Looking to get a new receiver, had some questions

[GotToyota?]

Originally Posted by crackinhedz

Sir T,

since audio via HDMI bitstream and LPCM is decoded with the same quality, and eventually passed through the same DAC ...what do you think the reasoning is for why people feel that one sounds better than the other? Is it all psychological or can there be some truth to it?

I'm getting my tax return shortly, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to upgrade my receiver.

But concerning this post here I saw in a sticky, I'm looking to get a new receiver, and it seems like he's saying it is NOT worth the extra money to get a receiver that can process sound via HDMI? I'm looking at two Harman Kardon receivers, and one basically does not process HDMI sound and one does. Is it worth the money? Here are the two receivers in particular:

Non-HDMI:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1170289629617

HDMI:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1170289629684

-Matt

[Durentis]

The question raised in the quote is about having the player decode lossless audio or the receiver decode it. Since neither receiver you posted can decode lossless audio, it's kinda irrelevant.

Looks like the avr-126 can't process audio over HDMI at all (it's just a passthrough). So the choice of whether to have your receiver or player decode the audio (as per the quote above) is irrelevant. You would have to send audio over optical with this receiver and either get 5.1 lossy audio or 2.0 lossless - even if the player decodes a lossless format, there isn't enough bandwidth over optical to send more than two channels.

The avr-247, on the other hand, can receive LPCM (player-decoded lossless audio) over HDMI but lacks the ability to decode any of the lossless formats itself. It can only decode lossy audio formats sent over HDMI.

Now, if you want lossless audio and choose to have your receiver do the decoding, neither of the two receivers you posted will work. The entry level receiver for this that people suggest all the time here is the Onkyo 605.

From what I've read, people seem to want their receiver to light up with an indicator saying what sound format it is playing (DTS HD MA, True HD, etc..) which receivers will not do if sent player-decoded LPCM.

If you aren't concerned to much with price, the best I've seen is the Marantz SR-8002 that you can get for about $1750 Canadian.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by Durentis

The question raised in the quote is about having the player decode lossless audio or the receiver decode it.

yup, thats exactly what I was refering to.


...HDMI receiver (non-passthrough) is the way to go.