Receivers - reviews and price comparison

(Show text about the receiver's role) When putting together a home cinema system the receiver plays a vital part. Its role is to assemble all sound signals from the DVD-player or other sources, amplify these and deliver the power to the speakers. No matter how big or small the screen size is the system needs to deliver a sound experience comparable to the large cinema lounges and their acoustics.

Apart from sound signals the receiver (Unlike an amplifier) also gathers picture signals from the DVD-player and other sources and sends them to the chosen television/screen/projector.
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Surround sound

To increase the experience when watching a movie a so called surround sound is being used. This enables the sound to come from all directions in the room.
The most common technology for surround sound on DVD is Dolby Digital. Digital Theatre System (DTS) is a competing technique which is less established and used but by some considered to give a better sound quality.
A 5.1-system uses five regular loudspeakers (left front and back, centre, right front and back) and a subwoofer (Hence the ".1").
There are further developments for each system, with even more loudspeakers. Examples of these are Dolby Digital EX 6.1 and DTS ES 6.1, these are however not yet common on DVDs.

Typical speaker configurations:

Power, impedance and speakers' sensitivity

The receiver’s output power (in Watt) effects with which volume the sound can be played on a certain speaker. However, it takes quite a big increase in power to be able to hear any difference. Something that has greater influence on the sound level is the speaker’s sensitivity (in dB). If you want to be able to play loud, buy speakers with high sensitivity.
The power here is indicated per channel, i.e. per speaker.

If you have a normally big living room (~25 m²) and normally sensitive speakers (87 dB) a receiver with 80 W per channel is enough, based on Home THX Program’s recommendation. In other cases, see list below:

Usually the power is given at an impedance of 8 ohm. If the speakers have lower impedance the receiver has to be able to provide enough electrical power to the speakers without overheating. If you have speakers with low impedance you need to look for receivers where the power is indicated at the same impedance.

Audio inputs

Usually the standard inputs on the receiver are enough for a home cinema system.

There are different kinds of inputs. Digital transfer gives you a better sound quality than analogue transfer and we recommend you to use it if it is available. It is also the digital connections that transfer the surround sound from the DVD-player to the receiver (with few exceptions).

(Difference between optical and coaxial technology) The difference in quality between digital optical and digital coaxial connections is practically non-existent. Coaxial costs less and the cables won’t break as easily. This type is also somewhat more common than the optical cables. The optical cables are less sensitive for noise, but in a normal home environment, it won’t make any difference.
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Common inputs:

Digital coaxial	Digital optical	Analogue RCA

If your audio source only has one scart connection (for example a TV) you will need an adapter to convert to RCA to be able to deliver the sound from the TV to your speakers.


Scart adapter

Check which connections are needed for the appliances you want to connect to the receiver.

Video inputs

Why do you need video inputs on a receiver? (Show answer) Video inputs are good if you want to use more than one video source and switch between them together with the audio channels.
The scart connection is the most common connection between TV and DVD, but is very unusual on receivers. S-video is more common on receivers and can almost match the scart in quality. Composite video is a video transfer with lower quality.
There are newer connections, for example component video and HDMI. If you are using an LCD/plasma screen in your home cinema system these newer types of connections are recommended. These will provide the best possible picture quality, above all HDMI.
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SCART	S-video	Composite video

Component video	HDMI

Rating/awards

On testwinner.co.uk all the different ratings given by expert testers have been translated into a percentage from 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum rating.
The average rating for a product can indicate different things. A low average rating is a warning that the product maybe won't live up the expectations created by the ads for the product. A high rating often means that the product has great features and works well. The more tests of the product the better accuracy in the average rating.

The amount of test wins/awards shows how many times the product has been named winner or been selected "Editor's Choice", "Best Buy" or received similar positive awards in tests. An award means that the product stands out from the competition in one way or another. It can be by giving value for money or by being innovative, or simply by just filling its purpose in a really good way.