Hi all,

I'm trying to help my dad make some decisions about a potential upgrade to his home theather setup. About 6 years ago, he dropped a TON of money with a custom installer to put in some very high-end equipment (Runco projector, Aerial speakers, Theta Amps, Lexicon MC-1 processor, in-ceiling motorized Stewart Screen, etc.)

Long story short, recently, a lightning storm fried the controller and projector, so he's got some insurance money to put to use and as a result, I've got him convinced that he should take the money and upgrade to HD (meaning a new projector, Blu-Ray player, receiver, and cabling).

He has an extremely long throw distance that rules out many of the projectors I'm familiar with, so he'll likely be going with another cheaper Runco 1080p projector, which I don't strongly disagree with.

However, his installer made another recommendation that I have a harder time agreeing with. The recommendation was to forgo buying a new receiver that supported the latest HD sound formats and instead purchase a used Lexicon MC-1 sound processor (for 1k). It doesn't have HDMI inputs and cannot do any of the new HD sound formats, but the installer says that it is so far superior to the receivers you could get for $1k that he'd be better off buying the Lexicon and forgoing HD sound. The installer's argument is that it is such a superior processor that it makes up for the missing HD sound. I find this incredibly hard to believe, but I thought I'd turn to some of the experts in the crowd here for advice as well. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on his options here.

My thought is that since the receiver is just being used as a pre-out to decode the sound formats and push it to the Theta amps he's got, there can't be much to lose by moving to the Denon, but maybe I'm missing something...

Thanks in advance.

Jason

PS: The installer also recommended a $1,000 50' Transparent HDMI cable. I'm working that issue separately with him.

I would kick the installer out of my house if he suggested a buy a cable like that.

The only thing the denon does not have is top notch video scaling. In the end that did not matter to me. I vote for the denon, but I must admit I know nothing about the Lexicon. Hopefully someone around here will have some better input...

Off the top of my head, this 'sounds' like a fleece job.
Call me crazy but the cable suggestion gave it away.

All good components, all very pricey, could certainly do just as good for cheaper IMO but one must choose their receiver based on the required features. A 1k receiver will work just fine, if you don't need the HD sound (or want it or figure it makes much of a difference) or if you don't need HDMI switching though the receiver.
The price for a used unit otherwise is decent. Mid to high range AVRs run $1000 and up.

Jason, the installer is full of it, especially in regard to the absurd(at least $950 too high)cable suggestion, but also to a much lesser extent about the Lexicon. Go with one of the several excellent receivers with the most modern features, e.g. the Denon 3808 or the Onkyo 875(if the superior Reon video processor in the Onkyo is wanted), which are available for $1,000 or a bit more.

Sounds like a nice pre/pro, but there's no way I would buy something like that without HDMI 1.3 in this day and age. Even if it is a relative bargain at $1K. Time to ask your father this: "If it's so good, why is it used? What replaced it?"

It sounds like your dad has/had a relatively high-end system. If it's time to upgrade the processor, I don't see the logic of choosing a used MC-1 again. MC-1 is a very good multichannel preamplifier and surround sound processor, but it is now somewhat dated in this second role. If a Lex has to be chosen, then the newer MV-5 or the MC-12HD are HDMI equipped but they both have HDMI 1.1 and are only capable of 6 channel (5.1) MPCM and no HBR capability. For much less money at $1600, the Integra DTC-9.8 or the upcoming Marantz AV8003 ($2600) would be excellent choices. If your dad would not abhor the idea of using an AVR as a preamp/processor, then the Denon 3808 would be an excellent choice. I think these newer units will serve a home theater application better than the MC-1. For music, especially multichannel music, MC-1 will likely hold its own and would suffice if your dad listened to music a lot more than he watched movies.

It sounds like you already know what to do with the installer's HDMI cable advise.

John

Thanks for the responses guys. The one thing I didn't mention is that the Runco projector that was recommended has a proprietary video scaler built into it that does the HD upconversion, so the choice of upconversion capabilities from the receiver should be a moot point (assuming it is as good as the reviews say it is). If that is the case, it looks to just be a matter of choosing a receiver that has the right connectivity and features.

One of you guys asked about the reason the MC-1 is available used... the former owner upgraded to a newer Lexicon (~$6k), which is more than my dad wants to sink into this upgrade.

Thanks again for the advice.

You can go nuts with this stuff. What kind of money are you talking about? Lexicon is outstanding. Unfortunately, they are lagging behind with HD audio. He may want to look at the new Denon Pre-Pro. It should be of similar quality, if not better than the MC-12 for legacy audio, but will also have all the cutting edge features that the new Denon AVR’s have…And, it has the Realta video processor which is the best VP available to consumers right now.

For projector, depending on budget, Sim2 makes an outstanding unit and you can get them with a special long throw lens. Expect about 10K for a single chip 720P DLP machine. The JVC RS1X looks like a great machine. It has more lumens than the RS2, but the RS2 has better blacks.

Isn't the denon pre/pro setup $14,000 MSRP? Too rich for my blood!

What Ken said.

Buying "old" technology if you have the money for current technology in deference to some unquantifiable "quality" claim doesn't seem logical to me.

He's been there, done that (gone nuts). Trying to be more reasonable this time around.

Yah, but I assumed that he was just looking for a processor and did not need amplification. So that’s about 7K. The MC12 is a 12K processor, so I figured the Denon to be in the same price range.