Okay im going to be replacing my Onkyo A/V receiver its about 5 years old and its time to replace.  Im will be replacing it with newer Onkyo.  These are the two im considering.

Onkyo TX-NR828

Onkyo TX-NR727

Only big difference I see is the watts per channel.  Opinions or suggestions?

What are your speakers? Do you use pre-amps?

I have JBL's Northridge Series all the way around, 2 large floor, 2 rears, center and a powered sub.  Only running 5.1 right now but when I update my speakers I will be gong 7.2.  No Preamp.

Here's the thing... Onkyo make absolutely wonderful receivers. Unless you're going to run sound super loud, amounts of wattage doesn't matter so much. You will get great sound either way. I have a Harmon Kardon and love it. I have powered front mains though. Newegg have some sweet Kilpsch towers on sale.

Haha that's not very helpful. Crawl back there and get the model numbers.

Really,  if the RMS is over 125w, go with the beefier one.

Gotta ask: do you still have the factory jumper plates (if any) on your speakers? Most companies still use copper,  and replacing them with a smal loop of wire -  even copper -  makes a surprisingly great difference.  I paid almost a grand for each of my fronts,  but their jumpers were of the cheapest quality.

I have had Kilpsch, very nice speakers.  Prior to my Onkyo receiver I had a Pioneer.  The Pioneer had more watts but would distort at loud sounds once I got the Onkyo never had the problem.  Always clear as a bell.

JBL ND310, 3-way dual 10" floor, 250 watts max.

JBL N26, 2-way 6" bookshelf, 125 watts max.

JBL N-Center, 2-way dual 5' center, 150 watts max.

Not sure on the sub I will have to check when I get home.

Finding detailed specs on those was more difficult that I expected. I kept find that the and and peak was 250w, but the peak never went over 250w. So i'll go ahead and assume the RMS is no higher than 150w. That said, the NR827 will do jsut fine, but the NR828 will give a slightly more full sound, but has the potential to kill  your speakers.

I'm not sure how much of an audio snob you may be, or how your setup is arranged and the environment but I'd take that price difference and build a few acoustic panels. All that said, if you think you'd be getting larger speaks in the near-ish future, you may wasn't to go with the NR828.

Nice choices, by the way. I ended up with a Yamaha, but an Onkyo was my second choice.  One thing i still find amazing (along with the jumper thing) is that few manufacturers still put their speakerwire posts in the middle or top of the I/O panel. Putting them right along the bottom really seems to be the best thing to do, but it's relatively rare.

The room acoustic adjust is nice too. My fronts are not in the exact "sweet spot" but the setup really helped for the 3 main listening areas.

This is my current receiver TX-SR604 and I think it sounds great.  I think I might go with the 727 and save the cash for some new speakers.  Since we are talking about speakers what do you guys recommend?  Fronts im looking to spend about $500 each.

I've been wating to get these Polk speakers for quite some time now. When I worked at Best Buy, we tried a pair of these... Wowza they sound good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA36V1260069

I'm always a sucker for some Cerwin Vegas too but I haven't heard any of there recent speakers. I know some sites sell em.

I had Polk RTIA7's. Pretty sure they're under $500 per. Now I have the A9's and i love them. All my HT speakers are Polk. The R7's are excelelnt for movies, but lack a bit for music. I'm sure if i tweaked my audio a bit more, id' get more music-friendly sound, but 95% of my use of movies and shows, so...

My brother in law has a pair of Klipsh RF-82's and they are sound very nice.

Really, I'd suggest you go to the AVS Forums for this stuff. it's a European site, so some models you see could be EU variants. There's also a AV Forum US counter-part, but has less activity.

PS - one thing you may want to give a shot si using the Front 'High' speakers, instead of the surround rear. They go higher and farther from centre at the front, and really add to a mor efull soundfield. Most can take some dialogue from the centre channel to make it sound like the dialogue is actually coming from the screen, and not above or below it. Of course this wont help if your centre speaker is above your television. But I tried 7.1 for a bit and preferred 5.1 + 2 Presence. Something to try out.

2 WORDS n a lota dollars harman kardon!!!!

y'all are way above my head  - I just got an 8-track for my car !