Marginally compact A/V receiver hunt..

[Verdanice]

I picked up an IKEA home theatre unit for my new TV over the summer (this one). Now, IKEA's never really let me down before, and this was a cheap piece of furniture, but I moved to put my receiver in with my TV/PS3/Apple TV earlier only to find that it's ~2cm too tall for that bottom shelf. Upon further investigation, all home theatre receivers are at least 15cm in height, when this bloody shelf is about 14.7cm. Ridiculous.

Short of buying a new shelf (since my receiver does not do HDMI and I need to replace it soon with one that does anyways), I'm searching for a new receiver that is 14cm in height, maximum - preferably shorter to allow for proper air circulation. Every single unit I've encountered over the past few days has been 15 or above. I'm not terribly picky about the specs of the receiver. I require 3 (4 would be good) HDMI inputs and a remote, if it's programmable, fantastic.

EDIT (thanks swirlybee): Looking for sub-$500 here, but really the level of sophistication I'm looking for should be no more than ~$350-400.

Any tips would be awesome, I know this is a really obscure request but if you know of something smaller, let me know!

 

[swirlybee]

You didn't mention your budget but here's one that's 10.5cm tall with 4 HDMI slots.

I was looking at the Lack stand too but it wasn't big enough for my needs.

 

[Verdanice]

You didn't mention your budget but here's one that's 10.5cm tall with 4 HDMI slots.

I was looking at the Lack stand too but it wasn't big enough for my needs.

Ah, edited the original post with a range, totally forgot about that. $3-500 is ideal, obviously preferably on the lower end - I don't need any serious technology in here, certainly not 3D capability or anything.

That looks like a decent one, actually. If I order something online it needs to be able to ship to Canada for a reasonable cost, that one's USA-only - I'll check locally for that one though. Thanks!

 

[winterlocked]

I've got the exact Marantz receiver that you're looking at and can recommend it in a heartbeat. It's outstanding for both audio and video.

I've got it hooked up to send video from my Apple TV (gen 1) and Xbox 360 to an LCD tv, and to run my Paradigm Atoms with a PDR-8 sub. Don't let the power rating (50 watt/channel) worry you. Marantz is conservative in their ratings, and this unit is really efficient - it puts out lots enough *clean* power to shake my walls.

I've got a low profile A/V cabinet too, and this was the perfect unit for it - it's only barely taller than the xbox, actually.

I live in Canada too, and picked it up locally for about 50 bucks more than it's listed for stateside, but they've gone down to half their original price after the introduction of the 1601.

This knocks everything else out of the park, but good luck with your search - post back with whatever you end up getting.

 

[Verdanice]

You didn't mention your budget but here's one that's 10.5cm tall with 4 HDMI slots.

I was looking at the Lack stand too but it wasn't big enough for my needs.

I've got the exact Marantz receiver that you're looking at and can recommend it in a heartbeat. It's outstanding for both audio and video.

I've got it hooked up to send video from my Apple TV (gen 1) and Xbox 360 to an LCD tv, and to run my Paradigm Atoms with a PDR-8 sub. Don't let the power rating (50 watt/channel) worry you. Marantz is conservative in their ratings, and this unit is really efficient - it puts out lots enough *clean* power to shake my walls.

I've got a low profile A/V cabinet too, and this was the perfect unit for it - it's only barely taller than the xbox, actually.

I live in Canada too, and picked it up locally for about 50 bucks more than it's listed for stateside, but they've gone down to half their original price after the introduction of the 1601.

This knocks everything else out of the park, but good luck with your search - post back with whatever you end up getting.

Thanks, good to hear from a first-hand user. I just sent the money out an hour ago to have one sent over from a few hours away, should have it by Friday, I'll post back!

 

[Verdanice]

Got the Marantz and set it up today, the thing lives up to my expectations and then some - sounds and looks fantastic, and the unit itself is perfect for the space and is nice and discreet. Recommended. Thanks for the input!

 

[winterlocked]

Glad it worked out. A nice feature on it is being able to rename and reassign inputs. You can mix and match audio and video from different inputs too if you need it.

Two last bits of advice: if you haven't already been there, monoprice.com is an A/V nerd's best friend. You'll be able to get all the connection cables you need (HDMI, speaker wire, RCA, mini-toslink, banana plugs) for less than a single HDMI cable at a big box store.

Also, try and find a Logitech Harmony 500 series remote online if you can - newegg had them refurbished for less than half price for a while - it's a nice way to cut down the clutter and have a single, simple remote for everything.

What sort of speakers are you running?

 

[Verdanice]

Glad it worked out. A nice feature on it is being able to rename and reassign inputs. You can mix and match audio and video from different inputs too if you need it.

Two last bits of advice: if you haven't already been there, monoprice.com is an A/V nerd's best friend. You'll be able to get all the connection cables you need (HDMI, speaker wire, RCA, mini-toslink, banana plugs) for less than a single HDMI cable at a big box store.

Also, try and find a Logitech Harmony 500 series remote online if you can - newegg had them refurbished for less than half price for a while - it's a nice way to cut down the clutter and have a single, simple remote for everything.

What sort of speakers are you running?

Yea, it's a beautiful unit.. already renamed all of my inputs and managed everything via HDMI. =D

I use monoprice often, the only issue with them is that often their cables are MASSIVE - I have a 3.5mm stereo to left/right that I would easily trust with my life hanging off a cliff by it. Unusable. Overall though, for the merchandise that isn't oversized, it's amazing.

I actually have my remotes down to two - three if you include my iPhone, which I use for the Apple TV. It has to remain at 2, though, because the second is the Bluetooth remote for the PS3, which I use to view locally stored video files (a few TB worth) and NetFlix. The Marantz remote can power my TV on/off, and all together it's near perfect.

Thanks again for the recommendation, totally worked out!