AV Switcher with pre-out
Discussion
Hi all,
I've been spending a while pouring over various AV receivers as my current one isn't up to the job. The stuff in question is a Marantz SR6006 and a pair Kef R700s, and I think the speakers have more to offer with a decent amplifier.
I've always meant to get the rest of the speakers for a surround setup, but the money always ends up getting spent on other things, and I now don't think it's going to happen for a good few years (I'm aware that by then the speakers will probably only be available second hand). Which means I'm going to end up buying an AV receiver with at least five good amplifiers in it, and only ever using two. Expensive.
I've considered getting a good stereo amplifier, which should save a fair bit of money for a given 'quality' so to speak. However I'd miss the convenience of switching on the TV and it automatically switching the amp on, having all sources (PS3, Apple TV etc) switch video and audio together and so on. The only way I can think to hook them all up would be to use the TV audio out, which I can't imagine being the best way to do things.
So - to the point. Any suggestions? Cheap AV Receiver as a pre-amp and switcher, and pre-out to stereo amp? Just some sort of clever switching box with audio pass-through? Do they even exist?
Help!
I've been spending a while pouring over various AV receivers as my current one isn't up to the job. The stuff in question is a Marantz SR6006 and a pair Kef R700s, and I think the speakers have more to offer with a decent amplifier.
I've always meant to get the rest of the speakers for a surround setup, but the money always ends up getting spent on other things, and I now don't think it's going to happen for a good few years (I'm aware that by then the speakers will probably only be available second hand). Which means I'm going to end up buying an AV receiver with at least five good amplifiers in it, and only ever using two. Expensive.
I've considered getting a good stereo amplifier, which should save a fair bit of money for a given 'quality' so to speak. However I'd miss the convenience of switching on the TV and it automatically switching the amp on, having all sources (PS3, Apple TV etc) switch video and audio together and so on. The only way I can think to hook them all up would be to use the TV audio out, which I can't imagine being the best way to do things.
So - to the point. Any suggestions? Cheap AV Receiver as a pre-amp and switcher, and pre-out to stereo amp? Just some sort of clever switching box with audio pass-through? Do they even exist?
Help!
A cheap AVR used as a 'switcher' would still mean that the signal passes through it's preamp and then your stereo amp as well, which isn't a recipe for great sound.
However, you could connect 'critical' equipment such as a CD player directly to the stereo amp which would mean that TV sound (and whatever you want to 'switch' would go through both amps). The only snag with this method is that you might have to faff about with both volume controls (or perhaps leave the AV amp one at a fixed level and control everything just using the stereo amp).
If you want a cheap AVR try looking on Richer Sounds website as they have ex display/discontinued models often selling for under £100.
To be honest I'd suggest just looking for an older, but higher end AVR. I recently bought an old Arcam AV8 processor (like an AV preamp) for £65 which would have cost £2.5k when new. It doesn't have any HDMI sockets on it, but it sounds great and has allsorts of flexible set up options and will give me going until I can buy a more modern (and high end) AV processor with the latest Atmos/DTS:X sound formats.
Due to these new formats there will be plenty of people selling on their old AVRs that will have HDMI inputs and switching and the better ones (Anthem/Arcam for example) would sound good for stereo too.
However, you could connect 'critical' equipment such as a CD player directly to the stereo amp which would mean that TV sound (and whatever you want to 'switch' would go through both amps). The only snag with this method is that you might have to faff about with both volume controls (or perhaps leave the AV amp one at a fixed level and control everything just using the stereo amp).
If you want a cheap AVR try looking on Richer Sounds website as they have ex display/discontinued models often selling for under £100.
To be honest I'd suggest just looking for an older, but higher end AVR. I recently bought an old Arcam AV8 processor (like an AV preamp) for £65 which would have cost £2.5k when new. It doesn't have any HDMI sockets on it, but it sounds great and has allsorts of flexible set up options and will give me going until I can buy a more modern (and high end) AV processor with the latest Atmos/DTS:X sound formats.
Due to these new formats there will be plenty of people selling on their old AVRs that will have HDMI inputs and switching and the better ones (Anthem/Arcam for example) would sound good for stereo too.
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