No direct experience with the MET-1. I looked at it when it came out, but it had some limitations that made me pass. I went with a hybrid solution with a high quality tube preamp and SS AVR.
It only has analog inputs, which means it does not do things like bass management and room correction. Any of that needs to be down in the source. A Blu-Ray player like the Oppo 103 or 105 can do bass management (crossovers) and set speaker distances but it does not have the equalizers to adjust the frequency spectrum for room acoustics. This is a standard feature of most SS AVRs.
In addition, if you want to do 5.1 for your cable signal, most cable boxes only output 2 channel analog, so you lose the 5.1 for movies and TV shows. You also then rely on the DACs in the cable box, which are usually not very good.
If you do any streaming of video, like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, from a smart TV, you would also be limited to 2 channel audio, using the DACs in the TV.
Depending on your fetish for cables, it does take 6 cables to hook up the Blu-Ray player. For some, that would cost as much as the digital setup :)
It also does not have any video processing, which means you need to hook each video source to the TV directly and change TV inputs as needed. That is easy with a programmable remote, but can be an issue for some using standard remotes.
If you are looking at Conrad Johnson pre-amps, you might check out Spearit Sound. They are a dealer and have used and demo equipment available.
It only has analog inputs, which means it does not do things like bass management and room correction. Any of that needs to be down in the source. A Blu-Ray player like the Oppo 103 or 105 can do bass management (crossovers) and set speaker distances but it does not have the equalizers to adjust the frequency spectrum for room acoustics. This is a standard feature of most SS AVRs.
In addition, if you want to do 5.1 for your cable signal, most cable boxes only output 2 channel analog, so you lose the 5.1 for movies and TV shows. You also then rely on the DACs in the cable box, which are usually not very good.
If you do any streaming of video, like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, from a smart TV, you would also be limited to 2 channel audio, using the DACs in the TV.
Depending on your fetish for cables, it does take 6 cables to hook up the Blu-Ray player. For some, that would cost as much as the digital setup :)
It also does not have any video processing, which means you need to hook each video source to the TV directly and change TV inputs as needed. That is easy with a programmable remote, but can be an issue for some using standard remotes.
If you are looking at Conrad Johnson pre-amps, you might check out Spearit Sound. They are a dealer and have used and demo equipment available.