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Need advice on upgrading my receiver. should i or shouldn't i?

post #1 of 14
1/20/13 at 5:11pm
Thread Starter 
Hi everyone, need some advice. I have a older Denon avr-1803 receiver. It is 5.1 suround dolby digital, and dolby ex. I have a Denon dvd player, Direct tv dvr, playstaion 3 for blu-ray, and xbox 360 all hooked up via hdmi through a splitter to my 50" Panasonic Viera Plasma tv. I currently run a digital audio cable from my tv to my Denon receiver. My current speaker set up was a 5.1 energy take classic system which i liked and is great, then i decided i wanted new tower speakers, and now have 2 Klipsch F-20 towers, energy center, surrounds, and sub. My question is, Is it really worth it at this point to replace my home theater receiver? Is having hdmi switching, or dolby hd that much better that i need an upgrade? I am home networked and currently running an hdmi cable from my laptop to the plasma tv for internet and music, and movies. Any suggestions? thanks.
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post #2 of 14
1/20/13 at 5:23pm
The first thing to do would be to connect your source audio devices directly to the 1803 with optical cables to get DD/DTS 5.1 as the TV is likely just passing stereo PCM 2.0 to the 1803.
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post #3 of 14
1/20/13 at 8:27pm
Thread Starter 
My viera plasma has a toslink out wth digital output. I run all of my hdmi devices into the television, and 1 audio out to the receiver tv input.
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post #4 of 14
1/20/13 at 9:00pm
Curious......what does your receiver display (DD, DTS, etc) when watching a movie on the PS3 for example?
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post #5 of 14
1/20/13 at 9:12pm
Thread Starter 
pro logic II c digital
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post #6 of 14
1/20/13 at 9:54pm
Um, yea thats what jd and I thought.

What do you think is the reason you are not getting DD or DTS? Or does that even matter to you?

PLII processes a 2 channel signal and encodes into a "surround sound" which is what you're hearing....its ok but it isn't DD or DTS.
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post #7 of 14
1/21/13 at 3:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sullytool View Post

My viera plasma has a toslink out wth digital output. I run all of my hdmi devices into the television, and 1 audio out to the receiver tv input.

Regardless of what signal you have the HDMI source device set to, as the TV can likely only accept a stereo 2.0 signal, that is all the TV is receiving from the source device and therefore the TV is simply passing that same stero 2.0 signal on to your receiver. As Yosh70 notes above, whenever the receiver displays "DD PLII" or "Pro Logic II" it means the receiver is receiving a stereo 2.0 signal which the receiver is then using Pro Logic software to "simulate" the missing speaker and sub channels to get 5.1 audio. If the source is set to "bitstream" and "Secondary Audio" is set to OFF and it's connected to the receiver, the receiver front panel display would read either "Dolby Digital" or "DTS".
Edited by jdsmoothie - 1/21/13 at 3:21am
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post #8 of 14
1/23/13 at 12:19pm
Thread Starter 
I put a digital audio cable directly from my direct tv dvr to my receiver and was able go get dolby digital ex.
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post #9 of 14
2/2/13 at 2:07pm
Did you ever make a decision on upgrading? I've got the exact same setup as the original setup you listed with an AVR-1803 and Energy Take 5.1 speakers. The Energy Takes I have were before the 'Classic' line came out and I'm not sure if those are the same or not. I'm also thinking about upgrading. Right now, I have about 3 HDMI devices I can't connect to the AVR-1803 and have them going directly to my Sony Bravio, bypassing my AVR and Energy Takes entirely. I am considering the AVR-2113ci and was interested in what others are getting as upgrades to the AVR-1803.
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post #10 of 14
2/23/13 at 5:58am
Thread Starter 
I decided to upgrade! I purchased a Denon 2311ci Receiver from accessories4less,com, I then purchased two Energy CF-30 Tower speakers on a good deal from amazon. I am going to purchase a Energy CC-10 center channel speaker, I purchased a second Energy Take Classic subwoofer. I bi-amped my two CF-30 Towers, and I will have a nice 5.2 setup. So my new setup looks like this:

Panasonic TS50c 50" Plasma TV
Denon AVR-2311CI Receiver
Denon DVD 1940CI DVD Player
Direct TV HD DVR
Belkin PF30 PureAV Power Conditioner
Playstation 3 Slim - Blu-Ray
XBOX 360
Front Speakers - (2) Energy CF-30 Tower Speakers
Center Channel - Energy CC-10
Subwoofers - (2) Energy Take ESC-8 8" subs
Rears - (2) Energy Take Classic Surrounds
Ikea Stand 16 x 70 x 25 With glass top.
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post #11 of 14
2/23/13 at 6:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sullytool View Post

I decided to upgrade! I purchased a Denon 2311ci Receiver from accessories4less,com, I then purchased two Energy CF-30 Tower speakers on a good deal from amazon. I am going to purchase a Energy CC-10 center channel speaker, I purchased a second Energy Take Classic subwoofer. I bi-amped my two CF-30 Towers, and I will have a nice 5.2 setup. So my new setup looks like this:

Panasonic TS50c 50" Plasma TV
Denon AVR-2311CI Receiver
Denon DVD 1940CI DVD Player
Direct TV HD DVR
Belkin PF30 PureAV Power Conditioner
Playstation 3 Slim - Blu-Ray
XBOX 360
Front Speakers - (2) Energy CF-30 Tower Speakers
Center Channel - Energy CC-10
Subwoofers - (2) Energy Take ESC-8 8" subs
Rears - (2) Energy Take Classic Surrounds
Ikea Stand 16 x 70 x 25 With glass top.

Passive bi-amping will not give you anything, but if it makes you happy do it. The 2311Ci AVR is a nice receiver. Just for FYI EMP Tek has their dual 10" sub on sale for $324 biggrin.gif. Do you have any iOS devices? If you do can you do me a favor and test ther AVR app with Pandora? I'm thinking of buying a AVR and going with Denon, but I want something that work well with Pandora since my wife and I use it a lot. I trid the Pioneer VSX-1022-k, and it was a PIA to set up and use. So, I returned it.
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post #12 of 14
2/23/13 at 6:40am
^^
The 2311CI is not a networking model, rather you would need to go with either the 3311CI, 1912 or higher, or 1613 or higher model to get the networking feature.
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post #13 of 14
2/23/13 at 6:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdsmoothie View Post

^^
The 2311CI is not a networking model, rather you would need to go with either the 3311CI, 1912 or higher, or 1613 or higher model to get the networking feature.

My bad. For some reason I had in my mind the 3311ci, and forgot that the stated 2311ci. That's the one I am thinking of going with or may be going with 3313ci from A4L.
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post #14 of 14
2/23/13 at 7:23am
For remote app info you may want to review this thread ---> http://www.avsforum.com/t/1397073/official-denon-app-control-thread-denonoff-denon-app-etc/0_100
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