Don't want 5.1. Good stereo systems for AV?

[Radar Love]

First post on this forum after some top lurking!

Has anyone else eschewed the 'standard' AV receiver approach in favour of stereo for their home cinema setup?

I'm thinking of getting a good integrated amp coupled with a blu ray player, Panasonic plasma and a squeezebox duet. Denon is favourite for the amp and player but neither have a optical sound input. I'd have to use the headphone socket to connect sound to the amp while watching tv.

It's possible to buy amps with optical inputs but they all appear to be ~£1000+, besides the squeezebox has got a pretty good DAC.

I guess I'll use the system 75:25 in favour of listening to music, anyone else done something similar?

All ideas welcome!

[Plotloss]

2 channel reproduction on cinematic content loses the 2 most important channels (centre and sub)

What you'd be best off doing is having a reciever and a hifi amp and using the hifi amp for the front channels only.

So have both and then you get quality reproduction from both.

[Radar Love]

Im new to this so please bear with me...

The blu ray player I'm considering (Denon dvd 3800bd) has a analogue audio output (stereo) in addition to the optical and n.1 outputs. If I input this to my amp would I still lose some channels?

[Bullett]

Why do you not want 5.1?

[Plotloss]

Radar Love said:

Im new to this so please bear with me...

The blu ray player I'm considering (Denon dvd 3800bd) has a analogue audio output (stereo) in addition to the optical and n.1 outputs. If I input this to my amp would I still lose some channels?

Regardless of the connections on the source or the amp, if you've only got two speakers you'll only get two channels.

[Radar Love]

Plotloss said:

Radar Love said:

Im new to this so please bear with me...

The blu ray player I'm considering (Denon dvd 3800bd) has a analogue audio output (stereo) in addition to the optical and n.1 outputs. If I input this to my amp would I still lose some channels?

Regardless of the connections on the source or the amp, if you've only got two speakers you'll only get two channels.

B*gger! I was hoping that it the stereo output would be an amalgamation of all the channels rather than just the two front.

I don't want 5.1 for the simple reason that I don't want 6 speakers arrayed around the room and the associated cabling.

[Plotloss]

Gotcha.

So your next best solution is to have a hifi amp and speakers for music reproduction and a soundbar for eveything else.

[Radar Love]

Plotloss said:

Gotcha.

So your next best solution is to have a hifi amp and speakers for music reproduction and a soundbar for eveything else.

Thanks for the advice, the soundbar sounds interesting, I'll look into it. Apparently some players have a dedicated stereo output, that may be an option too.

[mackie1]

Radar Love said:

Plotloss said:

Radar Love said:

Im new to this so please bear with me...

The blu ray player I'm considering (Denon dvd 3800bd) has a analogue audio output (stereo) in addition to the optical and n.1 outputs. If I input this to my amp would I still lose some channels?

Regardless of the connections on the source or the amp, if you've only got two speakers you'll only get two channels.

B*gger! I was hoping that it the stereo output would be an amalgamation of all the channels rather than just the two front.

I don't want 5.1 for the simple reason that I don't want 6 speakers arrayed around the room and the associated cabling.

Some players will downmix 5.1 to stereo, I think my Oppo does (although I plug it straight into an HDMI amp).

[headcase]

Its not something ive fiddled with for a while but im pretty sure the stereo output from a DVD player is all channels (maybe not the LFE) mixed into a stereo pair. From memory there is sometimes an option in the menu (stereo downmix) or something like that, otherwise if you lost the center channel then you would loose alot of the dialogue so if it where the case then when connecting up the DVD player to a TV with a SCART then you would loose the center channel dialoge wich would be useless but i know that certainly this isnt the case.
Is Blu-Ray different?

[headcase]

I cant see any problem with connecting the Stereo Audio out from the TV to the input of your Amp, that way you will get the sound from the Blu-Ray and the TV's own tuner. On previous gen sets there was an issue with any sound coming into the TV's HDMI not being passed to the Audio out, but on most sets now this seems to have been resolved.

[koenig999]

I agree with the OP sentiments.

I can listen to the audio in films in 7.1, but I have rerouted things to listen in 2.0 through the coventional Hi-Fi instead, as it sounds better.

It goes Media PC -> M Audio Firewire solo -> Linn Numerik -> Naim 52 -> 2x Naim 135s -> Linn Kabers.

Koenig

[dave_s13]

How much money have you got to spend?

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 15th January 20:12

[DeputyDawg]

I would suggest using a decent stereo amp hooked up to a decoder that can handle the other remaining channels. You could then "switch out" the decoder when listening to music.

[Radar Love]

dave_s13 said:

How much money have you got to spend?

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 15th January 20:12

2 to 2.5K for the amp, blu ray player and speakers - what would you recommend?

[dave_s13]

Radar Love said:

dave_s13 said:

How much money have you got to spend?

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 15th January 20:12

2 to 2.5K for the amp, blu ray player and speakers - what would you recommend?

That you go post on AVForums

There are far greater AV minds on there.

I think Plotloss has it covered though with a decent stereo amp and a soundbar for films/tv

One of these for £500 maybe (you can get a cheaper version.
http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/yamaha/ysp3000-blac...


The rest would get you a very, very nice sounding stereo amp and speaker.

A post on AV forums would get you some useful info I'd have thought. Some very geeky/knowledgeable folk on there.

[matt3001]

naim av2?