Spec me AV receiver

qbazdz

qbazdz

qbazdz

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So, I'm hoping to get a bit of advise from the hi-fi experts.
I currently have an old Yamaha HTR-3065 AVR paired up with the 5.1 set of speakers (4x 20W sats, 30W center, 50W sub). This has been perfect for my needs, even though fairly basic setup.
I'm about to purchase a 4K TV (LZ980B or C2 or A80K) with primary use for movies and online streaming so had been doing a bit of research if the setup won't be somehow compromised as it is dated..
Seems that old HDMI standard will heavily limit the 4K support and in most cases audio wouldn't be handled correctly.

Devices wise, I'm planning to either use built in apps or my Roku 4k stick and a 4K TV Sat Box. Switch for kids on top of that, but no plans in any near future for PS or Xbox.

I'm not likely upgrade my speakers set just yet, so even relatively decent entry level AVR is going to be ok - any recommendations?

Thanks
 
AVR's have unfortunately increased in price by a fair amount. Budget AVR's are no longer £200. T

There's also room EQ to consider different brands have different room EQ types. Yamaha has YPAO which is basic but it allows you to apply your own PEQ filters, Q, gain etc, but the cheaper ones don't EQ subs. Denon have a better room EQ the cheaper models have more basic version, you'll want 3700 to get the best version of it. 3800 also has option of dirac but that'll cost you a extra fee. Plus it's shot up in price over the 3700.

What speakers and sub do you have? They don't sound anything amazing tbh so if you can change them too.
 
I got the AVR with the speaker package back then - its the own Yamaha NS-B150, NS-C150 and YST-SW012 sub.
I know it's nothing special, but the house is fairly small, LR is open plan to rest of the house (bungalow) and sound travels a bit, so with young kids I won't be able to push sound levels much, nor shake the house lol. They would wake up too easily.
The YPAO was so helpful to set things up quickly - really like this.
 
qbazdz said:
So, I'm hoping to get a bit of advise from the hi-fi experts.
I currently have an old Yamaha HTR-3065 AVR paired up with the 5.1 set of speakers (4x 20W sats, 30W center, 50W sub). This has been perfect for my needs, even though fairly basic setup.
I'm about to purchase a 4K TV (LZ980B or C2 or A80K) with primary use for movies and online streaming so had been doing a bit of research if the setup won't be somehow compromised as it is dated..
Seems that old HDMI standard will heavily limit the 4K support and in most cases audio wouldn't be handled correctly.

Devices wise, I'm planning to either use built in apps or my Roku 4k stick and a 4K TV Sat Box. Switch for kids on top of that, but no plans in any near future for PS or Xbox.

I'm not likely upgrade my speakers set just yet, so even relatively decent entry level AVR is going to be ok - any recommendations?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Are you sure you need a new AV receiver?

Quote: "Devices wise, I'm planning to either use built in apps or my Roku 4k stick and a 4K TV Sat Box. Switch for kids on top of that, but no plans in any near future for PS or Xbox."

TV built-in streaming apps - Maximum sound quality will be Dolby Digital 5.1
Roku 4K stick - Maximum sound quality will be Dolby Digital 5.1
4K TV sat box - Maximum sound quality will be Dolby Digital 5.1

For all three applications above, the TV HDMI ARC connection to the HTR-3065 ARC socket will take care of DD 5.1 100%. Connect your Roku and the 4K sat box direct to the TV's HDMI inputs and use ARC to pass audio to the AVR.

Switch for the kid - Maximum sound quality when docked is 5.1 linear PCM (that's multichannel PCM by another name). A docked switch, connected via HDMI, will support 1080p max as a video resolution - and your HTR-3065 will handle this - and for audio the best you'll get is multichannel PCM which ARC can't cope with, but put the Switch through the Yamaha and you'll get 100% support for 1080p and multichannel PCM.

If you still have a hankering for a new AV receiver then go ahead. However, as it stands right now none of your sources need or require anything more than your current AV receiver can already provide. The exception would be if you decided to go Dolby Atmos. For that you would need a new AVR, and the extra speakers for the height audio. But even then, standard HDMI ARC (not even eARC) is all that's needed to facilitate Atmos from your planned sources.
 
hornetstinger said:
Apart from arc or esrc doesn't pass all audio codecs like DTS depends on the TV. LG c9 does but neweey models don't
Click to expand...
And where the £%ck did I say they did?

I dealt with the real needs based on what he's acrually going to be doing. He isn't going to get DTS from streaming apps, a Roku stick, Nintendo Switch, or a 4K sat box,

The only possibility would be if he has a load of BD rips with DTS audio - which he hasn't said so - played via Plex or Kodi on the Roku. If so, they'll be 1080p so the Roku can go through the HTR direct.

Also, if he still wants a new AVR then I left that door open. The point is he doesn't need one simply because he's buying a new telly.

Happy New Year
 
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Thank you both.
I would certainly prefer to delay the need to upgrade if that is totally not required. At the end of the day, I'm interested in having the right surround sound on all speakers, however its passed through to them.

I did consider running all inputs into the TV and ARC out to the AVR, but there is such a huge list of audio codecs and technologies that I'm a bit lost lol
Roku won't be used unless I find that somehow the built in apps are pants, so all streaming audio will be going out via ARC anyway.
Checking my 4K sat box, its capable of outputting DD and DD plus.
I don't really plan to play BD content via actual BD drive, however BD rips are not out of the question - I would most likely stream that from my media server, perhaps via built in TV function which than means ARC handles audio too. Plex or Kodi would be via laptop/PC currently.

All in all still 'sounds' (pun intended) that I may just need to wire things up differently than I originally anticipated and keep the AVR for now.
 
If you do use the TV stream BD movies, they'll have DTS, your TV might not output that.
So another option is kodi player, but you'd need 4K passthrough, or if you use HDMI from kodi to TV they don't have two HDMI out so you'd only get regular lossy audio. Most rips are now HD.

I'd update for the 4K, otherwise it's too much of a pain in the backside, as you'd need combination of sources to TV, or sources to AVR depending what you're playing, or what it is, The only solution would be each source has two HDMI output one for audio one for video.

I recently upgraded as it was a pain also, using a switch, some into TV, some into AV pre for regular audio.

You could re-use the older AVR in a workshop or bedroom system.
 
qbazdz said:
Thank you both.
I would certainly prefer to delay the need to upgrade if that is totally not required. At the end of the day, I'm interested in having the right surround sound on all speakers, however its passed through to them.

I did consider running all inputs into the TV and ARC out to the AVR, but there is such a huge list of audio codecs and technologies that I'm a bit lost lol
Roku won't be used unless I find that somehow the built in apps are pants, so all streaming audio will be going out via ARC anyway.
Checking my 4K sat box, its capable of outputting DD and DD plus.
I don't really plan to play BD content via actual BD drive, however BD rips are not out of the question - I would most likely stream that from my media server, perhaps via built in TV function which than means ARC handles audio too. Plex or Kodi would be via laptop/PC currently.

All in all still 'sounds' (pun intended) that I may just need to wire things up differently than I originally anticipated and keep the AVR for now.
Click to expand...
DD you already understand. It's Dolby Digital 5.1

DD+ / DD Plus is the tweaked version used for Atmos audio with streamed content from Netflix, Prime, Disney+ etc. HDMI ARC is perfectly capable of handling this. In fact, if it wasn't for the audio rights restriction, your regular Optical connection could handle this as well. It's only because of licencing that HDMI ARC is needed for DD+. All this about DD+ is moot though if you haven't got an Atmos capable set-up. It'll just play the standard DD 5.1 version.

Have a look at your BD discs and which audio formats they use. Unlike DVD where the use of DTS is in the minority, Blu-rays have it (and DD) as one of the mandatory audio formats. Whether you can playback in 5.1 or 7.1 ultimately depends on whether you have a 5.1 or a 7.1 set-up. HD audio in the forms of Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio are optional on BD discs. Your HTR will play them though either direct from disc or if you rip to file and include either as part of the conversion. All you need do is ensure your playback is done via the amp first for these. The receiver will take care of recognising and decoding whatever you throw at it.

As I wrote before, the TV will pass DD 5.1 via the ARC connection to your Yam HTR. That covers your for (a) broadcast TV (Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin), (b) anything commercial streaming (Netflix, Prime, Disney+, FreeVee etc. If the audio isn't DD 5.1 then it will be PCM stereo (2.0) often as not with the enhancement of Dolby Surround as detected and decoded by Dolby ProLogic/ProLogic II. Watch your amp when it plays HD channels from Freesat. The Dolby Digital (DD5.1) decoder will kick in. Switch to SD channels and you should find the amp auto detects and switches to ProLogic II Movie. If not, you can change the menu setting so that DPL II Movie becomes the default decoding mode when the signal isn't DD5.1.

For any source that requires DTS / Dolby True-HD / DTS-HD Master Audio then stick that through the amp first. (This will be your Roku box if playing rips; otherwise it can all go via the TV.)
 
lucid said:
And where the £%ck did I say they did?

I dealt with the real needs based on what he's acrually going to be doing. He isn't going to get DTS from streaming apps, a Roku stick, Nintendo Switch, or a 4K sat box,

The only possibility would be if he has a load of BD rips with DTS audio - which he hasn't said so - played via Plex or Kodi on the Roku. If so, they'll be 1080p so the Roku can go through the HTR direct.

Also, if he still wants a new AVR then I left that door open. The point is he doesn't need one simply because he's buying a new telly.

Happy New Year
Click to expand...
I think it was more to make him away if he was going to use arc, but have a dts feed to the tv (although with an amp I'm sure that can avoided).
 
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