Reddit mentions of Sony STRDH520 7.1 Channel 3D AV Receiver (Black) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

Damn, This got a bit long and didn't really scratch the surface. Sorry.

Here's my setup:

Router: Linksys E3000 running dd-wrt firmware

Media Server/Nas: Re-purposed Dell Vostro 200, Celeron 420 1.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram, Win7 Pro, 6TB Storage (2TB+4TB), Shares are served with Windows SMB & haneWIN NFS Server.

House Has 3 TVs: Living Room, Bedroom, and Basement Office

Living Room: XBMC Running on a Foxconn nt-A3700, Win7, 4gb RAM, 500gb HDD. Connected via Wireless N. Bose Cinemate II Sound System (1080p HDMI, S/PDIF Coaxial)

Bedroom: Raspberry Pi running RASPBMC, Connected with Edimax EW-7811un Wireless Adapter. using NFS shares. (1080p HDMI, TV Speakers)

Basement/Home Office: An old self assembled gaming rig re-purposed as a dedicated HTPC. GeForce 9800GTx+, Sony STR-DH520 7.1 Audio System. (1080p HDMI, S/PDIF-TOSLINK)

Other Devices: WDTV Media Player non-XBMC. Would not reliably see windows SMB shares, but NFS worked well. Not in use.

Thoughts: If you're serious. At some point get a dedicated server PC of some sort. It doesn't need to be much in terms of hardware if all you intend to do is serve media files on your LAN. If you plan on converting the files as you serve them (Plex? not necessary with XBMC), then you'll need some processing power behind your server setup. Mine sits in a locked room with our surveillance DVR. No monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Ethernet plugged directly into the router for the full 1000 mbp/s.

The Foxconn nt-A3700 connected in the living room is a great little box. We bought it back in 2012, and I haven't regretted it yet. I guess a contemporary alternative would be the Intel NUC. We use a MCE IR remote to control XBMC. IR reciever connected with a usb dongle.

The best of them is the basement office HTPC. I have a PS3 Remote control connected via bluetooth for XBMC. It works seamlessly between the Sony TV and Sony Reciever. I play video games on it (Steam Big Picture with an Xbox 360 controller), surf the web, browse Reddit. ect I use a Lenovo N5902 when I need it to act like a PC.

The Raspberry Pi: It's not perfect, but I like it. It runs RASPBMC. The interface (Confluence Skin) can be a little laggy at times, but I kind of expected that from a 700mhz processor (I'm currently overclocked to 900 with heatsinks). You'll have to buy the MPEG-2 license for your board if you plan on playing files using that codec. Ours uses a MCE Remote similar to the Living room htpc but the IR reciever is connected to the GPIO Pins. It was a bit of a pain to find a good wireless adapter. I went through 3 different models before I found the Edimax. That seems to be the theme of the Pi. Yeah it works but only with certain peripherals. Mine still struggles with 3gb+ 1080p movies over wireless (Stuttering/Buffering), but it handles 2gb 720p movies with ease. This feels like more of a wifi/usb power limitation of the Pi. Hard-wired it will play those same 1080p files just fine. If you like to tinker then get it. If you don't want to fuss with it then get a bookshelf htpc like the NUC (or Foxconn nt-A3700) But you're looking at apples and oranges between a 35$ media player(100~ with accessories) and a 300$ PC

The media library is housed on two internal hard drives. 2TB and 4TB. I have windows set to email if there are any issues with the disks as I have had to replace the 4TB once in the last 4 years and nearly lost a metric fuck-ton of data. I use four folders as my shares. 'Television' on the root of that 4TB drive because it needs nearly all of it. Movies and Music on the root of the 2TB system drive. They are shared via windows built-in SMB and hanewin NFS Server. The reason I use hanewinNFS over windows SMB is that the Pi seems to perform better using NFS shares over wireless. Could be lower the overhead or just voodoo. Who Knows?
I use theRenamer to rename all media before I add it to the XBMC library. Then I scrape it using Media Companion and have it store the info on the server with the media. The reasoning behind this is that when I need to repair, rebuild, or add another XBMC client (It happens from time to time) It doesn't have to scrape 1000's of episodes and movies from the web. It's all there next to the file for XBMC to find quickly. You're welcome imdb/theTVDB.com

Hope that gives you a general idea.

Linear PCM = PS4 does the encoding/decoding of the sound.

Bitstream = receiver does it.

Linear PCM is also uncompressed sound, While Bitstream DTS will be compressed. Technically, LPCM is the best choice... But to human ears, most at least, would be unable to decern the difference between the 2.

Great receiver btw. I have basically the Sony version of that. Got me 2 JBL Home Theater floor speakers ($400 each) along with some customer speakers in the back that I put 12" Xplode Subwoofers in. Thing kicks so much I actually just removed my subwoofer from the whole setup, as I was shaking things loose off the wall.

Mine ( http://www.amazon.com/Sony-STRDH520-Channel-Receiver-Black/dp/B004NHCGJO )
Speakers ( http://www.amazon.com/JBL-S312-Floorstanding-Speaker-Speakers/dp/B00002EQBR/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top ) bought them a while ago, but they still work perfectly.

thanks for the info,

after looking into it some more I believe you are right; I initially was against the idea since it seemed it would be more expensive and a out-of-the-box set seemed the easier choice. But as I investigated more I realize about ~$100 in a lot of those setups is wasted in a blu-ray player or something I would never need.

If you have the time could you please give me your opinion on this (I am looking at 7.1 receivers so if I want to upgrade/turn it into home theater in the future).

Receiver

I am still looking for good speakers, as I feel a lot of the "bookshelf" speakers a bit big for my computer... I am looking for sound quality over volume, are there any smaller speakers that can put out as much quality as the bookshelves? even if I lose max volume output?

Thanks

Dug around and found a 3.5mm to RCA converter, so I'll use that for now until I have the cash for a receiver. Looking around Amazon I saw this
Sony and this Denon.

The Sony seems like a better choice, or am I missing something?

Well if you're still offering some help id love some!

Im currently running a Audio Technica AT-LP60 with a Sony STRDH520 receiver. I was using some old Boston Acoustic speakers but they were totally shot so im using my old Logitech/THX speakers. Just the speakers from it because the sub broke a few years ago.

Im looking to get some new speakers and could use some advice/help finding some. Im willing to buy new or used, and my budget is max 300 dollars.

Craigslist

Thanks for your help in advance!

A good receiver will probably run you about $200. Preferably, you'd want a Denon or Onkyo, but those are going to be out of your price range. Avoid Bose, Klipsch, and any of Best Buy's in-store brands. Settle with Yamaha or Sony.

If you eventually want to do 5.1/7.1, something like this or this will do you fine. Ignore extra features like HDMI ports. If you're connecting it to a computer, all you really need is 1 optical port or multi-channel RCA ports. Then, spend the rest on speakers.

Both of the units I posted can output 100w per channel, so some reasonably sized speakers are in order. You want cabinets with speakers devoted to at least high and mid-to-low range -- no dinky "full-range" speakers like Bose uses.

If you're good with power tools, make your own cabinets and save a fortune(1, 2, 3). Otherwise, these, these, or these are good entry-level speakers. DJ speakers/sound cabinets also make good, cheap speakers, but they require a lot more power to drive and usually need to be tuned for home audio. Of course, if you're the set it and forget it type, you can do away with the receiver and speaker placements and just get a sound bar (1, 2).

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions on wiring and what not. Just to note, though, I use lamp cord for most of my setups.