Hello All,
I'm thrilled to be making my first post here and hope to tap into your expertise for some guidance and consideration. I'm hoping to update/upgrade my home theater set up and am considering two scenarios, based on my extensive on-line reading and review.
A bit of background- I'm a former professional musician with a great deal of experience in live audio, but by no means am I of audio engineering caliber. I do have a firm grasp of power amps, impedance, phase, current, capacitance, resistance, signal chains, and all aspects of analog technology, as it had applied to my experiences as a musician. I have quite the tube amp collection for electric guitar and have built tube amps from kits.
That being said, I'm hoping to obtain, very soon, the Oppo 105D, which will be the main component from which I will build around. I have a great appreciation for the audiophile Sabre DAC's being used and feel quite convinced, from reviews, recommendations from musician friends, and on-line research, that I should be quite happy with sound quality for movies and music. For the home theater, I'm using a UHD/4K Samsung TV, and Verizon Fios.
I envision that the HDMI out from the Fios TV box will go into the Oppo 105D and the HDMI out will do to the TV. I'll take advantage of the Oppo's video processing and Darbee feature. Now, for audio, I'll use the 7.1 analog outs (downshifted to 5.1) into either a dedicated power amp or integrated AV receiver. My options/dilemma:
My audiophile friends insist that it's absolutely imperative that I use a power amp and not an AV receiver. Suggestions have included Parasound HALO or Anthem. I know there are much savings buying used, so that is likely. On the other hand, my research has indicated that a nice, late-model, AV receiver, like the Marantz SR5009 or similar, will take the analog outs from the Oppo 105D and go into the 7.1 analog inputs and no further processing/conversion will occur; in other words, analog in, amplify signal, and analog out to the speakers. I called Marantz tech support and they confirmed this. There would be zero processing/altering of the original analog signal from the Oppo. I would use the subwoofer out on the Oppo 105D and go directly into a powered subwoofer.
Do you all recommend a dedicated 5-channel power amp or an integrated AV receiver for what I'm describing?
Still undecided on speakers, but am liking Paradigm or Triad at the moment. Thanks in advance for your (analog) input!
I'm thrilled to be making my first post here and hope to tap into your expertise for some guidance and consideration. I'm hoping to update/upgrade my home theater set up and am considering two scenarios, based on my extensive on-line reading and review.
A bit of background- I'm a former professional musician with a great deal of experience in live audio, but by no means am I of audio engineering caliber. I do have a firm grasp of power amps, impedance, phase, current, capacitance, resistance, signal chains, and all aspects of analog technology, as it had applied to my experiences as a musician. I have quite the tube amp collection for electric guitar and have built tube amps from kits.
That being said, I'm hoping to obtain, very soon, the Oppo 105D, which will be the main component from which I will build around. I have a great appreciation for the audiophile Sabre DAC's being used and feel quite convinced, from reviews, recommendations from musician friends, and on-line research, that I should be quite happy with sound quality for movies and music. For the home theater, I'm using a UHD/4K Samsung TV, and Verizon Fios.
I envision that the HDMI out from the Fios TV box will go into the Oppo 105D and the HDMI out will do to the TV. I'll take advantage of the Oppo's video processing and Darbee feature. Now, for audio, I'll use the 7.1 analog outs (downshifted to 5.1) into either a dedicated power amp or integrated AV receiver. My options/dilemma:
My audiophile friends insist that it's absolutely imperative that I use a power amp and not an AV receiver. Suggestions have included Parasound HALO or Anthem. I know there are much savings buying used, so that is likely. On the other hand, my research has indicated that a nice, late-model, AV receiver, like the Marantz SR5009 or similar, will take the analog outs from the Oppo 105D and go into the 7.1 analog inputs and no further processing/conversion will occur; in other words, analog in, amplify signal, and analog out to the speakers. I called Marantz tech support and they confirmed this. There would be zero processing/altering of the original analog signal from the Oppo. I would use the subwoofer out on the Oppo 105D and go directly into a powered subwoofer.
Do you all recommend a dedicated 5-channel power amp or an integrated AV receiver for what I'm describing?
Still undecided on speakers, but am liking Paradigm or Triad at the moment. Thanks in advance for your (analog) input!