I’ve been thinking lately of upgrading my HT. In 2006, I got the Outlaw 990/7125 prepro/amp combo to power my Epic 80-500 in a 5:1 setup, with zone 2 feeding video and audio to a TV and a pair of ceiling speakers in the rec room next door. I’ve enjoyed the 990 greatly, but I feel it is showing its age. It came out before HDMI switching and lossless audio formats became the norm. The main thing I am wondering is how much I am missing by not having Dolby TrueHD or dts-MasterAudio functionality.
Current set-up: I feed a DirecTV HD-DVR, PS3, and HD-DVD player to the 990 over component video and optical digital audio. There’s also a Marantz DVD player coming in the 7:1ch input for DVD-Audio and SACD. Hey, like I said, this was 2006.
I figure my video capabilities are pretty maxed out with the component video in the sense that my projector is a Panasonic AE900, which is capable of 1080i and 720p. This is the highest resolution that DirecTV puts out anyway, other than a few PPV movies in 1080p. However, I do watch a fair number of Blu-rays, so a projector upgrade to a 1080p model is probably coming down the road. See you in another thread.
My two options, as far as I can tell, to upgrade my sound, are:
1) get a Blu-ray player, such as the
Oppo BDP-93, that will convert Dolby TrueHD and dts-MasterAudio to output over the 7:1 ch analog cables that I could hook up to my prepro on a direct setting.
2) Get a new AVR.
I’m leaning toward option 2, which seems to offer more bang-for-the-buck. Specifically, I am considering the
Onkyo HT-RC370. It can be had for $529 on Amazon, B&H, and New Egg. It is not currently available on Accessories4less, presumably because it is a new model and not many have been refurbished yet. It seems comparable to the
Onkyo TX-NR709, which is $579 at Accessories4less.
I have also considered the Denon 2112 that was mentioned in
this thread. Both units have Audyssey MultEQ® XT. The Onkyo has a little more power and a ton more connectivity, including a 7:1 ch input if I want to keep my Marantz connected as it currently is, 7:1 preouts if I want to use the receiver as a preamp for my Outlaw amp, and a phono input.
Thoughts?
