SACD or Multi-point crossovers? (1 Viewer)

[Al.Anderson]

I'm going to return my recently purchased Marantz 1602 because I'm having trouble with it connecting to my NAS. It works great sometimes and won't connect at other times; other times it just takes a looong time to handshake. In any case, my next two choices were the Denon 2312 or the Yamaha 671. Trouble is the Yamaha supports SACD, but does not support multi-point crossover settings. While the Denon is the opposite. I'd like to be able to play SACDs. And since I have decent, but less capable surround speakers than my mains I *think* I could use the multi-point surround setting feature. I say I think, because I really don't know enough to know whether that makes that big of a difference. Anyone have any opinions on this choice?

 

[gene c]

I'm surprised the Yamaha 671 doesn't offer different crossover settings for different speaker groups. I thought Pioneer was the only brand that didn't. There usually isn't a great deal of deep bass going to the center and surrounds so unless there's a huge difference in their sizes you can probably get away with a single crossover setting. My brother has towers in the front and tiny satellites for surrounds so it would be real risky for him. When the manual states that the 2312 doesn't support SACD over HDMI I wonder if they mean it doesn't decode the DSD signal? I think if your SACD player decodes the DSD signal and sends it out hdmi as LPCM then I bet the 2312 would play it. Try it with the 1602. If it does it then I'm sure the 2312 would as well. There really isn't any difference between DSD and LPCM. Same thing really, just decoded in a different place. Both the Denon 2312 and Yamaha 671 look like nice receivers. I hope you don't have the same issues with that NAS thing with either one of them too. Good luck in any event.

 

[JohnRice]

I was going to say the same thing about LPCM. Receivers that decode DSD seem to be going away. The Marantz 6004 might do everything you want, but you'd have to get a refurb. The 5004 does DSD, but not separate crossovers. Later models do the crossover, but not DSD.

 

[Al.Anderson]

Thanks Gene and John, you guys were correct, my BR does decode to PCM. I either missed that setting, or I assumed that sending out via PCM was also meant losing the multi-channel signal. But that was incorrect. Appreciate the help! (Edit) I forgot to mention, an older post over at AVS mentioned this:

Pioneer/Elite/Yamaha (and others) have single point crossover... Onkyo/Integra/Marantz/Denon/HK (and others) have multi point crossovers.​

The information seems to be accurate.

 

[gene c]

Yamaha is the one major brand of receiver I haven't had yet so I didn't know about the single crossover setting. They and Pioneer are the lone holdouts I guess. And not only is DSD going by the wayside in receivers, there's hardly a mention of SACD or DVD-A on a receivers specification page anymore. But as long as we still have LPCM then I guess it really doesn't matter. Not much if any difference between the two anyway. And wasn't there something called the "pop of death" associated with the 5004/6004? My memory's starting to fade ..

 

[JohnRice]

I'm pretty sure that death issue was very limited and fixed with a firmware upgrade that was implemented long ago. The 5004 is at least 3 years old now. I have had a refurb 5004 for about a year in the living room. It gets the most use of anything in the house. No problems yet. I just think the 5004 and 5005 are awesome units, especially at the under $500 price they have been available for. I think I paid $350 for the 5004 refurb. I'm less impressed with the 5006 and other current models.