AV Receivers with USB input

[vasishta.sushant]

I am looking for a new receiver and planning to run it in Stereo mode for a while. Later I'll add the Center Channel, the sub and then the satellites, as and when I am able to accrue some money.

Since music listening is my primary concern, I need the USB feature for sure.

Can you guys help me find out the AVRs that support USB support ?

Here is the current list:
1) Denon 1911 (40K or 30K from US)
2) Pioneer 820/920/1020/1120 (all need to be imported and priced 16.5/20/26/36 resp)



Please suggest, preferably with the price included, if you guys know something else as well.





PS: I'll try to update the first post, for the benefit of other users.
PPS: (We can skip discussions about AVR vs Stereo AMP since I am very sure that I need an AVR for the versatility)

 

[hemantwaghe]

Does this USB plays flac?
AVR esp low end sounds not great. Add to that lossy sound of MP3 and it will be GIGO!

 

[vasishta.sushant]

Sure I do understand that. But I am ready to accommodate the loss from FLAC to 320CBRs MP3s.

I just want to be freed from the hassle of changing tracks from my PC every time and want all the control in my hand, through the AVRs remote control.

Also the Polk Audio TSi 300s I've are not that great as well. I am anyway not targeting top of the line stuff. I just want my VFM factor to be bold and highlighted.

 

[venkatcr]

All Denon models from 1611 onwards support USB port. BUT, the specs very clearly say, 'Direct play for iPod and iPhone via USB'. What this means is that an external player is required. You cannot, for example, keep a set of MP3 on a hard disk and expect the AVR to play them for you.

At least that is what I understand.

Cheers

 

[vasishta.sushant]

All Denon models from 1611 onwards support USB port. BUT, the specs very clearly say, 'Direct play for iPod and iPhone via USB'. What this means is that an external player is required. You cannot, for example, keep a set of MP3 on a hard disk and expect the AVR to play them for you.

At least that is what I understand.

Cheers

1611 doesn't support USB playback.

Also 'Direct play for iPod via USB' means that the iPod can be controlled directly from the AVR menu. The USB does support the Mass storage devices and support Mp3, WMA and unprotected AAC.

 

[NetFreak]

Better to buy a media player, it would turn out to be cheaper than a higher level AVR because it has extra module for media playback.

You can train AVR's remote to control media player.

 

[spirovious]

Pioneer & some Yahaha higher models did have USB for music,not supporting flac-

Pioneer USA - VSX-1020-K - NEW! 7.1-Channel 3-D Ready A/V Receiver(MP3-320kb/WAV/WMA/Photo/keyboard)
RX-V1065 - RX - AV Receivers - Audio & Visual - Products - Yamaha United States(supports WAV/WMA/MP3)

Both models says USB for flash memory also.

New Yamaha 867 can play flac from internet & no USB support-
RX-V867 - RX - AV Receivers - Audio & Visual - Products - Yamaha United States

 

[hemantwaghe]

Why not a media player which will play flac too?
Why playing off the receiver?
Very few "installed" usb play all the formats.So Media player with digital out to receiver will be better solution.

 

[spirovious]

Even portable media/music player with better analoge out to stereo amp will do better.

 

[prasanna.kole]

hi vashista
i purchased denon 1911 just because of USB input. and for IPOD you can use IPOD Doc, which dosent consumes your usb slot. denon 1911 has something like compressed music enhancer which tried to to reproduce the original sound from compressed MP3. i am not sure since i havent checked it, but will provide update once 1911 lands. pricing is correct as indicated by you.
prasanna

 

[jatinmalhotra]

Marantz Nr1601 Supports USB playback

Supported Formats

WMA (Windows
Media Audio)
32/44.1/48 kHz 48 192 kbps .wma

MP3 (MPEG-1
Audio Layer-3)
32/44.1/48 kHz 32 320 kbps .mp3

MPEG-4 AAC 32/44.1/48 kHz 16 320 kbps .m4a

WAV 32/44.1/48 kHz 16 bit .wav

 

[yogeshtulsiani]

I believe the Harman Kardon receivers have USB. There are some models listed on the indiajbl.com website which state presence of USB port.

 

[anuragn]

You can train AVR's remote to control media player.

Depends whether the AVR's remote is willing to get trained for a particular model.

The remote of my Denon 1611 does not have Oppo-980 dvd player and Tata Sky stb in its database. So it has refused to control these two devices.

 

[NetFreak]

Some models (E.g. Yamaha) have trainable remotes. It has few models in its database, other than that you can assign arbitrary codes to buttons by pointing other remote to it.

 

[anuragn]

Some models (E.g. Yamaha) have trainable remotes. It has few models in its database, other than that you can assign arbitrary codes to buttons by pointing other remote to it.

That is called "learning" ability of an universal remote. Not all are learning types, inclduing the one that comes with Denon 1611.
But for that, I have a Sony learning remote which has become my primary remote.
But coming back to the topic, I also wanted my avr to have USB port, but felt that it is not worth paying >10K for USB. So you may consider a DVD player with USB port instead.

 

[vasishta.sushant]

Why I didn't want to use the additional components is because of the loss of Direct Play mode. Of course the DAC in a normal DVD player would not be as good as the one in the receiver and if I stream data from the USB player in the DVD player to the receiver, there will be losses.

Also the other hassles of configuring the remotes, need of multiple power sockets, managing two devices; kind of make me move away from such setup.

But all my plans are anyway getting shattered. Ebay Global buy prices have increased like anything The prices have changed from 16K to nearly 20K for Pioneer 820. The denon 1911 is not available for 32.5K. It was available for odd 27K yesterday.

Now I can't buy the Denon 1911 from there and here in India it costs like 40K (with free Ipod Dock, though).

I guess I screwed up.

 

[vinshar]

Pioneer AVRs are capable to play music directly from USB but you will not be able to play flac files. I am playing music files from directly from AVR and my Marantz CD 6003.

 

[vasishta.sushant]

Marantz are good but I wanted something that could do HD audio decoding as well. The marantz models I've seen with USB are wither too costly or are incapable of decoding DTS Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD signals.

 

[NetFreak]

DAC in a normal DVD player would not be as good as the one in the receiver and if I stream data from the USB player in the DVD player to the receiver, there will be losses.

If you you HDMI, DAC should not be involved at all. Music would remain digital and streamed to AVR. AVR will do D to A conversion.

 

[vasishta.sushant]

^^^
Thats a very good point fella. I really appreciate that. Don't know how I missed that. The only point now left is the on screen display of track name and other information.