Pantone287 said:
I need help from home theater buffs (read: NOD).
Basically, I'm thinking about trying to set up a very low-budget 5.1 surround sound system, and I'm trying to figure out why people pay so much for receivers.
My understanding is that their main functions are 1) amplifying the sound, and 2) converting the sound into 5.1 format. I feel like I could find an older, cheap one that could perform those tasks fine.
However, this is where I get confused - I guess you have to pass the Blu-Ray and Satellite signal through the receiver on the way to TV to get sound, because TV outputs are only stereo? And this would mean that I need a receiver with HDMI inputs? And lastly, might I need to worry about losing or compressing any picture quality, especially if I'm passing, say, 3D Blu-Rays through an older receiver?
Seems like it would be much cheaper and easier if I didn't have to pass HD/3D video signal through my audio processor, but I don't see how to avoid it.
1) Yes. You should get an HDMI receiver, for 2 main reasons:
a) HDMI can carry lossless multichannel audio tracks like DTS-MA, TrueHD, and LPCM. These are the tracks that are on every Blu-ray. Now, some would argue that you need a high-end system in order to discern the difference between the lossless tracks and the lossy DD and DTS tracks, but it's best to not limit your capabilities in case you are able to get better speakers in the future.
b) Depending on the vintage of your TV, you may not have enough HDMI inputs for all of your HDMI components. Hell, between a cable/satellite box, a ps3 (or 4), an XBox, and any other components, the number of required HDMI inputs becomes unwieldy just for a TV.
If you truly want 3D, that means you'll need a 3D-capable rcvr (which is most rcvrs made in the past 3-4 yrs). I'm not going to pretend that I find 3D to be anything more than a fad, but I'll leave that discussion alone for now. Some would say that you should look for a 4k-capable rcvr as well to future-proof as much as possible, but I don't agree with that (at least not yet -- let's see what ends up happening with the likely-4k-capable ps4 that comes out in the next year). But, if you want 4k capability, I'd go with this year's Onkyo receivers.
2) The main value of the current receiver is in its ability for room correction. Let's be honest -- most folks have their surround systems in rooms that are death traps for accurate sound. Terrible in-room sound reflections due to hard surfaces, huge asymmetric open areas, ridiculous seating arrangements, wrong speaker placement, etc. However, with room correction protocols like Audyssey, Trinnov, etc, you just take the provided mic, put it in your various listening positions, let it go through the motions, and it will correct the timing and volume of your various speakers
3) If you have lots of legacy stuff (stuff that doesn't transmit HDMI signals and instead uses component or composite), you can get a rcvr that can upconvert those sources and transmit the video over HDMI. The quality of this upconversion depends on the quality of the scaling chip in the receiver, and not all video processors are created equally (this goes for both TV's and rcvrs).
4) The next issue is the strength of the amp section of the rcvr. Now, this is of no importance if you:
a) have high sensitivity speakers (i.e., spkrs that need less power to produce a certain number of decibels), or
b) don't listen to content at high dB levels, or
c) are trying to to provide sound for a very small listening area.
But many of us don't tick any of these boxes. Now, what I prefer to do is that I use separates -- as in, a separate pre-amp (which does all the processing) and powerful multichannel amp. Then, as the technology for processing/ cables/ formats changes, all I have to change is the pre-amp, but I can keep my amp through all the iterative changes.
There's also features like zone 2 and 3 capability, including the ability to display my sources in 2 different rooms and, say, have music in a 3rd room. The limitation of Zone 2 used to be that only analog (i.e., no HDMI) sources could be displayed in the 2nd room, but the 3 highest-end of Onkyo's latest line-up allow SIMULTANEOUS dual HDMI output and sharing of components. So, you would essentially have the ability to provide for 2 rooms simultaneously.
So, between video conversion capability, room adjustment capability, HDMI input/output flexibility, zone 2 and 3 capability, and differing strengths of the amp section (along with the previously-unmentioned, but important for many, increased number of speakers -- up to 11.2 channels in a few rcvrs), rcvrs run the gamut in terms of cost.
In terms of what YOU need, I need to know:
1) what are your habits? Mostly just TV with rare Blu-rays? Or do you listen to a lot of music, including Pandora? Do you want Airplay streaming from your ipod or PC?
2) lots of action movies? Do you listen to music with lots of bass?
3) what components do you anticipate using in the next 5 years?
4) What size speakers? Do you want bookshelf/ mini-speakers? Or do you have the space for floorstanders?
5) how far away will your primary listening spot be from your speakers?
6) total price range?
7) do you foresee the possibility of having more money to possibly upgrade in the future?
