Page 1 of AV Receiver/Amp for £200 or less?

Does anyone know of a reasonable AV receiver/amp for up to £200? I have a Sony DVD735 which has a built in 5.1 decoder and want to use it, so a receiver/amp with 5.1 inputs would probably do. Sony`s STR-DE245 might fit the bill - looking at the Techtronics site, this only offers prologic, but has 5.1 inputs and is cheap (£125+VAT). Does anyone have experience of using this setup? Alternatively, the DE445 (£165+VAT) and DE545 (£220+VAT) are more expensive but have DTS/Dolby 5.1 decoders on board.

Any alternatives or experience with these machines gratefully appreciated!

Nick

Nick

I was thinking along exactly the same lines as you a few months ago. Ieven ordered an strde445 from empire direct. After waiting a month and then being told that sony weren`t producing them I went to richer sounds. I evetually spent alot more than £200 but I listened to a sherwood 6106 which has 60 watts per channel, 5.1 decoder and DTS. It sounded really good and only cost £199 and you can walk into the store and pick one up. It might also be worth checking www.richersounds.co.uk because a few weeks ago they had some of these as ex demo`s to sell and they were going for around £150. I suspect they might get some more at some point.

I hope this helps

Drunkstudent

Cheers, I`ll check this out. What did you end up buying?

Nick

Drunkstudent,

Took your advice and checked out Sherwood 6106 on Richer Sounds website. You are right - looks good!

Does anyone else have experience of this equipment?

Nick

I ended up buying the Sherwood 7106 for £299. It`s basically the same reciever but it has 100watts per channel instead of 60.

Drunkstudent

Cheers M8, I`ll definately check it out!

Had the same thing. A Bush 2002 DVD player with decoder built in. I went for the Pioneer 409rds reciever. Has Prologic decoder and 5.1 inputs with a generous 80wpc. It was £149.99 at the time but have seen it for £129.99 since. Check out What Hi-Fi mag and the ads. I got it from either hyperfi or superfi (i can not remember which one).

I have it set up with Mission 701s front, 70C1 centre and some of those Ariston £10 speakers from Richersounds for rears. Sound great.

I did order a sherwood ampo from richer sounds but when it came there were no 5.1 inputs, even though the spec in the mag said that did have. It was their mistake and they refunded the money including shipping costs.