Cheap, low power, small dimensions, non-black modern AVR, in Europe?

[Pinkynator]

I'm going to ask here, don't want to pollute any specialized subforums.

I would like to set up a 3.0 (maybe one day a 3.1) living room system for IPTV, Xbox and Switch (those gaming things are important; need a modern AVR), one day a video streamer when the kid becomes more interested in movies. Don't see myself ever adding surround channels, but the center channel is important because we're all over the couches to the left and right, and I want central to be pinned to where it should be; no phantoms.

The "fi" from "HiFi" totally unimportant. Room correction... I don't think I'd be doing that.

Will not be played loud.

Almost certainly will not be playing music at all, and if it does, nowhere near anything requiring fidelity, more of a "background noise" thing.

Here's the fun part: we have an Ikea Besta and it's too shallow for basically all AVRs. The available depth in a Besta is around 37 cm, which is around 14.5". About the only thing that can fit inside is a Denon 1800. Can't have it poking outside because it has to be behind a glass door. Not a fan of cutting the entire back side either; I'd rather have it as closed as possible and put an exhaust fan if needed (ample room around the glass door for air to get sucked in), though I'd still prefer as low of a power consumption as possible.

Here's the even more fun part: we don't do any black in the living room and the TV being a glob of black is a problem as it is So I would like the damn thing to be white or silver, which excludes the Denon 1800 (no, the Marantz 70s does not fit; strangely enough, the 60 *would* fit). The speakers, which are still undecided on, will also just have to be white.

All of this combined points me towards the JBL MA510: https://global.jbl.com/home-electronics/MA510.html

... except that it's not really white, only the front is.

What are my options? What am I missing and what should I consider? Not much on the local market, but being in the EU I can order from abroad if needed.

 

[respice finem]

Maybe this? It's an AV preamp, to be paired with either amps or active speakers.

https://www.nubert.de/nuxinema-preav/a041937

If you are thinking of any kind of surround, better look at room correction (this one has it included), because otherwise you get chaotic delays.

 

[staticV3]

Onkyo TX-SR494
Block Elements 5.1
Marantz Cinema 60
Pioneer VSX-935
Marantz SR5015

 

[Pinkynator]

The living room design is such that any back channels are basically impossible, there's a huge glass area opposing the TV, but not symmetrical, so there's no room for rear left (and I'm not going to use stands due to child & pets). That leaves a 3.0 and maybe eventually a 3.1 setup if I find a small white subwoofer. Therefore no need to do any room correction.

Preamp still requires amp*s* (plural) and that gets me nowhere. I need a small all-in-one box that deals with the current and next console generation, doesn't heat up much, is not black.

I'm naturally biased due to my obviously crazy (?) demands, but I'm convinced there just has to be a huge market for small modern class D AVRs that do away with analog video/audio inputs, analog video outputs, multiple zones, preouts; all the things that just collect dust because they will never have anything attached to them.

Let's see the list...

Onkyo: no longer available, doesn't have relevant game console things such as VRR, HDR+, ALLM, QFT...
Block Elements: available, but same as above
Cinema 60: would work I guess but the price premium, ugh... (forgot to mention that it also blew up in price by more a third in half a year! 1200€ now)
Pioneer: too deep
Marantz: no longer available (also, didn't those ones have a HDMI bug or something so they were recalled?)

Not easy

 

[respice finem]

Preamp still requires amp*s* (plural) and that gets me nowhere...

Not easy

Not easy, but you might consider active speakers with an AV preamp. They have their own amps, and some have auto shutoff when not in use. Very convenient and cost effective for small setups IMHO. Just as an example - tested here at ASR:

Adam T5V Review (Studio Monitor)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Adam T5V Powered Speaker. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The T5V costs US $200 each. Much like the rest of Adam speakers, the T5V has a serious look to it: Back panel shows good connectivity and usual...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Add an active sub and a center and you're good to go, as modern as it gets (at least at a budget).
Just because they're called studio monitors, doesn't mean they can't be used elsewhere. You can even get three and use one as a center.

 

[Pinkynator]

That could be an option. I haven't looked at the speakers yet (have to first start with finding amplification), but those small white KEF Q series seem to be quite nice and not very expensive.

That Adam is nice. But it's black.

 

[popej]

The living room design is such that any back channels are basically impossible

You still can use height speakers on front wall, like 3.1.2 setup.

 

[staticV3]

That could be an option. I haven't looked at the speakers yet (have to first start with finding amplification), but those small white KEF Q series seem to be quite nice and not very expensive.

That Adam is nice. But it's black.

Plenty of good, inexpensive monitors come in white, so that's not a problem.

E.g:
Kali LP-6v2
Kali LP-UNF
Adam D3V
Kanto ORA
Kanto ORA4
iLoud Micro Monitor
iLoud Micro Monitor Pro
iLoud MTM
iLoud MTM MKII


The bigger issue will be to find an inexpensive, non-black, active center with good horizontal directivity.
Would need to be a 3-way or 2-wax coax, so perhaps the KEF LSX II LT? But that's only sold in pairs and does not have Analog input.

 

[vddobrev]

Check out Anthem MRX Slim - https://www.anthemav.com/mrx-slm-4k
It is black in color, but it can be hidden completely behind the TV.

 

[Pinkynator]

Yeah, erm, really not going to drop 2k€ on a receiver for a 3.0 setup That's enough money to buy a pair of Q Concerto Meta + Q6 center, for example... And that one would go VERY far musically, far far more than I require, which is "decent TV and gaming". The WAF would be enormous, however...

 

[staticV3]

Cheap
Compact
HDMI 2.1
Non-black
Surround

This honestly screams for a Soundbar.

Plenty around nowadays with good engineering and wireless Sub/Satellite support (check rtings.com).

Trying to shoehorn those requirements into a traditional AVR/HT form factor is a fool's errand.

 

[Pinkynator]

Maybe, but that's probably because the AVR/HT thing is TRADITIONAL, like you said

I spent more than a couple of hours researching today, and it looks like JBL is more or less the only one trying to do something actually modern. Everyone else just sticks to old things, with some internal designs literally going back fifty years. That's not bad... but it's also not good. If WiiM are smart, they are going to make their own AVR. How many people here on ASR are now running various small D amps and perfect DACs instead of big ol' TRADITIONAL amplifiers with their TRADITIONAL form factors?

I don't want a soundbar. But I also don't want to spend 4k€ on a system. 2k would be nice for a 3.0 setup.

Internet car analogy time! "I want a car, nothing fancy or too expensive, it will mostly be driven by one person to work and back, but once a year it will do the highway for a trip and then it needs some luggage capacity and not choke while climbing up a hill" - and the soundbar is equivalent of "you know what, buy an e-bike, some may allow you to attach a trailer to it, just make sure to travel when it's not raining"

 

[Mnyb]

Cheap
Compact
HDMI 2.1
Non-black
Surround

This honestly screams for a Soundbar.

Plenty around nowadays with good engineering and wireless Sub/Surround support (check rtings.com).

Trying to shoehorn those requirements into a traditional AVR/HT form factor is a fool's errand.

Soundbar or active stereo speakers with eARC ? like KEF LSX they peobably work fine whíthout a center due to the coaxial driver ?

 

[Pinkynator]

Really need a center, we have three couches. Temporarily tried my amp + 2 speakers and it was bad... Phantom center just does not work unless you're on the middle couch in front of the TV (which is usually taken by child and/or pet).

Those Q Concerto and Q6 are starting to look more and more tempting, I got the bug, it's itching :|

 

[Berwhale]

Canton Smart Amp 5.1 S2 would have fit the bill sizewise, but i'm not sure it's still available (and it's black!)...

Smart Amp 5.1 S2 | Black | 04154

The Smart Amp 5.1 S2 is a streaming amplifier and AV receiver with Dolby Atmos technology from the Canton Smart series. It bridges the passive speaker world with the wireless Smart world, combining up to six wired passive speakers — two speaker pairs, on…

www.canton.de

It's tiny compared to a standard form factor AVR...

Picture grabed from:

 

[Tonedeaf]

I'm going to ask here, don't want to pollute any specialized subforums.

I would like to set up a 3.0 (maybe one day a 3.1) living room system for IPTV, Xbox and Switch (those gaming things are important; need a modern AVR), one day a video streamer when the kid becomes more interested in movies. Don't see myself ever adding surround channels, but the center channel is important because we're all over the couches to the left and right, and I want central to be pinned to where it should be; no phantoms.

The "fi" from "HiFi" totally unimportant. Room correction... I don't think I'd be doing that.

Will not be played loud.

Almost certainly will not be playing music at all, and if it does, nowhere near anything requiring fidelity, more of a "background noise" thing.

Here's the fun part: we have an Ikea Besta and it's too shallow for basically all AVRs. The available depth in a Besta is around 37 cm, which is around 14.5". About the only thing that can fit inside is a Denon 1800. Can't have it poking outside because it has to be behind a glass door. Not a fan of cutting the entire back side either; I'd rather have it as closed as possible and put an exhaust fan if needed (ample room around the glass door for air to get sucked in), though I'd still prefer as low of a power consumption as possible.

Here's the even more fun part: we don't do any black in the living room and the TV being a glob of black is a problem as it is So I would like the damn thing to be white or silver, which excludes the Denon 1800 (no, the Marantz 70s does not fit; strangely enough, the 60 *would* fit). The speakers, which are still undecided on, will also just have to be white.

All of this combined points me towards the JBL MA510: https://global.jbl.com/home-electronics/MA510.html

... except that it's not really white, only the front is.

What are my options? What am I missing and what should I consider? Not much on the local market, but being in the EU I can order from abroad if needed.

Bluesound Powernode. 3 channel AVR even available in white. Only one HDMI so other devices need to be connected to TV.

 

[Power Pop 23]

I'm going to ask here, don't want to pollute any specialized subforums.

All of this combined points me towards the JBL MA510: https://global.jbl.com/home-electronics/MA510.html

... except that it's not really white, only the front is.

What are my options? What am I missing and what should I consider? Not much on the local market, but being in the EU I can order from abroad if needed.

Consider temporarily removing the top of a JBL MA510 AVR and using a can of spray paint to change the color.

This may affect your warranty.

 

[vddobrev]

Yeah, erm, really not going to drop 2k€ on a receiver for a 3.0 setup That's enough money to buy a pair of Q Concerto Meta + Q6 center, for example... And that one would go VERY far musically, far far more than I require, which is "decent TV and gaming". The WAF would be enormous, however...

I am confused. You say 2k is too much for a receiver in this post, but a couple of posts below you say 4K is too much but 2k is fine... something like "thanks for the suggestion, it is out of my budget" speaks a lot more in my opinion... good luck with your choices!

 

[Oddball]

3.0 is a a range for a soundbar or a good TV. So no need to spend any big money on the "upgrade'.

 

[Ultrasonic]

Onkyo: no longer available, doesn't have relevant game console things such as VRR, HDR+, ALLM, QFT...

If you connect your console direct to your TV you don't need to worry about any of that. Then you use an eARC connection between TV and AVR just for audio. This is what I do, with both a PS5 and a gaming laptop. This connection route also minimises latency.