New toy in the house... OnkyoTX NR-515

 
http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-NR515&class=Receiver&p=i video on site. I hope it is as good as it looks. Lots of goodies for the price poing. Streaming internet radio, Spoti*y, Pand0ra, Sirriu5/XM.. all built in. I bought a USB wireless adapter to hook to my network. I am going to use the old 5.1 speakers I have had for a while, then upgrade.
 
I have a question for those in the know... what would be a good Blu Ray player match for this? IT has mega in/out connections, plenty of HDMI connects. It is in a box in the other room... set up tomorrow or Saturday. I am going to try and hook my DVD player to it (which is now connected to the speakers and runs the sound for the TV and DVD... I will have to switch it all to this receiver).. hope it isn't too hard.The TV is a Toshiba REGZA 52" LCD. When we moved here 5 years ago we still had a smallish CRT TV, 35" I think... It somehow seems easy to get left ehind by technology as you get older. I am trying to stay up. I got Sp0tify and am going to upgrade to the 10 dllar a month plan and maybe add Sirr../XM. I have it in the car and like it... but I like Sp0tifie better, I had not checked it out. It is like buying into a MEGA album collection huh?
 
Anyway.... what BluRay player and other things I may have not thought of. Suggestions for a good 7.1 speaker system, can I add wireless stereo speakers for the outside? Do you know if there is a way I can play LPs from another room wireless through a receiver like this? I assume there is something I can plug a turntable into that will pug it into the wireless network...but I don't know.
I will research bt I thought I'd here first because I am sure some of you know a lot about this already.
 
So... thanks!!! I am excited and I am open to any and all suggestions.
 
Julien
 
 
 

Sweet. Nice unit. I have had an Onkyo TX-SR805 for a number of years now. It has served me well. The NR515 model has more features than I can count and cost considerably less than what the 805 cost me. Seems like you picked a winner.
 
For the 7.1 setup, if you have a couple spare speakers around the house, try first adding those to your 5.1 setup. The 2 extras (rears) don't have to be top of the line (although a purest would argue, and I would agree with them is money is no object). I would try things out that way if possible, then decide later if you feel the need to upgrade. My 7.1 setup is a mix of different brands. A 5.1 setup is very capable, but you might like the extra dimension of a 7.1 setup especially if you have a good room for it.
 
I am assuming the 515 has similar audio surround modes as the 805. Many movies you might watch will only have 5.1 audio, but there are listening modes in the unit that simulate 7.1 (they take certain frequencies (or something) and route it back to the rear speakers). So you can get some of the 7.1 effect without actually owning a pure 7.1 soundtrack. I would say the majority of BR movies out there are 5.1 soundtracks, but there are some with 7.1 soundtracks (e.g., War Zone: Punisher).
 
I have an Oppo BR player. Slightly more expensive than other players that can be bought almost anywhere today, but a good quality brand if you are willing to pay. But I am sure there are vary capable players out there for not much expense today. These types of electronics always come down in price. Do you have a PS3 perhaps? They play BR quite nicely.
 
Another option, which is how I view all my BR and DVD anymore is the Netgear NEO550. Takes a little more work though to setup and use than a direct BR player. I burn my videos to a hardrive and direct connect the hardrive to the NEO550 via USB, and then the NEO550 to the Onkyo AVR. I have a collection of movies/concerts on hardrives (and an MP3 collection). If you consider an option like this, note that Netgear is no longer supporting the NEO550. There are other brands out there also. I just mention this as a playback option.
 
Have fun.