I have three Nakamichi CA-1 preamps. I love them to death. They sound fantastic and I'm one of the last of a dying breed of Nak enthusiasts going back to my days as a college kid trading Dead tapes.
But now that I actually have five speakers again (first time I've had rears in almost a decade since leaving them behind in CA) I have to admit that I'm behind the times. None of my Naks had the DTS upgrade, so all they'll do is AC-3.
Which, to be perfectly honest, is more than enough to satisfy me. I'm 90% interested in stereo music and about 10% in surround movies and whatnot. I skimped on that and bought QS4s because all it really takes to satisfy me for surround is an occasional whoosh going behind me or the crowd noise of a sporting event on cable.
But I'm finding that most blu-rays output DTS at the oldest, which the Naks won't handle. (They've been great for the AC-3 signal coming over the cable lines for on demand and everything, which is most of what I've been watching... just not anything on BluRay. Plus I'm about to switch to DirecTV, which I think sends different audio.)
So... what's a nice processor that'll accept newer signals from my BluRay player? I only have a 5.1 setup and don't use HDMI so it can be a nice gently used model. My cousin's Arcam AV8 always sounded really nice to me, but that might also be mostly due to his speakers. I had a Theta Casanova that was awesome too, but it died (and it, too, was old).
For no rational reason whatsoever, I always hated Onkyo/Integra and Denon. So take that for whatever it's worth. (Which is, honestly, exactly nothing.) And as you can already tell, I am somewhat of an older gear geek. Which is why this is all such a pain for me.
Last edited by Dave B; 03/27/11 07:07 AM.
