Seems like a great receiver, at least spec-wise. The only downside is the multi-zone. I took a long, deep dive into the owner’s manual, and I’m still confused. The owner’s manual claims that this receiver can output a video/audio signal, over HDMI, to another zone. There’s also mention of two additional audio zones - but the remote control illustration, which has Zone 2, Zone 3, and HDZone buttons, says that Zone 2 and Zone 3 buttons aren’t functional. What’s the truth???
BestBuy has the VSX-45-K for $250 in store right now.
The receiver listed here is the Pioneer VSX-1130-K, which is $600 at Best Buy.
Edit: Pretty good reviews over there, btw.
I just bought one and hooked it up (not final hookup config yet), and What i can tell you is it has 2 audio zones and 2 HDMI outputs. I donnot believe the 3rd zone to which you are referring is a third complete zone, but rather a second sub. You can probably have speaker sets A/B play the same or different. I haven’t gotten to test this out yet.
I’m planning on using both HDMI outputs to the same tv and only hookingng the speakers to zone 1, that way i can watch tv on zone 2 (silent) and listen to music on zone 1, or watch tv on zone 1 when audio is preferred.