[HDTimeShifter]

I'm buying a 2.1 bookshelves/sub setup for my office bedroom (12.5' x 11'). Just started listening to speakers and am leaning towards Definitive Technology 350 for the bookshelves. I will be mostly listening to CDs and FM radio with occasion HDTV through my HTPC. I was thinking of buying the Denon 1910/790 to replace the receiver in my living room and moving my old JVC VBK884 5.1 DD 5x100watt receiver here, but thought I could save some $ instead by buying a 5.1 receiver or even higher power 2 channel receiver if they make such a thing these days. Seems with so many (7) channels these days, the A/V receivers are lower in power to each channel. The 5.1 receivers seem to have even lower power. Are any of the A/V receivers set up so that they can bi-amplify the main front speakers in a 2.1 setup? Seems the extra surround amps in 7.1 are wasted with 5.1 setup and same with 5.1 amps in a 2.1 setup. Receiver recommendations welcomed.

 

[rnatalli]

HK still offers some really nice stereo receivers. Give them a look.

 

[MichaelJHuman]

Stereo receivers are limited in the sense they lack even basic decoders such as Dolby Digital. They may lack bass management. They probably lack room correction.


AV receivers are not more expensive than stereo receivers in general. They have a lot of useful features even with 2.1 setups. I suggest you look at them. The extra amps are not really wasted. Most of the cost is probably in the shared power supply. For stereo you will get full use from the power supply. Don't worry about it being 5 or 7 channels for that reason. Just to follow up on that thought, go find a benchmark for a 7 channel receiver, and look at it's two channel output - it will be pretty good even on budget models.

 

[Knucklehead90]

The HK 3490 is the only 2 channel receiver that I know of with internal DACs. It has one optical and one coax input - and 120wpc. I had a 3480 for a few years and really liked it - trouble is it didn't have those DACs the 3490 has - and comes with every AVR made - not that they are all created equal. They aren't but you'd be hard pressed to tell most of the lower priced ones from the more expensive ones.


I agree with MJH on this one - find a decent AVR and call it a day.

 

[HDTimeShifter]

I'm probably going with the B&W 685 bookshelf speakers which have 2 sets of terminals so I can bi-wire the tweeter and woofer separately and get 200 watts per speaker. Also need the LFE from my JVC 5.1 as well as the digital coax to hook up my HTPC audio. What happens with DD-encoded audio such as HDTV when played on a 2.1 system? Will it send the R/L signals to the speakers and LFE to the sub and ignore the rest? I'm not sure if it will work with bi-wiring or if I just leave it in stereo mode and it will do as above.


I'm probably going to buy the Denon 790 (or 1910) for the Audussey Dynamic Volume for my living room for HDTV and add a sub and perhaps in the future replace/add speakers for a 5.1 setup.

 

[Knucklehead90]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTimeShifter /forum/post/17016878


I'm probably going with the B&W 685 bookshelf speakers which have 2 sets of terminals so I can bi-wire the tweeter and woofer separately and get 200 watts per speaker. Also need the LFE from my JVC 5.1 as well as the digital coax to hook up my HTPC audio. What happens with DD-encoded audio such as HDTV when played on a 2.1 system? Will it send the R/L signals to the speakers and LFE to the sub and ignore the rest? I'm not sure if it will work with bi-wiring or if I just leave it in stereo mode and it will do as above.

Bi-wiring does little or nothing to improve audio quality as long as you have adequate gauge wire to begin with. All you do when you bi-wire essentially is remove the shorting strap at the speaker and place it at the receiver. You cannot gain any power with bi-wiring.


You won't get any audio formats other than stereo with only 2 speakers. If a receiver lets you switch into DD or DTS with 2 speakers you only end up not hearing some of the audio.

 

[HDTimeShifter]

Doesn't bi-wiring drive use 1 channel amp for each driver? If I remove the jumpers and hook up the A-speaker outs to the woofers and the B-speakers outs to the tweeters, don't I get 100 watt x 4? Maybe it should be called bi-amping, but I think bi-amping is when you bridge 2 amps to get twice as much power into a channel.