AV reciever for PC

Amp34 · 3 Sep 2006 at 20:52

I am looking for an AV reciever I can use to listen to films and music played on my PC. I want something quite cheap but still pretty good quality, what sort of price could I get one for? I would like something quite simple but also have enough options that I wont have to upgrade after a year if I want to add more things.

I have had a look round and come across this, the Denon AVR1906 which looks pretty much what I want. Any other recommendations?

The other question is would I need to buy a seperate sound card to get the best quality or will the onboard sound controller (optical connection) be fine. My assumption is that all the PC needs to do is send the data to the amp which then decodes the DD or DTS stream so the standard one would be fine?

Kamakazie! · 4 Sep 2006 at 12:59

the 1906 is a very good receiver for the price.
Also worth considdering are the Yamaha VXR-459 and 557 or the Cambridge Audio Azur 540R.

Those are the ones i am looking at getting. Still not sure what i am going to get, depends what comes up cheap or s/h i guess.

What sapeakers are you gonna be using?
I have been told that the Yamaha will sound warmer than the Denon which would be better for my Mourdaunt Short speakers.
If you already have warm sounding speakers then maybe the Denon will be better. It is down to personal preference though.

Amp34 · 4 Sep 2006 at 13:07

Thanks I'll have a look at those as well.

To begin with I will be using the speakers from my all in 1 surround kit (due to cost) but I will eventually get another set, sometime in the nearish future.

What do you mean by warmer speakers?

squiffy · 4 Sep 2006 at 14:24

Warmer sound hard to explain but as a approximation warmer speakers have a softer treble, with a more upfront midrange.

Regarding the digital output, as long as the onboard digital output DD & DTS you won't need another. However if it upsamples everything to 48hz even CD's you may want to use ASIO drivers if available, or upgrade to soundcard that's ASIO compatible. CD's are 44.1khz PCM, you don't want the soundcard to upsample this upto 48khz, the av amplifier should receive a 44khz stream.

Amp34 · 4 Sep 2006 at 19:50

squiffy said:
Regarding the digital output, as long as the onboard digital output DD & DTS you won't need another. However if it upsamples everything to 48hz even CD's you may want to use ASIO drivers if available, or upgrade to soundcard that's ASIO compatible. CD's are 44.1khz PCM, you don't want the soundcard to upsample this upto 48khz, the av amplifier should receive a 44khz stream.

How would I find out whether my board does upscale everything? I have an Asus A8N SLI using Realtek AC'97 audio if that helps. I assume I need codecs on the PC to decode the information to be sent to the amp too?

squiffy · 4 Sep 2006 at 19:53

Playback a CD. If your amp shows 48khz it's upscaling. The M-Audio Revolution doesn't upscale, when I playback a CD it shows 44khz on the av pre-amp window. Then 48khz for DVD's. I used another PC soundcard and that always upscaled to 48khz.

Depending what you play you might not need codecs, just tell it to output to SPDIF. If you amps supports it it'll work. Just reduce volume when setting up, you don't want digital noise. You need a soundcard/digital output that'll stream DD & DTS too.