Panasonic XR55 7.1 Digital Receiver - Page 6

bjorn-

it only uses 120V according both to the back plate and to the specifications in the user manual.

re: your second question, the only diff between 6.1 and 7.1 would be stereophonic L/R backs, of course. the receiver indeed remixes CB to LB and RB on 6.1 sources. the advantage of having 7.1 on the AVR would likely be one of impedance/volume- if you split the CB output on a 6.1 AVR it might sound weaker and you'd have to tweak the speaker distance settings to get it adjusted.

cjv123, followup: Did you get a llok at the inside and how the powersupply is connected to the rest of the unit? Could it be easily swaped for another one, perhaps?

no, i'm not the type to open stuff up.

i can't imagine panasonic would not gladly sell a 220v version of this- have you tried their website?

Well, probably after 6 month and twice the price over here...

Edit: Cheched UK site and it's not double price. "Only" $430...
Starting to wonder why I live in a region where the pay is less and the prices are higher...
Edit 2: And $477 in Germany!
Edit 3: It keeps getting "better"! Finland $572!

cjv123, Can you overlay PLIIx over DTS (PLIIx + DTS)?

Well its good to be hearing about it.

The remote coment is brutal, I was really hoping for a decent back-lit remote. I guess i'll just ask for a universal lcd remote for my birthday lol.

Also, I am really ancy as to weather it has video up-conversion. On the website it truely looks like they are saying it does, and if it doesnt than i wonder what they're talking about?

"...allowing you to connect multiple video sources to the receiver and run a single audio/video connection to just one of your TV's audio/video inputs. No more flipping through video inputs on your TV."

Edit: and what about osd?

Edit: I just talked to panasonic canada, they will be aailable in canada at the end of July.

don't know yet. hooking one of these up is quite a chore, unless you want to disconnect completely your other one. i have got lots of work to go on that. the remote has buttons on it for PLIIX and for DTS (i think this is auto detect-related though)

ok, starting to play with this thing, and i have some good news.

1) you can definitely play all 10 speakers at once.

2) success with a SPDIF run of 75 feet! from my other AVR (kenwood 7080) to this one. (god i love that kenwood- it does almost everything i've ever asked it to). both systems are blasting away with no reverb or echo.

3) the panasonic sounds great- very clean and "forward" sound.

My goodness would you hurry up and tell us if it has video upconversion!?!

neil-

it does not upconvert from composite. i'm going to try to find an svideo cable to check that but i'm basically certain it won't.

I think the description describes switching, not upconversion. It switches between multiple inputs of the same connection type, so composite, s-video, and component switching, just no upconversion between input types. If they offered upconversion, they would be very clear to use that wording to ensure the feature was noticed.

No OSD.
OSD would be welcomed, as I've found the interface somewhat cumbersome. All options aren't available via the remote, so you have to use the multi-input knob to select top level options and drill down into the settings beneath. In getting it setup, I was always forgetting what option was beneath which top level selection. I assume this is the same as previous models. I hope there are discrete remote codes for some of these settings. An example would be dynamic range compression, which I'd like to use if watching TV late at night to not bother the wife and kids. I can't set it by remote, and I've got to use the multiselect knob on the unit, select 'Option', scroll to 'Dynamic range compresssion' and select, then scroll to 'on' and select. Not a simple process to frequently toggle.

Another thing I've found missing is the ability to rename the inputs. I've got an HD Tivo and an SD Tivo, and have one on the TV/SAT input and the other on the DVD Recorder input. Sure would be nice to change the labels to match.

BTW, after listening a while longer, I'm more and more impressed with the sound. I've listened to a wide variety of music, from classical, jazz, blues, and pop and it brings a smile of satisfaction to my face.

Great to hear your impressions,

i can still not get over the fact that it says you can run a SINGLE audio/video cable to your tv. It really sounds like upconversion to me. Maybe someone should call panasonic and ask, i dono but i'm really hopin it does.

here's the way the receiver works:

you hook up 4 input devices, hard-named "tv","cd","dvd" and "dvd-r"
there are input connectors for each video device for each of composite, s-video and component
there are input connectors for audio from each device for each of digital and stereo rca

there are output connectors for composite, s-video and component

you simply select a device among the 4.

the machine "hard" switches the video outs of all 3 types- composite, s-video and component- to the inputs for each type for the device you selected. audio is auto-detected digital when available else analog. analog 2CH audio only is available to the tv and to the dvd-r, and i don't yet know if this analog audio is even available if only digital audio input comes from the selected source- i highly doubt it will be (i.e., i highly doubt the AVR does a D-A conversion of audio. i'll try this later and report back.

wow thats a little confusing, but thanks for letting us know.

So all in all you do have to run a component, svideo and composite cable from the avr out to the tv?

Meaning their statement of "run a single audio/video connection to the tv" is a little if not a lot misleading.

j-j-

yeah, i go for "a lot misleading"- you appear to only have to run a single connection if all of your sources are all of a single type (caveat- i haven't played with all variants involving s-video).

yah,

the problem with not having upconversion is that it makes it more of an audio reveiver and less of a video receiver, because I could just run all the video cables directly and it would be the same thing, meaning the AVR does nothing but audio.

well, for me this AVR is essentially perfect for my application (home cinema room, only one display device- a PJ). i run component from my sources (DVD, STB and DVR) and the PJ is across the room (30' cable run) so the switching is a big, big plus. i also economize on the professional calibration service (hah!- eliab )

Is the switching good enough, so you don't see any video degradation for HDTV?

i don't have the 2nd STB yet. it arrives tomorrow- i'll report back.

i have a lot of confidence in the internals of this AVR. i think the engineering inside is top-notch.

personally, the one thing i really want to hear about is audio quality. i can live with video compromises much more easily.

yah i see what your saying,

but what precisely is component switching? What would be the alternative if you didnt have it? I see that you have all your component cables in and one out, but isnt that how it is for all avr's?

Same here. By the time I get around to upgrading my video, most of what's available today will probably be inadaquet. For now, this is looking very attractive if it gets the job done on the audio side.

David

Audio quality is superb. Based on this alone, the XR55 would be a bargain at twice its asking price.

I'm running an Ascend/Hsu 5.1 system, and it has never sounded better. Clarity, detail, and soundstaging are excellent. I have my Ascend CMT-340 mains biamped (thanks Panasonic), and these wonderfully transparent speakers absolutely disappear with the XR55. I'd recommend this receiver even if it wasn't insanely cheap.

well, I installed my XR55 today, it took me all day...

I was planning one getting some aperion speakers go go with my new toy but budget restrictions got in my way so for now I'm using the speaker that came with my old (dead IR) Kenwood VR-509 Home Theater in a Box. Knowing that these speakers are not very good I wasn't expecting that much of a difference. There was! A much cleaner sound! Even my girlfriend noticed. I've got three front channels plus a subwoofer connected.

The supplied remote sucks. You can't even cycle through all of the inputs with it. I have my Sirius PnP hooked up to the TAPE input, but I can't access that port through the remote, WTF?!?! I really hope some discrete codes can be found for this unit. Hopefully I'll find a way to get some better speakers for this unit. I really only need fronts and a center as my apartment isn't really big enough for rears... any low budget suggestions?

Thanks, Matt. I have 340's accross the front. Sounds like the combo is just what I'm looking for.

David

Looks like J&R is finally shipping this thing.

I can definitely agree with the sound improvement with cheaper speakers. I'm using my Kenwood HTIB left, right, side surrounds and sub with a JBL EC35 center and 2 HTI6 rear surrounds that I just added. I put on "Master and Commander" and the sound blew me away. The rears added a completely new dimension to the movie and my old Kenwoods never sounded so clean.

The music from the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" DVD gave me goosebumps. I had no idea that 2 extra channels could make so much difference. I had it on DTS and was able to overlay PLIIx.

I can't imagine how it will sound when I finish my (painfully slow) upgrade to all JBLs and a SVS sub.

My wife, who has never noticed any upgrade so far, even commented on the improved sound.

Welcome to the revolution people. As far as I'm concerned digital amping is like CD's were to 8-tracks and Color TV was to Black & White.

It's true the interface of the Panasonic and how it is controlled with the remote can be somewhat annoying, but the sound quality really dominates. I'd run this thing even if it didn't have a remote.

As for the tape input, I think I ran it once. I could be mistaken but there are few remote 'tricks' that can make it do things it would at first appear to be unable to.

For example, trying holding down a key for longer, some of them trigger a second function that way. Or press a key twice to trigger different functions. For example hitting 'dolby digital' key a second time kicks in the 2-channel-mix mode (when you have a multichannel source at least)

One thing I didn't like is some of the input labels don't seem to allow separate assignment. For example, I think when I fed analog RCA's in to VCR, and digital in to DVR, they were not assignable separately. So I'd get the analog only if the digital source was shut off. I would have expected to be able to switch between these 2 sources but couldn't.

re: audio

i am neither a calibrator nor am i in a showroom, but i do have a reasonable comparison, in that i am listening simultaneously to my two AVRs playing on the same speaker setups in different rooms. granted, the rooms are different, but the feeds and speakers are identical. playing songs i have known every nuance of for 30 years.

the panasonic has an enormous, effortless sound, it reminds me of the sound quality of separates- it "sounds like" you have all of the power in the world in reserve.

i don't own any SACDs. i'm going to buy one today and check this out.

i wish they had put another $25 or so in some UI stuff. that's the bourgeoise in me. but i respect what they are up to here. i'm guessing the actual cost of the core internals here rivals many of the best receivers. you're paying for what's inside, and if you are a value shopper then that is what you want companies to do for you.

me, i'm a bit of a fata$$ and a lingering issue i have had with the remotes for many of my components is now come to a head. i'm a unirem shopper this weekend.

IF i can successfully program the unirem, then my criticisms of this receiver will have boiled down to the lack of a digital out. it doesn't hurt me, since in my particular setup it would be the panny playing a slave feed from my other AVR hooked up to my HTPC, but one could easily want the other direction and be disappointed.

cjv123, I know it is probable hard to tell, but does the sound level coming from a single speaker go down when you switch from 2 channels to 5 channels (i.e. can the amp truly push $75-100 per channel even in 5-6 channels)