It is with a heavy heart I announce the I'm-95-percent-sure death of my beloved Pioneer receiver, which has served me well for nine years.

The only thing I haven't done is check the connections on the back and to see if it's a fuse than can be replaced, but the fact that it powers itself off when I turn it on tells me it's kaputnik.

In lieu of flowers, please recommend a new receiver (preferably wireless) to me, as I will most likely be shopping for a new one this week.

Check out all the latest and greatest at http://www.crutchfield.com

Upon further inspection, it may be just a sound issue. Last week the electricity was wonky in my building and I think it's possible that something got shorted out. If it's as easy as replacing a fuse, great.

If not, I'll be receiver shopping this week.

And thanks for the link, John.

Also check Amazon. I'm receiver shopping too, for a new 3D TV/Blu-Ray setup, and I've found they've almost always beaten Crutchfield's prices. On the TV I just ordered, they were between $400 and $600 cheaper than Crutchfield. Plus there's free shipping and no tax to most states (though Crutchfield might be the same there, not sure). Delivery and tax alone saved me over $200 from local stores.

yeah, Crutchfield is a great site to browse items but they don't have the best prices. You get a good overview of whats available and the model #'s though.

What to look for in a new reciever is HDMI and USB abilities. The reciever is the guts of a top HT system and it needs to have enough power and inputs to be at least a bit future proof.

My receiver died last month. The HDMI output turned into a garbled signal and the zone 2 stopped working. Other than that it still works fine for music but I need it for A/V.

The one that I found to replace it is the Denon AVR-1912. It has all the features I need plus it does internet radio. I can have the TV playing a movie in 5.1 in the living room and listen to Pandora streaming radio out on the patio at the same time. I got it a few weeks ago and so far I'm loving it.

John G knows way more about this stuff than I, but it seems that HDMI 1.4 is what to look for now, they say.

I had a Pioneer receiver for what seemed like a very long time. I'm not sure of the years I had it but I still have the speakers- CS-G401W -which probably need replaced when I can afford new speakers (or stop buying cds long enough to buy new speakers).

There wasn't any Pioneer product in town when the old receiver died, so I picked up a Denon AVR 1600. I enjoyed it so much I added a Denon cassette player/recorder and turntable. Guess I should look for some Denon speakers next.

I'm a big fan of Denon. Have my third one right now. Even though its a few years old now, its still current because it has HDMI. So I can hook it up to my PS3 and enjoy Blu-ray HD sound.

Let's not do anything rash, now!

It appears that a check and adjustment of the speaker wires has corrected the problem. The receiver does work, but the display is shorted out. It comes on if I use the remote, but then goes off a few seconds later.

Sound on the Blu-ray is intermittent sometimes depending on the disc used. I'm wondering now if it has something to do with the firmware upgrade I performed last month.

But for the time being, my receiver is off the critical list.

Glad to hear!

Rick A.