2. amps-preamps
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Amp/Preamp, Dolby, and HDMI Advice

I'm starting from scratch on the audio equipment and have narrowed my choice of front speakers down to Proac Studio 140s. The problem comes at the Amp/PreAmp search. I will be adding rear speakers and possibly a center channel later.

Right now as sources I have:
2 optical dolby inputs, TV, XBox
1 optical/coax dolby input, DVD player.

I plan on building an A/V computer very soon and I was thinking of using an audio card with optical dolby outputs, hence adding a 3rd/4th optical dolby input to the reciever.

For my DVD Player (LG LDA-511) and my future computer, I would think it would be far better to use the optical cables rather than the coax cables, or buying an audio card outputting the channels. The computer will act as a TIVO, hence playing downloaded flicks or what I capture off of an HD capture card, which I believe all use coax inputs these days. What are everyone's opinions here?

Assuming I go with at least one of the above being an optical audio output, that tips the number of optical sources for my Amp/PreAmp to 3-4. That in turn eliminates alot of the integrated Amps, like the NAD T754. I'd prefer to spend up to $2k, possibly a little more on a PreAmp + Amp or Integrated solution. What do people recommend to match the Proac Studio 140s?

Also, my TV has only 1 HDMI input and I have 2 HDMI sources:
DVD player and my Computer. As both my TV and DVD are HDMI only, a DVI switch does me no good. The computer would output DVI, but I do know you can buy a DVI -> HDMI cable. I'd be interested in either a cheap video only Reciever that still looks nice, or hopefully an HDMI switching solution rolled into the PreAmp/Integrated solution.

Any suggestions/advice to any or all of my questions is appreciated.
sproggo
sailfishben
65 posts
 
Take a look at a Yamaha RX-v2700. It meets about all you state as needs. It will act as a networked player from your computer. It has 3 in 1 out HDMI and video upconvert for every other video signal input into it. Also accepts Ipod interface as well as XM. Very powerful and feature rich.
sproggo OP
2 posts
 
Well after talking to a friend of mine, he said that unless the cables are going over long distances, the coax should be at least as good as optical, because other wise you have to go from electrical to optics and back again, which makes sense.

That being the case a lot more of the integrated solutions come back into play including the NAD T754. Hmm, I thought Yamaha is another company, whose products were more feature rich and sacrificed audio quality, which you can find in Best Buy, though I could be wrong. I wonder how much audio quality I would sacrifice on my proacs in using the Yamaha instead of say an NAD. I eventually plan on obtaining a high end CD-player, so I would not want to skimp on the 2-channel audio quality.
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