need to add height speakers or buy special Atmos-enabled speakers you can read more about that topic in our guide to the best surround-sound speaker system , and you need an AV receiver that can decode these formats and provide power to more speakers. AV receivers run the price gamut from a couple hundred dollars to well into four-figure territory.

The serious audio or home theater enthusiast may choose to spend more money to get more power which may be important if your speakers are difficult to drive , more amplified channels, more setup and customization options, and better build quality.

But there are certain key specs that you should consider when you begin your receiver search:. A basic home theater configuration requires a 5.

Moving up to a 7. The more height speakers you add, the more convincing the effect—but that requires more amp channels, which leads to a more expensive AV receiver. Since the subwoofer is typically self-powered, to figure out how many amplified channels a receiver has, or how many you need, you simply add the first and third numeral. So, a 5. Your receiver needs to be able to connect all the HDMI source devices you have, which could include a cable box or DVR, a Blu-ray player, a gaming console, and a media streamer.

You should also consider how many non-HDMI-equipped sources you want to connect and make sure the receiver has enough digital or analog inputs to accept them.

If you have a turntable that lacks a phono preamp, you may want a receiver with a phono input. HDMI 2. The connector remains the same, but version 2. Other noteworthy enhancements include automatic low-latency mode which allows devices to automatically detect and switch to the best mode for gaming , eARC which allows for higher-quality lossless audio over the HDMI Audio Return Channel instead of only compressed formats , variable refresh rate, and quick media switching.

But only a few of the newest receivers support the higher bandwidth necessary for 4K Hz gaming and 8K video. Make sure to read the fine print or our discussions below to pick a receiver that supports the HDMI 2. Even folks with extensive physical music collections likely stream much of their music from the internet, so a receiver needs some way of supporting streaming audio apps like Pandora and Spotify. If you already own Wi-Fi speakers that use a certain platform such as AirPlay , you may want to look for a receiver that features the same streaming technology so that all the devices will work well together.

Room-correction systems make the biggest impact on how a receiver sounds to most listeners. People rarely have perfect listening rooms, and speakers especially subwoofers often end up in spots where they are unobtrusive instead of where they sound the best. Room correction helps to improve the overall sound quality by using microphones and built-in software to estimate how your room and speaker placement are distorting the sound and to attempt to compensate for those distortions.

Lots of receivers offer basic room correction, but when you invest in a more advanced room-correction technology such as Audyssey MultEQ XT32 or Dirac both of which are proprietary systems that can appear in various brands of AV receivers , you get the ability to customize the type of corrections and account for multiple subwoofers, and these systems do a better job of tuning the sound without making it seem dull or overly processed.

In the price ranges we tested, we were unable to tell most receivers apart in blind testing when their room correction was not enabled. We found that the type of room correction in use had the biggest impact on sound quality, providing big benefits for some receivers and only smaller improvements for others. When testing each receiver, we considered its sonic performance and its ease of setup and everyday use. Even if you have only a 5. It has plenty of inputs, including a phono input to connect a turntable, and it has seven channels of amplification, with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding to add overhead sound effects.

During our blind listening tests, we found that we were unable to tell most of these receivers apart when their room correction was disabled. The MusicCast technology allows you to wirelessly connect your surround speakers and subwoofer, but it has some limitations. It has no composite or component video inputs to connect older video sources.

Three of them boast some level of HDMI 2. Most of the HDMI 2. As of October , though, we're still waiting for these updates. Finally, we simply love the way the RX-V6A looks. The fix requires registered owners of the RX-V6A to send in their receivers for a hardware update get more info here. But they could be better.

If you use a universal remote to control your whole entertainment system, this will be less of a concern. Measuring your room from only one seating position results in noticeably less-refined room correction and more inconsistent performance from seat to seat. You might want only a 5. It has plenty of inputs, including a phono input to connect a turntable.

But perhaps most important, the guided setup makes getting your system up and running very easy. Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support, along with seven channels of amplification, lets you enjoy a more immersive audio experience than you can get from a basic 5. With an on-screen setup system that walks you through the entire process—from connecting speakers to setting up inputs to getting on Wi-Fi to running the room correction—almost anyone should be able to set up the AVR-SH correctly. You also get digital and analog audio inputs including an MM phono input , plus a couple of composite video inputs to connect older sources.

The Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room correction is appreciably better than what you can find in any of our other picks, with more adjustments and the ability to calibrate two subwoofers independently. The AVR-XH offers nine channels of amplification, so you could set up a system with five ear-level speakers, two independently measured subwoofers, and four overhead speakers. You can also reserve two of those channels for a separate stereo zone in another room.

The on-screen interface has improved graphics and easier-to-read text in comparison with its predecessor. But only one supports 4K video at Hz or 8K video at 60 Hz. Denon has introduced an HDMI adapter box that solves this problem, and owners of the AVR-XH can request the free box—but it does add another small piece of equipment to your gear rack. The PlayStation 5 is not affected by this bug.

This 5. You also get a front-panel USB port, plus three digital inputs and a pair of analog inputs around back. The receiver has Bluetooth for streaming audio, as well as basic room correction to make everything sound good. Flaws but not dealbreakers: This receiver lacks Wi-Fi and integrated music streaming options.

As a result, you have to use Bluetooth to stream music, so your phone or other source device needs to stay close to the receiver—or you can add an inexpensive Wi-Fi streaming device. None support 4K Hz or 8K signals at any refresh rate, but Anthem has designed the units to be hardware upgradable and promises a full 8K upgrade at some point down the road.

Voxx and Sharp have completed their acquisition of the Onkyo and Integra brands , and Voxx has formalized a licensing agreement with Pioneer Corp. Companies such as Denon and Yamaha offer a number of AV receivers at prices below, between, and above those we included in this guide. In selecting which specific models to recommend, we looked for the best mix of features, performance, and price, keeping in mind the needs of most people.

Sony has not introduced new receivers since Onkyo and Pioneer have been in limbo for a couple of years, so we were hesitant to review and recommend their receivers, but both are should be back soon with new models detailed above , some of which feature the superior Dirac Live room-correction system.

Chris Heinonen is a senior staff writer reporting on TVs, projectors, and sometimes audio gear at Wirecutter. He has been covering AV since for a number of online publications and is an ISF-certified video calibrator. He used to write computer software and hopes to never do that again, and he also loves to run and test gear for running guides.

Our pick. Everything we recommend. Why you should trust us. Who this is for. How to shop for an AV receiver. How many channels of speaker amplification do you need?

How many sources do you plan to connect?

Top 6 Best AV Receivers Under $500 On The Market In 2021 Review

The answer to this is very simple. Yes, if you are an avid audiophile who wants an immersive surround sound experience in your room or elsewhere. Let us give you a spiel on home theater AV Receivers which will also manifest in the upcoming list of recommendations. An Stereo AV Receiver basically is the backbone of a home theater system as it connects with your input sources like speakers, projectors etc. A typical receiver basically entails a tuner, preamp. This basically enables you to control audio across multiple speaker outputs utilizing 5.

The Best AV Receivers for Most People

Smart speakers and soundbars can pull off amazing feats of surround-sound trickery, but the best AV receivers are capable of so much more. It processes the surround-sound data, powers the speakers, and acts as a switching hub for all your AV sources: Blu-ray players, set-top-boxes, media streamers and games consoles. So which AVR is best for you? Read on and our buying guide will show you what you need to look out for and help you decide how much to spend. As you spend more, AV receivers will come equipped with more powerful amplifiers and have the ability to connect more speakers to take full advantage of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. The latest Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround-sound standards create a fully three-dimensional soundscape that allows sounds to move over and around you. Even some music is now being mixed or remastered to take advantage of this capability. This is known as a 5.

Best AV Receiver for Music & Movies Reviewed

A quality receiver can be one of the best investments you make when developing your own home theater system. When I first started planning my home theater system years ago — I did not fully understand how AV and stereo receivers differ and whether this can affect my intended system. After all, I wanted my home theater to do it all and act as the hub of all my social gatherings. This meant developing a system that supports both home theater and stereo capabilities. After looking into understanding the differences, I came up with one essential question:.

Best AV receiver for 2021

Biamp's innovative audiovisual solutions make genuine communication possible, whether across the room or around the globe. Devio is the perfect all-in-one conferencing solution for huddle rooms. The Qt Conference Room Edition sound masking system ensures private conversations stay that way. Ensure your messages are heard with powerful emergency communications and paging from Vocia. Elevate the clarity and impact of speech and music with Desono loudspeakers.

Turn it up with an AV reciever

We like to think of an AV receiver as a home entertainment hub, which will ensure you get the best possible audio and video possible from the devices you already have. With that in mind, if you want the best entertainment experience, an AV receiver is important. To get the high-end sound that truly makes the most of your 4K TV , you'll need to buy yourself an AV receiver. But wait, what really is an AV receiver? Good question. It might sound like complex audio equipment, but an AV receiver is really just a much way to better control your AV setup. AV receivers are able to take the audio track from whatever TV show , movie, CD, or video game you're watching or listening to and then process the audio and send it through to any connected speakers you have.

AV receivers & amplifiers

Home - AV Receivers. Updated: November 9, Choosing the best AV receivers is confusing.

Best AV receivers: The most complete Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and multiroom AV receivers you can buy

RELATED VIDEO: BEST AV RECEIVERS 2018 - TOP 10 BEST A/V RECEIVER 2018 - HOME THEATER

Think of it as the traffic cop of your audio-video system, routing video from your sources to your display and sending audio to your speakers. Some AV receivers do much more than that—for a price. Which AV receiver is right for you depends on your needs, so we offer multiple recommendations for different situations. The RX-V6A sounds great, features surprisingly good room correction, and checks all the right boxes in terms of features. It offers seven channels of speaker amplification and Dolby Atmos and DTS:X decoding , plus the ability to set up two overhead audio channels for even more immersive sound.

In the 80s, the home entertainment boom started. It gathered pace in the 90s and is now a fixture for personal entertainment. As with most things, technology has improved and, in some cases, brought prices down. It is a device that receives audio and video signals from a number of sources and then processes them and amplifies them before sending the signal to drive loudspeakers. Some do not contain an amplifier and just route signals to an external amp. They also route the video to displays, for example, a TV or video projector. A number of them also contain built-in radios.

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about AV receivers is probably surround sound. However, AV receivers can also be used as a replacement for an integrated stereo amplifier. In other words, they can also be used for music, not just movies.