AMP for Panasonic XR45

I do have digital cable and TiVo, which may complicate things. The wiring options will be a daunting task if I take the HT plunge.

Drubin you can also...if you have digital cable or satellite. Feed your digital output from the cable/sat reciever into the unit. And listen to high quality playback on music and movie channels.

I paid $340 and I think it's a great bargain. It replaced the well regarded
Rotel 1050 receiver (a former TAS cover story). I'm still using the stock power cord and I've read and been told that it greatly limits the product's performance. I use it in a bedroom system with an Apple G5 connected via Toslink feeding it uncompressed digital music files. The system is setup for background listening and I don't really have a feel for it's absolute performance envelop. All I can really say is that's it's at least as good as the $800 Rotel.

Perfect! Do you like it?

I have the XR45 and I run it as a 2 channel receiver bi-amping my speakers. From going thru the setup menus I believe it can be configured for a L/C/R with a output to a powered subwoofer speaker set. The rear channels will be folded into the L/R speaker pair.

A dumb question from a home theatre dummy: Can this Panasonic be configured to do 3.1 channel? I don't have room for rear speakers (really, I don't) but could do a center and an LFE. I know that most of the HT receivers down-mix to two channels, but what about 3.1? Or am I better off sticking with just two channels?

Also, I know that Dolby has a new thing that I thnink is called Dolby Virtual Speaker, which will simulate the surround experience in a stereo configuration. Is this worthwhile for what I am trying to do?

The digital Pannys are great when using digital inputs. If you're using digital input then the player is just a transport. At $6-700 you are paying for some nice DACs that you will never run sound thru. Get a dvd noted for quality picture and no chroma bug and add the remaining $3-500 to your speaker budget.

pann, try the new Denon 2200. It's a multiformat player which does all formats and is in your price range.

Dave

Video signals are simply selected from different sources and sent on to the monitor. I can't see why there should be any problem.

If all i need is a CD/DVD player, do you have a recommendation for me in the $6-700 range to go with my XR 45. Thank you.

ARe there any problems if you use this XR 45 receiver with an HDTV hookup? IS this not a preferred receiver if using with an HDTV HT system?

The digital amps in the Panny are what make it so good.

A slight clarification...the Panasonic has six channels of amplification, but the LFE (subwoofer) channel is not one of them. It has center channels both front and back. It does output a subwoofer line level signal which requires an external amp. This makes good sense, as there are so many self-powered subwoofers in circulation these days.

The Panasonic has everything you will need except speakers and dvd player.

Dave