David Judah
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 11, 1999
- Messages
- 1,479
It is the exception rather than the rule that receivers can perform digital processing on the multi-channel inputs, after all, the main purposes of having them is for another device to do the decoding and to have a short pass-through.
The AVR 7200 is one of those exceptions, however, it was made clear that the direct pass-through was the option used.
I think Panasonic and TI, who makes the chips, got lucky. Panasonic probably was just looking for a way to make small, cheap receivers, as some have suggested, and some people discovered they can sound really good under the right conditions.
I also think Sony has gone all out with their S-Master designs and are starting to get it right(when they don't catch on fire
). I know there will be different opinions because of varying preferences, but I think the new Sony receivers sound remarkably good. Even though the literature they have released about their digital amp designs are for marketing purposes, they look like they're very solidly engineered.I know some don't want to believe that digital amp technology is coming of age and is getting less and less expensive, but it looks like that is indeed the case, and the bottom line, IMO, is that it is good for us. Of course, traditional designs will still be produced, just as tube stuff is still made despite its displacement by SS.
DJ
