Adding a 5.1 Receiver + Centre Speaker to Stereo HiFi Setup

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OP
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Thanks chaps. Back to the previous setup it is! I'm getting close to making a decision. Frankly the physical space restrictions are my biggest problem more than anything else.
 
Soldato
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The Oppo player just has line level outputs for 7.1 channels allowing you to bypass your AV amp's digital audio decoding. If you ignore the rest of the channels you could just plug the front L&R into an integrated stereo amp and use it as a CD player. Don't really see the point personally.
OP - You'd still need an amplifier of some sort to use the Oppo player. This would be an expensive way of not achieving anything for you.
he uses existing Amp plus a passive center speaker, and gets a decent sacd/uhd/blu-ray player with good dac .. that was what I thought anyway.
 
Soldato
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he uses existing Amp plus a passive center speaker, and gets a decent sacd/uhd/blu-ray player with good dac .. that was what I thought anyway.

There’s no amp to drive the centre speaker in the OP’s setup - it’s essentially an upmarket mini hifi. You can’t deny the Oppo players excellent credentials, but for this application it’s not the right thing.
 
Soldato
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I'm confusing you - I meant active centre with a built in Amp .. but yes, it's off beam unless you/he can use the (rather nice) transport -
 
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OP
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Just following up with you guys for whoever might be interested. I ended up going with basically all the kit I mentioned earlier - Sony STL-DR1080 receiver, a Dali Zensor Pico Vokal centre speaker to match my existing Dali Zensor 1 bookshelf speakers for a total of a 3.0 speaker setup, a Panasonic 700B 4k HDR TV, Onkyo C7030 CD player, Panasonic UB300 UHD blu-ray player, Amazon Fire TV box. Running the lot via a mix of various cables.

One very strange issue I had was I ordered a couple of the exact same model of high-speed HDMI cable, different lengths, and only the shorter one works with my setup. The longer one has no signal at all in my setup, but I tested it between the receiver and my 4k laptop and it works just fine... very strange! I sent it back and got a replacement, all good.

Overall I'm really happy with the whole thing. I'm still tweaking the sound a lot - I ran the auto easy calibration for the receiver, with the mic, but I feel like the sound could be a little "wider" from the front speakers, so I'm gradually tweaking as I go. I've been SUPER impressed when testing Blade Runner 2049 4k blu-ray. Ho-lee-mo-lee it looks and sounds amazing. Not a million miles away from my cinema experience... I do wish I had space for a sub, and for rear speakers, but what can you do... gotta work within your limits!

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Cheers,
 
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