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2.1 system needs 3 HDMI inputs??

Moving to a new house that won’t realistically have option for surrounds in the living room and looking for advice. My current multichannel system will be moving to the basement, but I still want decent sound quality in the main living space. Initially I was interested in switching from an AVR to an integrated amp, but can’t find one with multiple HDMI inputs. The family regularly uses a cable box, Roku, and occasionally a Blu-ray player along with streaming audio. Best I can tell that leaves me 4 options and wanted feedback from the forum about the pluses and minuses of each:

1) an integrated amp with 3+ HDMI inputs and 4K pass through that I’m not sure exists... if it does exist, I’m guessing it’s costly. 

2) run extra HDMI cables in the walls to use the TV as the HDMI switcher for all sources and then another HDMI on the eARC channel back to an integrated amp...but I’m not sure the effect that running everything through the TV would have on audio quality plus hate getting into the crawl space to run 3 additional cables and enlarge the holes (previous owner left a single cable in place at my request from the AVR they had)

3) a cheap AVR with R & L preouts connected to a better amp than the AVR would have built in...gets me solid amp but AVR quality preamp (and cheap AVR at that initially).

4) a separate box HDMI switcher (3+ in, 2 out) that works with our harmony hub and connected to an integrated amp... again not sure how good these are since I’ve never looked into them before or if lip sync issues would be possible to avoid.

Your suggestions, experiences, and advice are much appreciated. Thanks in advance. 
ethos123

Showing 1 response by guy-incognito

guy-incognito's avatar
guy-incognito
169 posts
 
The Arcam SR250 is a 2.1 channel AVR with HDMI switching. They discontinued them a while back so finding one new may be a chore but they are pretty easy to find used. It has Dirac room correction and a decent internal amp but it may be on the anemic side if you have hard to drive speakers. I'm using one currently in the same situation you are describing and I really like it. I have mine paired with an external amp and it works very well for my use case. 

You could also use your TV as the HDMI switcher and run an optical line back to any integrated with an internal DAC. I still do this so I can use the smart apps on my TV and run them through the main system.

The benefit with the Arcam is it can decode and downmix all the surround formats where a standard integrated won't be able to. You will have to change the output settings on the TV to send a digital signal to the DAC in a standard integrated amplifier that it can decode but it will still work. 
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