Audioholics $750 Receiver Comparison Guide
Another good comparison guide for receivers from Audioholics. I’m mad they don’t have my favorite brand in there, Onkyo, but they don’ t have any new receivers at this price point.
There are surprising variations even among the most notable and well
established groups. While we expected Denon and Yamaha to be nearly
identical, they most certainly were not. Instead we found a number of
trade-offs and interesting features even among the lesser known brands.
Things like HD audio support can now be taken for granted at this price
point. One thing we’d like to point out is that manufacturers seem to
fall in love with their peripherals. Denon and Yamaha have been touting
their iPod and other docks since their entry level offerings. If Onkyo
was included, they’d be doing the same. Pioneer still holds a monopoly
on out of the box iPod support. While this may not be such a huge
feature for some, for most it can be. As long as the "big three"
continue to rely on external peripherals rather than integrating some
of those features, they risk losing those customers. Sure, there will
be some that don’t read the fine print and don’t realize that they need a peripheral, but that’s not how you make a life long customer.