2nd hand Atmos amp?

Avalon said:
This is the direction I am likely going in, I have a set of Eggs and a Onkyo SR606 from years ago and am putting together a room that needs to serve as a family lounge, cinema/TV/music/gaming space with 65" TV and laser projector doing 130" ish. Initial idea is to upgrade amp, live with eggs in 5.1 short term and then upgrade speakers as I go. That said, plans are quite fluid, new corner unit arrived yesterday and i've already had to change my approach :eek:
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Probably worth upgrading the speakers, Kef Eggs are ok for heights, and perhaps surround/rears in a cramped room where not much space between sofa/speakers/wall but for LCR I'd upgrades...especially since you're buying a new AVR.
 
I now have a mental image of grown men hiding behind speaker forts from disapproving significant others :cry:

One thing that is slightly concerning is the number of slightly older receivers with faults listed on various platforms. I remember the Onkyo issues with HDMI, but am I missing a known issue with Denon of previous generations? Surely not everyone is cooking them in confined spaces?
 
hornetstinger said:
Probably worth upgrading the speakers, Kef Eggs are ok for heights, and perhaps surround/rears in a cramped room where not much space between sofa/speakers/wall but for LCR I'd upgrades...especially since you're buying a new AVR.
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It’s as if you had a crystal ball :D

Room is just under 17sqm (3.5x4.8m), so reasonably small, the new corner unit is 3.2m wide (insert something about the importance of measuring things before buying them to avoid having to remove doors etc.), so I have bumped the eggs to the server room for future me to deal with, they may return for Atmos testing, but for now I wanted something more capable. Initially I looked at the Warfdale DX Peter Tysons offer with the X1800H, but Warfdale are a brand I have always ended up avoiding as something better existed for similar money, and the same has proved true again. I’m collecting a set of Q Acoustic 2000 series 5.1’s with the upgraded front floor standers later this week, admittedly not the newer 3000’s, but also a fraction of the current £899 asking price at PT’s.

The aim is to be sorted by the end of the month as I have cables to pull, floorboards and a ceiling to sort, carpentry to do and a load of surface prep before decorating, till then I am hoping @glenimp617 can get up and running and tell me it’ll all be worth it in the end.
 
Avalon said:
...and tell me it’ll all be worth it in the end.
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It depends a lot on the content you watch but if you watch modern Sci-fi/Horror then some of the Atmos tracks are transformative. E.g. A Quiet Place is so much better with 5.1.2 system than just a 2.0 one.

5.1.2 is a good balance and gets you most of the way there and after a few of the right movies/series you should definitely think it was worth it.
 
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Avalon said:
Denon of previous generations? Surely not everyone is cooking them in confined spaces?
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I've had Denon AVR's for a good few years and most of the time I use them in Eco mode as I'm not usually listening at very loud levels. This pretty much halves the power usage so they rarely get hot, even in summer.

My current Denon X6700H uses ~110w in normal mode when idle or playing quietly. In Eco mode this drops to ~55w.

Though if you are approaching reference levels then it's best not to use Eco mode as it could affect dynamic range and at those levels they do get hot, so good ventilation is recommended.
 
Well this journey took a turn, I started this thinking new/shiney was the way to go, but it turns out for me, it actually isn’t.

This week I got to testing wall paints for my Panasonic 1080p laser DLP, 130” visuals are impressive, but I needed audio and the TX-SR605 was in the room already, so I figured as I had to pull cables anyway, I may as well at least test with it, I had already decided to offer it to a friend for free as I figured selling an old amp would be more agro than it was worth. I hooked it up with a stereo pair of 2010’s and honestly, I actually enjoyed listening to music in a way I haven’t in a long time, reasonable speakers and amp along with a wider sound stage make a massive difference. As I was sat on the recliner with part painted walls, floorboards up and things stacked in ways that would give anyone pause to question his or her life choices, it hit me, I don’t need a ‘media hub’, I have consoles/streaming devices and PC’s galore, I need something that can drive speakers and reproduce my media accurately, and the overwhelming majority of my media content is either stereo (music), DTS or DD+/EAC3 (film/TV), so with only running 5.1 for the foreseeable future and having very little Atmos content does ticking a box that I can’t really make full use of at this point actually make much sense?

So, I connected an old Alexa via line out to RCA to my 605 and it has streaming support, and gives me voice control options. The Panasonic PJ is only 1080p, so the HDMI 1.3 of the 605 isn’t a limiting factor, the Hisense 4K HDR screen has ARC and optical out, so I will feed via that for audio only to the 605, it should handle DTS/EAC3 (DD+) perfectly. The only slight annoyance was after doing a few tests and finding the 605 eats 38w of power in standby, so I added a Tapo smart plug that I control via the Alexa, that saved me over £80/yr. Total bill was about £12 for a new remote and a line out to RCA lead.

I’m not ruling out grabbing a deal on Black Friday or January sales etc, but for now, I am really enjoying making the most of what I have.
 
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