AVR Recommendations

[betty boop]

Avr processing will be much better than my room or fostex or my LG TV for that matter.

The onkyo is nr609 and as per the op it's not that good.

 

I think your missing what am suggesting. anything your tv or 'my room' or 'fostex' or what ever those things are usually will decode to pcm. there is no processing involved. you then feed the pcm to dac or amp with dac as have suggested. no avr required. re the onkyos I don't personally get how can compare the 609 with the 805 which was a flagship machine, they're complete different leagues.

 

ps if talking audio quality the first thing I'd fling out would be netflix ! or fta tv or anything like that. sorry but audio is pretty average with those in any case. a better avr might take you from average to a touch above average but you can make a silk purse from sows ear as in this case ! 

[davewantsmoore]

Budget is $1000, home is not as nice issue ad I do not require any audio processing. Sound quality is priority.

As for audio optical is fine as there is not much if any difference from hdmi

 

HDMI offers lossless surround.    SPDIF does not offer lossless surround.

[kunalraiker]

HDMI offers lossless surround.    SPDIF does not offer lossless surround.

Really, didn't know that. So Flac will be compressed?

[betty boop]

Really, didn't know that. So Flac will be compressed?

 

what are you feeding flac off ? and by what means ? there was no mention of flac in your posts. 

 

might need to outline your exact needs so recommendations can be made

 

unclear at this stage your sources, means of connection or kind of media need to play/decode/process.

[kunalraiker]

Flac will be played by roku through plex so I guess it will be a digital pcm to the avr.

[betty boop]

still don't get what is the need for an avr sorry. and particularly since am not really sure what is to be gained from going from your current avr to some other $1000 one. and especially since you are talking some pretty simple 2ch sources which would have ability to feed pcm then there is no real need for anything complex in decoding and processing. maybe am missing something but then you are very economical in spelling what you actually need. like pulling teeth so might come back in a week and then I might have a clearer idea...to make any suggestions

[Primare Knob]

He is using a Plex app on a streaming device X and wants to send, probably multichannel PCM to a surround setup.

If not multichannel setup, forget about the AVR on your budget, and go for a 2ch integrated amp with digital inputs, or an integrated amp and seperate DAC. You could also buy a seperate DAC and keep using your current AVR, but I think you are expecting to much of an improvement from a different DAC chip.

You would probably benifit more from a stereo system along side your current setup.

[davewantsmoore]

Really, didn't know that. So Flac will be compressed?

 

If you are sending surround formats over SPDIF, then it is Dolby Digital or DTS, which are both lossy formats.

[Primare Knob]

Really, didn't know that. So Flac will be compressed?

Not necessarily, HDMI is developed for uncompressed multichannel surround sound and Toslink and SPDIF are designed when compressed multichannel was the top of the range, Toslink being the most limited. You can still send, in most cases, 2 channel high res PCM over these connections.

I could be wrong, but I have never heard about the option of sending a FLAC format over a digital connection because there are no devices who can decode it that way. What happens when you play FLAC audio, this format gets decoded by the source player into a PCM audio stream, which is an universal format that can be read by all audio devices. This is the data stream that goes into a DAC to translate this digital PCM signal into an analoge wave signal.

[kunalraiker]

I could be wrong, but I have never heard about the option of sending a FLAC format over a digital connection because there are no devices who can decode it that way. What happens when you play FLAC audio, this format gets decoded by the source player into a PCM audio stream, which is an universal format that can be read by all audio devices. This is the data stream that goes into a DAC to translate this digital PCM signal into an analoge wave signal.

That is absolutely right, I was a fool to ask the question in the first place.

[kunalraiker]

Had another question about sound calibration.

 

I know all AVRs offer this function, the idea is to match the sound from all speakers  at the listening position.

 

 

So ideally set  FL-0,FR-0,C-0,SL-0,SR-0,SUB-0 and then work from there using an SPL meter on the listening position.

But what if I set all channels to 5 eg- FL-5, etc then what ?

Sound will be louder to start with so overall volume control will not be pushed too high at moderate listening levels.

 

Now when they say an amp is 50 watts per channel across the freq range, what calibration value do they take into account, 0?

Does it mean if we ramp up the calibration the amp is now having a higher output.

 

People who do test on outputs for channels, what calibration level do they test on for maximum output  per channel.

[DoggieHowser]

If you use the auto EQ feature, the levels are trimmed to IIRC 70 or 80dB which is the reference level. This is then used to adjust the Dynamic Volume appropriate to the volume you listen at.

Edited November 19, 2014 by DoggieHowser

[kunalraiker]

If you use the auto EQ feature, the levels are trimmed to IIRC 70 or 80dB which is the reference level. This is then used to adjust the Dynamic Volume appropriate to the volume you listen at.

English please ?

[DoggieHowser]

I am not familiar with YPAO.

But Audyssey's auto EQ system is pretty nifty.

Attach the bundled mic and let the AVR measure for at least 3 positions and it sends out test tones that the mic measures.

The levels it sets the channels to are to provide the reference level when viewing.

That's a reference level for listening and calibration.

Which I suspect few of us listen to.

Audyssey has a listening mode called Dynamic EQ and Dynamic Volume. It adjusts the EQ to compensate for lower listening levels - usually upping the bass EQ. This is because at lower levels, our ears/brain perception of bass is not linear.

If you muck around with those settings by say moving all of them up or down by a certain level, it changes the way EQ is applied.

[blybo]

Reference is meant to be 85db with a 20db headroom available for peaks like explosions etc.

It might be simpler if you just told us exactly what sources you wish to use and whether you want them in 5.1 or stereo. Them I'd suggest we could best advise what AVR/integrated may be worth considering

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kunalraiker]

Reference is meant to be 85db with a 20db headroom available for peaks like explosions etc.

It might be simpler if you just told us exactly what sources you wish to use and whether you want them in 5.1 or stereo. Them I'd suggest we could best advise what AVR/integrated may be worth considering

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Source will be all, including tv, movies listening to music, documentaries, etc

5.1

[Primare Knob]

Had another question about sound calibration.

 

I know all AVRs offer this function, the idea is to match the sound from all speakers  at the listening position.

 

 

So ideally set  FL-0,FR-0,C-0,SL-0,SR-0,SUB-0 and then work from there using an SPL meter on the listening position.

But what if I set all channels to 5 eg- FL-5, etc then what ?

Sound will be louder to start with so overall volume control will not be pushed too high at moderate listening levels.

 

Now when they say an amp is 50 watts per channel across the freq range, what calibration value do they take into account, 0?

Does it mean if we ramp up the calibration the amp is now having a higher output.

 

People who do test on outputs for channels, what calibration level do they test on for maximum output  per channel.

Your channel levels will have nothing to do with your volume output. It is just an extra correction layer before or after the volume control. It most likely will take the channel with the biggest positive gain correction as 0 and adjust all other channels with a negative gain to match there levels. This way you should not be able to over correct or distort a certain channel or push it beyond the specifications of the receiver

Source will be all, including tv, movies listening to music, documentaries, etc

5.1

I think they mean with sources, what hardware you are using and would like to connect to the AVR.

[kunalraiker]

I think they mean with sources, what hardware you are using and would like to connect to the AVR.

The sources will be TV, Foxtel and ROKU

[blybo]

The sources will be TV, Foxtel and ROKU

 

So basically they are all AV sources. Why then are you complaining about stereo performance? Do you stream flac through the roku? I don't know this device but from what I've just seen it's dirt cheap. Ever thought that source, or your files may be the limiting factor?

[kunalraiker]

So basically they are all AV sources. Why then are you complaining about stereo performance? Do you stream flac through the roku? I don't know this device but from what I've just seen it's dirt cheap. Ever thought that source, or your files may be the limiting factor?

You may be right, thinking of getting the oppo bdp103 to do the audio streaming.

[Primare Knob]

The sources will be TV, Foxtel and ROKU

I am not to familiar with these devices but I am guessing that Toslink will be the most common digital connection?

Are any of these devices capable of outputting HD Movie codecs or doing the decoding themselves?

TV and streamers (Netflix) mostly output a form of Dolby Digital. I don't know about Plex on the Roku. (I believe the apps are limited to AC3)

If you don't need HDMI switching or HD Movie decoding you could take a look at the older generation AVR's and find a musical winner, that will fit your budget.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Primare Knob

[Primare Knob]

You may be right, thinking of getting the oppo bdp103 to do the audio streaming.

Maybe consider the 105. It is half an AVR when it comes to switching capabilities, works as a standalone DAC to. I think there is one for sale in the classifieds.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Primare Knob

[kunalraiker]

Maybe consider the 105. It is half an AVR when it comes to switching capabilities, works as a standalone DAC to. I think there is one for sale in the classifieds.

Aren't they the same , especially for my needs, what switching capabilities are you talking about.

[Primare Knob]

Aren't they the same , especially for my needs, what switching capabilities are you talking about.

Almost the same. The 105 has more digital input types 1x coaxial, 1x toslink, 1x USB B async.

HDMI switching will be same between the two.

Every external input can be selected, just like an AVR. I don't think that both of them will decode HD movie codecs or pass it through from an external source.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Primare Knob

[blybo]

Aren't they the same , especially for my needs, what switching capabilities are you talking about.

 

If your budget for an AVR is $1000, why spend $1500 on a BD player?

 

I have a Oppo 93 and have streamed mp3's (it doesn't support my ALAC encoded library) but it's pretty clunky interface. It's a great BD player though and does have lots of built in apps like netflix etc.

 

A Sonos connect has a fantastic GUI and will stream almost any audio codec. If going through a decent dac will sound very nice via Coax cable, just can't do Hi res. Better to do CD quality well than hi res badly. It even sounds fine using it's own onboard DAC via RCA cables. There are plenty of other options apart from the Sonos too, but I think a good GUI is just as important as the sound quality. If it's too clunky, you won't use it.