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The Best New HT Processor

I have considered the Krell Foundation, even more, the Bryston SP3, and the CARY Audio CINEMA 7B. I know there are other good choices out there?

The Bryston SP3 has to be my favourite now, as it has two balanced inputs, and I need two.

I would like to get to the point where I have one box, unlike the past, having several preamplifiers doing multichannel sound.

My price limit is ten grand, and I believe my sell off price will come close to this?

The idea of buying something like this used feels uncomfortable, as it seems, spending over a few grand on anything as potentially finicky as a processor, leaves me feeling lost for personal contact, if I had a problem?

Audio Research is my stereo preamplifier and an older Showcase Krell. One piece of head gear, my Esotreic runs to the ARC, as well my Accuphase, which I really do not want to sell. The Esoteric, being the DV 50S model, it enters the Krell for digital processing and straight analogue for any multichannel SACDs I have.

I have added an Oppo 105D, for Blu-ray, and it would be ideal to have three balanced inputs, yet that is not likely, and it seems the best processors should be able to do as well as the Oppo over HDMI, as it is, whether DTS HD Master is worth having, I do not know?

I am either going to keep the Krell I have or take the plunge and go for a something where I can HDMI the Oppo, use the audio inputs for the Esoteric and the second balanced for the Accuphase, which is a CD player.
ladycharnet

Showing 2 responses by dbphd

dbphd
1,632 posts
 
The problem I have with expensive processors is that, unlike preamps, they tend to become obsolete as new processing technology is developed. So I use an Oppo 105 for processing, and pass through its front LR stereo to the preamp. Surround channels can be taking directly to the amps. If your preamp does not have a by-pass mode, you can mark the point at the volume control where it achieves unity gain using an SPL meter.

The single-ended output of the Oppo is as good as its balanced output, leaving the balanced inputs of the AR preamp available for the Esoteric and Accuphase. I think DTS HD MA is worth having.

db
dbphd
1,632 posts
 
Since my previous post, I added a Cary Cinema 12 to the loop, so now the Oppo 105 connects via HDMI and 7.1 analog to the Cary. Surround from the Cary connects directly to the amps, SW to a Velodyne SMS-1 that provides acoustic room correction for a pair of HGS-15s, and the LR fronts from the Cary pass through a Parasound JC 2 BP. The reason for adding the Cary was to enable surround DSD via HDMI from a Sony XA5400ES, but the Cary does a superb job with surround and bass management. The Cary shares the JC 2 BP with an Ayre C-5xeMP and JC 3 phono stage that are used for stereo.
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