First time amp purchase, ARC HDMI questions

[Deep]

Hi All,

At the moment I have a Panasonic TX-55CX680b. I have a PS3, PS4, Wii U and an Intel NUC connected to the TV. I also have a pair of Wharfdale Diamonds 9.1s from years ago that are in perfect condition lying around doing nothing.

I originally wanted to purchase a soundbar with ARC HDMI so that regardless of what the input is to the TV all the sound would come out of the soundbar. I’ve found a Marantz NR1506 that has ARC HDMI, and that paired with the speakers I already own would be a better purchase instead.

I do have a query about the way the whole system connects together though. If I want all the sound to go through the speakers and not the TV but the volume still be controlled by the TV remote do I connect 1 HDMI from the Amp to the TV (to the ARC HDMI port) and then the game consoles and NUC connect directly to the Amp?

Here is a poor illustration

In addition to this, all my music is stored in a central server elsewhere in the house would it be easy for me to just stream music from my folders direct to the amp using say an Android Tablet? It has Bluetooth so I can stream from my phone which is good, as I listen to a lot of podcasts so would be nice to do that.

Cheers for the help!

 

[lude1962]

the panny has viera link, and the marantz supports hdmi-cec so tv remote should control amp volume
arc is audio loopback to the avr, ie tv sound comes out from avr speakers

 

[vila]

ARC can cause problems - some TV's will only put out Stereo sound not 5.1, some Dolby digital but no DTS, fewer still can manage thinks like HD audio or object based audio.

Its usually a lot less painful to just plug everything into the amp and let the amp switch audio / video.

 

[HEADRAT]

ARC is a good idea ruined by terrible implementation

 

[Deep]

I bought my amp on Saturday and set it up yesterday, so far I cannot fault it.

I've got my PS4 & NUC connected to the TV (HDMI 1 & 3), I've then got a single HDMI cable to the Amp (HDMI 2) and so far it works perfectly.

The amp turns on & off when the TV does & the volume can be adjusted with the TV remote.

All that's left is to sort out all the cables that are hanging around and that should be very simple to do.