Best AV-Receiver for OpenHAB

Hello,

I am looking for a new AV-Reciever which should be controlled exclusively with openHAB.
First I thought of the Onkyo AV-Receiver TX-NR696 but the Onkyo Binding doesn’t seem to be up to date (https://www.openhab.org/addons/bindings/onkyo/).
Which AV-Receiver do you use?
Which would you recommend (Price category about 500€)?

Thank you for your help!

You probably won’t get a decent answer because (almost) noone buys HW because it’s compatible with one HA system or another, any audiophile even less so.
So noone has a comparison to share but eventually only a story about compatibility with ‘his’ receiver.
That being said, I have a Pioneer VSX-930 which is decent as an AVR (4K and Atmos!) but not fully supported. It sorta works in the generic fallback mode but the pioneeravr binding needs an update with their latest models.
I already thought about patching the binding myself and even started work on that (at first sight it’s it just needs to know about the new name strings) but I don’t have enough time to invest ATM.

For my 1c, I’ve been a sound engineer for many years, before focusing on my current career.

I always liked Denon Pro equipment, so naturally I gave the Denon AVR-X range a try.

I’ve got the AVR-X 4400H, without any thought to linking it to openHAB2.

However, the Denon Marrantz binding is really rather good.

I don’t think I can select the surround mode from the binding (but it definitely reads the value).

When I’m next in that room, I’ll try to do more with the binding controls, rather than the IR handset.

Is there something in particular that you want to do with your new amp that I could try for you?

(Suddenly I find myself with more time on my hands, so welcome something to do)

:smiley:

I have a Pioneer VSX-932. There is a binding, but it sucks big time… Doesnt support my model…
My Pioneer also have build in chromecast. But this as well sucks… For god know what reason, this chomecast adresse for the receiver seems to change every 2.3 month… No reason why the chomecast binding cant seem to find it, (or discover it at a new adresse)… I have yet to understand how this is even possible.

So I can not recommend this receiver at all… It does a great job as an receiver though, great sound and support for full 4K as well.

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I’m using a Yamaha RX-V575, but as I bought it in 2014, I doubt that this particular device is available anymore. Nevertheless, I’m happy with my Yamaha :wink:

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At the moment I already own a Denon X4000. The binding is very good, but I have huge problems with the hardware. The reciever randomly shuts itself down and the power LED flashs. The documentation says, this happens when it is overheated, but it even happens when I “cold”-start the reciever. So I am not shure to buy a Denon again.

Anyway, thanks for your review.

A different beast from the AVR-X, but I totally understand your opinion.

Once bitten and all that

Curiously, my Acer Aspire laptop does something every year or so (depending on usage and more importantly, where I’ve used it over that year)

It gets hot very quickly, then shuts down.

When I realise / remember, I have to strip down the cooling system for the CPU and give the heat exchanger a good clean.

Maybe you’re suffering something similar?

I got an Onkyo TX-NR686 about a year ago. Connected to OpenHAB, but have not done much with it besides power on in the morning when entering kitchen…

I’ve recently build a Denon AVR X2600H and I’m very glad for my decision. But I don’t really use the heos binding (which is working). Most of the time it is controlled via Spotify binding which is working fine.
My 4 year old uses rfid smartcards, an Esp32 rfid reader, MQTT and Openhab rules to play Spotify play lists (fireman Sam, paw patrol…)

One thing that sucks is the missing functionality of the heos binding to switch of the receiver. But the standby of 15 minutes works fine.

Hi

That’s a really nice idea you’ve put together there.

The Denon binding should take care of that for you.

Thankfully PaperUI takes care of the setup so that I didn’t have to mess around with text files.

Thank you for the hint!

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I have the Sony STRDN1080 and like it.
The Sony binding supports perfectly…

Also a Denon user, I really love my X3400H, it is a great product. The binding also works without problems.
I also use HEOS speakers (with the AVR also) which is also perfect…

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Well, I did. I had no AVR and was looking into the same price range. While I already had great speakers, I was just looking for a solid receiver.

I have a Pioneer VSX-830 (no built-in chromecast but instead a connected chromecast audio and chromecast video). Somehow the integrated chomecast devices don’t work exactly like the “real” chromecasts.

My VSX-830 was not supported but the maintainer and me updated the compatibility list a few months ago. The protocol mostly doesn’t change so it’s only a matter of updating the list of supported devices.

I even was able to add new functionality from the awesomely documented AVR into the binding. I am really easily overwhelmed by Java programming but the binding is well-structured and the maintainer was very helpful. Thanks to the binding I now have extended the relatively cheap AVR with features, only the bigger brothers have. (I read out the audio format and switch the listening mode / speaker setup configuration from Dolby Pro Logic 2 to real 5.1 and vice versa).

I can wholeheartedly recommend both the hardware and the binding.

Is this the Pioneer binding you´re talking about?

Oh that’s news. I was under the impression that he had given up on updating.
Can you get me in touch with him again to have him update the binding with the latest model strings?
I have already compiled the list of 2016-2020 models that are missing.

Yes the HW is great, too. I bought it for the sake of Atmos and love that stuff.

Unfortunately, I am not in direct contact with him and only was for the time when we worked on https://github.com/openhab/openhab-addons/commit/21899513d0b72c287f5ab594f4299eae94a7b172

J-N-K commited the changes for me and Hilbrandt did the review. Not sure, who or even IF there is an active maintainer for the binding anymore, but maintaining it seems pretty doable. Maybe I can help you out if you create a GitHub Issue and private-message me here.

Tried it once… had nothing but problems with my VSX-932… Turned out it wasn´t supported by the binding.

Great.
I just opened https://github.com/openhab/openhab-addons/issues/7315, please see what you can do.