Alternative to Onkyo 605 that can do 5.1 PCM?

pinkacidbootson

pinkacidbootson

pinkacidbootson

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I'm thinking of replacing my Logitech Z-5500 setup with an Onkyo 605 and some decent 5.1 speakers to go with it so I can use the HD soundtracks on my Blu-rays.
I use a PS3 as my Blu-ray player, which decodes TrueHD and DTS-MA and sends them as PCM.
My question is, would I be better saving my money and going for a cheaper amp that can only do 5.1/7.1 PCM, or do I go with the Onkyo 605/606 for future proofing?

At the moment I can only listen to 2 channel PCM, but even on my Z-5500s it sounds much better than DD.
 
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The Onkyo might have most of the bells and whistles, but that's really what it's trading on. Take that away and it's a fairly cheap AV amp, with no pre-outs, meaning that it's actually a dead end product, with no opportunity to add additional power amps.
My personal view is that an older s/h flagship AV amp makes a better buy, e.g. an old Yammy or Denon amp. Some of these cost upwards of £2k when new, and can be bought for less than the price of the 605. Nope, you don't get HDMI, but you do get better pre-amp and power amps sections meaning that it might well sound better anyway.
Also, what do you listen to the most, DVD or BD? Chances are it's still DVD, so why not make the best of that?
 
Yamaha DSPax-761

Can be had for 200 quid if you buy a copy of home cinema magazine this month and look for the advert for the big chain hifi shop.

absolute bargain at that price, has plenty of features and is ideal.

check a huge thread on the avforums
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
The Onkyo might have most of the bells and whistles, but that's really what it's trading on. Take that away and it's a fairly cheap AV amp, with no pre-outs, meaning that it's actually a dead end product, with no opportunity to add additional power amps.
My personal view is that an older s/h flagship AV amp makes a better buy, e.g. an old Yammy or Denon amp. Some of these cost upwards of £2k when new, and can be bought for less than the price of the 605. Nope, you don't get HDMI, but you do get better pre-amp and power amps sections meaning that it might well sound better anyway.
Also, what do you listen to the most, DVD or BD? Chances are it's still DVD, so why not make the best of that?
Click to expand...

The PS3 doesn't have full analog output so he needs HDMI for the HD codecs and so buying an amp without it would be a terrible decision.
 
Hedge said:
Yamaha DSPax-761

Can be had for 200 quid if you buy a copy of home cinema magazine this month and look for the advert for the big chain hifi shop.

absolute bargain at that price, has plenty of features and is ideal.

check a huge thread on the avforums
Click to expand...

Bought this amp last week and have no problem recommending it to others.
 
Hedge said:
The amp i mentioned is ideal. has hdmi etc
Click to expand...

the 605 isnt good to buy purely for HD audio alone. This is experience talking here, there's very little in it between regular DD/DTS and Hd audio on the 605. even on the 805 with matching speakers it isnt a massive difference unless your anal about that stuff. which i am, a little lol.


my point is, dont buy a 605, £400 of speakers on top and expect there to be a massive difference with the HD audio tracks because there very likely wont be. and to the end, i cant see the 761 fairing any better.
 
Well at its price, and the fact it has preouts too, you wont go wrong with the 761. Has the hdmi inputs, will accept the hd sound over LPCM... will save him £130 minimum

id then spend the money i saved on some better speakers
 
Thanks for info, post is of use to me. Will deffo look at the yamaha.

My mate has just got a Denon 1708. Was amazed it doesnt do HDMI sound!
 
Ok, the PS3 can DTS MA now but I dont have the equipment to hear it - same goes for DD HD. From what I can gather it's not worth upgrading my Sony STRDB940 unless I spend in excess of £600 or £700.

I can afford it no problem but I dont like the idea of spending that much on an amp. If I'm not going to get any improvement by spending £200 or even £400 then it sounds like I might as well not bother - but I do want HD sound though grrrr :mad:
 
The yamaha amp dosent do any hd decoding, its the source eg a ps3 that does the decoding. So as long as you have a ps3 or a hd/blue ray player with preout you can get hd audio.
 
I have an EP30 which doesnt have 5.1 output like the EP35.

I was hoping the amp would accept the audio via HDMI as multichannel bitrate audio?
 
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