It is not about cable quality anymore, it is about the sheer number of them!


So I just moved. As a big HT fan, I have built all 5 of my main speakers, and my amps are ICEPower units I assembled with third party cases.

But as I stare at my TV and think about re-assembling my system I’m really torn. Do I attempt to recreate it?

Parasound P7
Mytek Brooklyn DAC
Oppo 103
Hsu 15" sub
miniDSP for Sub and center
Linux PC with Squeezeserver
Roku Premiere Plus

or, by opposing, end them? I am torn. In this medium sized 1 bedroom, do I punt on the whole 5.1 HT experience, and use my Mytek as the sole DAC and preamp (which it sounds very very good!) , do I get a decent HT processor like a Krell Foundation, or do I rebuild what I had?

The biggest issue really is all the damn cabling and complexity. Separate remotes for the TV, the Parasound, the Squeeze server (android app), Roku and the Oppo.

One thing that adds to all the complexity and madness is the number of sources. The TV does not work very well as a switcher. IT does have HDMI audio return channel, but it usually requires a couple of TV restarts. In an ideal world, I would use HDMI alone to connect everything through the TV or a processor. 

What I had previously was:

PC audio --> DAC via USB
Roku --> Oppo 103 --> P7

PC video via HDMI --> TV

Thoughts?


Erik
erik_squires
Post removed 
@erik_squires - I know where you are coming from :-)

I had a HT surround system and found it too complex

We have just moved, so I took the opportunity to check out a different approach.

I ended up with...
- VMedia TV Box for streaming TV content,  Netflix, Internet Radio, Music services
- Apple TV 2 - movie rentals
- a Bluesound Powernode2
- speakers
- powered sub

I no longer have DVD player because I now stream all my movies
- a second system (basement) has a DVD player if I should need it.

Gone are the centre/surround speakers - the Bluesound does a pretty good job of emulating surround from 2 channels and a great job of replacing the center channel speaker

I kept the powered sub because I like the LFE’s

The bluesound has a built-in 50 watt/channel class D amp which is enough to drive my Tannoy Fusion 4’s L/R speakers

It’s so simple even my wife can figure it out :-)

Regards