Stereo & AC Receiver Necessar for HTPC?

Dodge777

Dodge777

Dodge777

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Hi all,

Moving into a new place soon and eager to develop a great multimedia set-up, part of which will include an HTPC and sound system. The HTPC will be used as a hub for playind HD movies as well as music (probably 50/50 in terms of usage). Most of my music collection is stored digitally as opposed to CD.

I understand that the optimum solution is both a stero and AV receiver in order to get the maximum benefit from each activity. I have two queries though:
a) Is a stereo received really necessary even for playing mp3s?
b) If I were to get both, how would this work logistically? This may sound noobish, but how do you switch between AV/Stereo on an HTPC without physically moving cables around? Is this even possible?

Would appreciate any insight.
 
BUMP - I'm surprised no one has been able to provide any insight. Surely this is a common issue or am I getting terribly mixed up?

Thanks.
 
Personally I wouldn't go with both. I'd get the AV receiver, it'll handle music fine. I wouldn't say a stereo one is worth it for MP3s and it's certainly a lot easier just to have the one unit.
 
Budget likely to be £1.5 - £2k.

Big fan of surround sound as I watch plenty of HD sports, tv shows and movies. Listen to a fair bit of music as well, but as mentioned earlier, it is likely to be 99% mp3 driven.

If I have to get a stereo amp + av receiver to enjoy both then so be it. But my concern lies with the logistics. How would you manage an HTPC / SKY HD etc if you have both units? For example if I'm watching a movie via the HTPC and then want to listen to some music, would I have to switch cables around or would it automatically change to stereo from using the AV receiver?
 
What your saying Dodge777 is correct. I think if you get Stereo and an AV receiver you will be changing settings on the receiver so much and duplicating wiring as well.

My advice is to get a good receiver and a HTPC with a dedicated HDMI sound card like the ASUS Sound card:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-003-AS&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

This has HDMI output so this will go into your AV receiver. There are the 58XX series graphics card which can handle HD sound like DTS-HD and TrueHD. The choice is yours. Some graphics card can't handle HD sound so you need to double check.

As your playing music as well, you can use the HTPC to play FLAC music without any trouble and if you get hold of DTS music then the HTPC will be able to do this as well.
 
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I do believe there is a benefit to doing this, but only if you're spending a lot of money, in which case I believe it would be better to spend it on a seperate source anyway and have a completely seperate setup.
 
Dodge777 said:
a) Is a stereo received really necessary even for playing mp3s?
b) If I were to get both, how would this work logistically? This may sound noobish, but how do you switch between AV/Stereo on an HTPC without physically moving cables around? Is this even possible?
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There are AV receivers that do a pretty passable job with stereo music. Then there are AV receivers that do an excellent job with stereo music... but... either not in your price range* or in your price range but not with HD audio decoding**. (*I'm thinking here of the Arcam AVR500 @ £2.5K, ** the discontinued Arcam AVR350 which was £1200 but no HD audio decoding)

In answer to b) Yes, it's possible to have a hybrid system that requires no more than a bit of source switching and adjusting a volume control to a preset level. I do wonder though if £1.5k-£2k is enough to buy two amps and a 5.1 speaker package that's up to the grade to make the most of music, especially given MP3 as a source.

Then of course, it's a question of what you find acceptable in terms of sound quality. Everyone has different standards of "good". Have you heard any decent stereo systems?
 
I have the same problem same budget and a potential solution but not sure if it will work audio source wise:

What you want is a modest AV receiver with pre-outs, and a stereo amplifier (integrated) which will connect to these pre-outs.

Buy the home cinema speakers sepearetly so your front L/R speakers are proper stereo speakers, so when you listen to music or watch a film your front L/R speakers are always used.

What I don't currently understand is if 1 source of sound will work with this setup going directly into the AV receiver only, i.e HTPC for music and movies. No direct audio source gets connected to the stereo amplifer - would this setup still work?
 
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pallys said:
I have the same problem same budget and a potential solution but not sure if it will work audio source wise:

What you want is a modest AV receiver with pre-outs, and a stereo amplifier (integrated) which will connect to these pre-outs.

Buy the home cinema speakers sepearetly so your front L/R speakers are proper stereo speakers, so when you listen to music or watch a film your front L/R speakers are always used.

What I don't currently understand is if 1 source of sound will work with this setup going directly into the AV receiver only, i.e HTPC for music and movies. No direct audio source gets connected to the stereo amplifer - would this setup still work?
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That's part of the solution, but there is one thing you should think about doing in a different way.

The main thing is connecting the AV sources to the AV receiver, and connecting the stereo sources to the stereo amp only. There's no point trying to produce really good 2 ch sound but then ruining it by passing the stereo source through an AV amp before it gets to the pure 2ch system.


The other thing you need to get around is the cost of an AV amp with full pre-outs. Last time I looked this was a feature on mid-range to high-end amps. You're looking at £500+.


The advice about buying decent front channel speakers is good. HiFi speakers can do AV quite easily. But AV speakers don't do so well trying to be HiFi speakers.
 
Thanks for the advice. This is very helpful.

I think for the moment I'll go for a decent AV receiver and leave the stereo amp for now. If I find that music sounds terrible, then I'll consider adding a stereo amp to the mix. Plan is to spend c. £500 on the receiver and a further £1.5k on speakers - like two floorstanders for front speakers, a centre speaker, subwoofer and two rear speaks (bookshelf).

I'm a touch concerned that the above budget won't quite stretch far enough if I'm looking for a really good system. I can probably stretch further financially but given I'd like to also add the HTPC and a 55" TV in the near future, I'd be reluctant to do so unless absolutely necessary.

Thoughts?
 
£1.5k will get a superb set of speakers and amp.

Consider something like Denon 1911. Onkyo 608 both of which are new HDMI 1.4 amps. Circa £450 each

Or some of the outgoing range which are HDMI 1.3 like the Denon 1910, Onkyo 605 and Yamaha 765 each which are all about £350 or so if you can find stock.

Leaves a grand for speakers
 
my limited (and slightly more budget experience) is that my AV amp provided decent aound quality, but distorted more quickly as the volume crept up. I guess this is purely down to power output, but i have the Yamaha RV360 amp (entry level, doesnt do HD audio) and this actually has a second speaker output for stereo speakers, and some nice handling of stereo output, which is separate from its AV output. This powered my Mordaunt short 914i's admirably, and sounded decent, but distorted quickly. I now power the Mordaunts with a Cambridge Audio 640A v2, and it goes louder and is slightly cleaner...
 
Why not try a 2 zone amp with 2 sets of speakers. One set for AV and a nice set of floorstanders just for music (on zone 2). Personally (and it is my own taste) I do not like full range hi if speakers with a suplimented sub for AV. I would rather a dedicated set of AV speakers, for movies with a sub and a dedicated set of floor stander speakers for music. Some may argue that you are still using an AV amp rather than a dedicated 2 channel, I would say have a listen to an AV amp with some nice floorstanders then decide.
 
I wouldn't get hung up on switching connections either. Av over hdmi from pc to amp, music over 3.5 to hifi amp, choose the soundcard in software for whichever output you want
 
Forgive me if I'm being massively ignorant here, but wouldn't whatever speakers I end up getting be suitable for both AV and Stereo output? My very basic understanding is that speaker quality is essentially "fixed", i.e. a speaker will be just as good for movies at it will be for music. It is merely the amp / receiver which drives the quality of the sound.

Also, I will definitely get a dedicated sound card. If I were to have two connections on the soundcard, e.g. HDMI to AV, and 3.5 to stereo, can you specify in Windows which connection to use for each programme, e.g. iTunes to use 3.5, WMP to use HDMI...?

Once again thanks for comments.
 
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Dodge777 said:
Forgive me if I'm being massively ignorant here, but wouldn't whatever speakers I end up getting be suitable for both AV and Stereo output? My very basic understanding is that speaker quality is essentially "fixed", i.e. a speaker will be just as good for movies at it will be for music. It is merely the amp / receiver which drives the quality of the sound.

Also, I will definitely get a dedicated sound card. If I were to have two connections on the soundcard, e.g. HDMI to AV, and 3.5 to stereo, can you specify in Windows which connection to use for each programme, e.g. iTunes to use 3.5, WMP to use HDMI...?

Once again thanks for comments.
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Ive tested in store a monitor satellite/sub package against a monitor audio bookshelf/floorstand package (and the same for B&W mt-30/B&W 684) and sattelite/subs cant do music. or to put it another way, music quality increases significantly when you move away from sub/satelite for your Front L&R.

I found the sub satellite packages to be slightly better bang for buck for movie sound but the slight extra cost to get fuller fronts makes it worthwhile for me, as i listen to music a bit.
 
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