My recent change of heart to add a TV to my great room is getting complicated. I’m looking for ideas in the event I haven’t thought of something. I have no intention to add surround speakers or a center. There is no where to place them in this room that wouldn’t look tacky. Just placing the TV in this room is complicated. Plus, I have a dedicated HT for movie watching. I currently have a two channel set up in this room and I like the simplicity of that. It’s nice not worrying about HDMI and the BS that brings. Now with the TV being added, HDMI video and digital audio enters the equation. I have a Rotel 1070 Pre and 1080 amp combo with an Outlaw ICBM for my sub, and I love this combination. It’s simple, looks good, and sounds good. But, the 1070 does not have any digital audio inputs. My cable box and BR player both have digital audio output. The cable box has analogue audio output too, but it sounds horrible. The BR player I was going to use does not have analogue audio. I know, all DAC’s should function similar, but the cable box manages to screw it up somehow and sounds horible. I also want to limit video input to the TV to one HDMI cable. I will have three sources; cable box, universal player, BR player. I may even add a Wii to the mix for drunken sword fighting….

For the video, I had planned to use a DVDO Edge. For the audio, I’m finding that piece a bit more complicated. I’ve looked at some outboard DAC’s, but none have HDMI input that I can find and I’m not terribly excited to add more complexity to this set up (pre/pro, Edge and DAC switching). So the obvious, and most simple solution would be to swap out the 1070 with an AVR that had HDMI, then I wouldn’t have to add the Edge or an external DAC. I don’t want to do that though… I’m fussy about esthetics in this room and would prefer to stick with a pre/pro that will match the 1080 in appearance. I have spent some time looking for a stereo pre with digital inputs, but I’m not having much luck finding one. There’s plenty of surround pre’s with HDMI, but that just seams wasteful to me. But, it may be my only option seeing how I don’t really want to use a receiver for aesthetic reasons.

Does anyone know of a stereo pre amp with digital input? If not, any other ideas I haven’t already thought of?