Changed my mind yet again. PLease help me make a decision!

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 10:06

I was all set on getting the Sony STR-DG820 as it seemed fine for what I needed. But now the lack of analogue 5.1 input and the abilty to upscale have put me off due to me deciding that I want a HTPC at the heart of my cinema room.

So the search continues... and I have decided I'm going to up the budget.

Been looking at:

Yamaha DSP-AX763
Onkyo TX-SR606
Onkyo TX-SR706
SONY STRDA2400ES
Denon AVR1909

The Onkyo's look the best on paper but I understand the 606 is getting on a bit now? they do however have the most HDMI inputs..

Is anyone running the above amps?

Thanks

easyrider

[DOD]Asprilla · 4 Dec 2008 at 10:13

I wouldn't let the lack of upscaling put you off.

Unless you are feeding some no-name market brand screen then your TV should do a better job of upscaling than the receiver could.

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 10:43

[DOD]Asprilla;13021397 said:
I wouldn't let the lack of upscaling put you off.

Unless you are feeding some no-name market brand screen then your TV should do a better job of upscaling than the receiver could.

I would like the option for use with a projector.

whitecrook · 4 Dec 2008 at 11:19

I thought I needed 5.1 input for my PC, but in the end I found using the digital in worked better. Although I guess you could ave much finer control over the ouput unless you had a board with DD encodig - i think the nforce boards do that.

[DOD]Asprilla · 4 Dec 2008 at 12:24

easyrider said:
I would like the option for use with a projector.

Same logic applies though, doesn't it?

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 12:27

[DOD]Asprilla;13022155 said:
Same logic applies though, doesn't it?

Not sure.

If I have a Hi def projector in the future and want to watch a DVD upscaled to 1080p then I need the upscaling option at amp level.

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 12:28

whitecrook said:
I thought I needed 5.1 input for my PC, but in the end I found using the digital in worked better. Although I guess you could ave much finer control over the ouput unless you had a board with DD encodig - i think the nforce boards do that.

Is the digital in ok for HD audio?

[DOD]Asprilla · 4 Dec 2008 at 12:36

easyrider said:
Not sure.

If I have a Hi def projector in the future and want to watch a DVD upscaled to 1080p then I need the upscaling option at amp level.

Don't think you do. The projector is perfectly capable of upscaling the image on it's own. I'd generally back the video kit to do a better job of upscaling the video than the audio kit (of course you could get a top end dedicated scaler).

There are some threads on AV forums discussing which upscaling DVD player to go with panasonic projectors and the outcome for most is that you don't need one.

easyrider said:
Is the digital in ok for HD audio?

No, the optical doesn't carry enough bandwidth. You'd need to use analogue or HDMI.

whitecrook · 4 Dec 2008 at 13:05

[DOD]Asprilla;13022244 said:
No, the optical doesn't carry enough bandwidth. You'd need to use analogue or HDMI.

I've had a quick read about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

HD audio is high sample rate audio, uncompressed, and potentialy up to 8 channels?

If the OP is looking at using a 5.1 amp with discrete analogue ins, surely HD audio is irrelevent and therefore for the OP's needs optical/coax digital would be suitable?

[DOD]Asprilla · 4 Dec 2008 at 13:20

whitecrook said:
HD audio is high sample rate audio, uncompressed, and potentialy up to 8 channels?

If the OP is looking at using a 5.1 amp with discrete analogue ins, surely HD audio is irrelevent and therefore for the OP's needs optical/coax digital would be suitable?

Probably. My personal opinion is that a lot of people are investing in HD Audio when they are probably not going to benefit from it.

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 13:33

whitecrook said:
I've had a quick read about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

HD audio is high sample rate audio, uncompressed, and potentialy up to 8 channels?

If the OP is looking at using a 5.1 amp with discrete analogue ins, surely HD audio is irrelevent and therefore for the OP's needs optical/coax digital would be suitable?

I would like to have the option of both.

I want to connect a PS3 too for the odd bluray disk.

wolvers · 4 Dec 2008 at 14:14

whitecrook said:
I've had a quick read about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

HD audio is high sample rate audio, uncompressed, and potentialy up to 8 channels?

If the OP is looking at using a 5.1 amp with discrete analogue ins, surely HD audio is irrelevent and therefore for the OP's needs optical/coax digital would be suitable?

It's more about the quality of the sound than the amount of channels.

easyrider said:
and the abilty to upscale have put me off due to me deciding that I want a HTPC at the heart of my cinema room.

Why on earth would you need upscaling in the amp with a HTPC and PJ that are both capable of this, and most likely to a higher quality?!

easyrider said:
But now the lack of analogue 5.1 input

You'll only need analogues in if the amp can't decode bitstreamed HD tracks so the player/htpc does it and sends it out as analogues. You'd need an Asus HDAV (deluxe for analogues) or stand alone player to get hd audio anyway.

Have a look at this;
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17931333

What's the spec of the HTPC going to be, I saw your thread about graphics cards?

marscay · 4 Dec 2008 at 14:25

Easyrider said:
If I have a Hi def projector in the future and want to watch a DVD upscaled to 1080p then I need the upscaling option at amp level.

your HTPC or a decent DVD player will do a much better job of scaling than a midrange AV amp could ever hope to achieve.

Easyrider said:
I want to connect a PS3 too for the odd bluray disk

your PS3 can send decoded HD audio through LPCM over HDMI, you don't need 5.1 analog inputs.

Grimley · 4 Dec 2008 at 14:46

Out of that lot I'd go for the Denon, being a Denon owner myself now I upgraded a few weeks ago.

wolvers · 4 Dec 2008 at 14:54

I'd probably be drawn to the Denon too.

Easy hasn't said if he has speakers though.

HummuH1 · 4 Dec 2008 at 16:26

I've got the 820 and I would recommend it.

I tested a lot of AVR's, some mentioned above. The conclusion I came to was that there wasn't much difference in everything I tested in the £250 to £900 category. However, once you get into the more "top end" at £900+ the difference is quite noticeable. I would suggest that on the amps you listed above, you are paying more for minor spec inclusions rather than higher quality, in tems of audio and video processing, where appropriate.

Also, what you have the AVR's hooked up to makes massive difference. A cheap amp can sound great on top of the range speakers but a great amp will sound poor coming through cheap speakers.

At £225, the 820 is a great introduction into AVR's and I have decided to build a good sytem around it and then go for a high-end AVR when the rest of my system wil compliment it. I run PS3 (inc upscaled DVD's), Wii, Sky HD and my PC through the amp and have never wished it would upscale. I would agree with the projector/source upscaling comments here to.

HTH.

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 17:02

marscay said:
your HTPC or a decent DVD player will do a much better job of scaling than a midrange AV amp could ever hope to achieve.

your PS3 can send decoded HD audio through LPCM over HDMI, you don't need 5.1 analog inputs.

Right

So this is the scenario.

I have a HTPC stored with DVD and M2TS content.

How do I stream the HD audio from the HTPC into the amp?

Video will be from the 8600GT DVI/HDMI connector. (please suggest another card if ones better)

where does the audio come from?

My XFI doesn't have HDMI

easyrider · 4 Dec 2008 at 17:04

wolvers69 said:
I'd probably be drawn to the Denon too.

Easy hasn't said if he has speakers though.

Decided on the ACOUSTIC ENERGY AEGIS NEO 5.1 SPEAKER PACKAGE Black

I think

Grimley · 4 Dec 2008 at 18:00

easyrider said:
Right
How do I stream the HD audio from the HTPC into the amp?

Video will be from the 8600GT DVI/HDMI connector. (please suggest another card if ones better)

If your board has 6 channel analogue sound output (recent gigabyte boards make a big thing about 8 channel lossless HD sound via their onboard analogue outputs, tried that but its fiddly to setup) To my knowledge, Nvidia cards that do sound via HDMI (& I think the HDMI has to be built into the card) a lead has to go from the card to your mobo's spdif output if it has one, even then I doubt its HD sound. ATI is the better solution, the 4*** series cards do up to 7.1 lossless PCM sound via a special adaptor.

daz.wallace · 4 Dec 2008 at 21:44

easyrider said:
I was all set on getting the Sony STR-DG820 as it seemed fine for what I needed.

Just be careful, I started off thinking of getting the 820, then moved on to the denon 1909, then I couldn't decide between the 2309 and 2808. When I made up my mind to get the 2808, RS messed up my order and was looking at another 4 weeks before they got 1 in and I ended up buying a 2809 for £649 from them :eek: