[mythtvnz] New Amplifier

[Arjan Harre]

Hi

I have a now 5 or 6 year old NAD 5.1 .... quite frankly its sounds 
great. Crisp, clean and just right for me. I am absolutely positive 
there are better systems out there but this one suits me. A friend of 
mine has recently installed the latest and greatest Sony but to me it 
sounded like the sound was attacking me rather than tickling my ears. It 
might be that he has a tiny lounge and the system is quite frankly huge 
and that it might sound a lot better in a different enviroment but I 
just didnt like it.

One thing that might be worth trying is going to some of the higher end 
shops and getting them to let you try one in your house for a weekend. 
The shop I bought the NAD of brought me three to try before I bought. 
That way you could really put it through the wringer before forking out 
for something that might not suit you at all. Having said that, whatever 
you buy will be out of date about 3 minutes after you hand over your 
credit card. Get the amp that suits you right now, do not pay too much 
attention to what might or might not happen in the future.

Thats just my opinion.

Arjan

Dylan Hall wrote:
> Hopefully this isn't too far off topic :)
>
> I find myself needing a new home theatre amp because my current one 
> has died after many years of loyal service...
>
> It seems in the intervening 9 years a lot has changed. The amps no 
> longer seem to be trying to differentiate themselves on sound quality 
> or power output, but rather codec support, DSP prowess, number of 
> connectors, quality of their GUI, and video handling.
>
> After a little research and some foot work I find myself with two 
> choices, a basic "old school" audio amp ($1000-1500) or a flash does 
> everything amp ($2000-3000).
>
> In my mind the two main differences are codecs, and video handling. 
> These are the topics I'm after peoples opinions on :)
>
> Codecs: 
>
> The flash news amps have introduced new versions of Dolby Digital (DD+ 
> and Dolby True HD) and DTS (insert acronym). The new codecs provide 
> native 7.1 encoding (upto 14 channels I think, and I think higher bit 
> rates), and also lossless encoding. The caveat seems to be that these 
> new codecs are only supported via an HDMI cable. They won't work over 
> SPDIF. I've heard of, but never seen or played with PC hardware that 
> allows your sound card to insert it's audio into an HDMI port on the 
> video card.
>
> Has anyone played with the above? Does it work? Does HDCP rear it's 
> ugly head?
> What are the chances of actually finding myself with media on the 
> media PC that uses one of the above codecs?  I think currently the 
> only source is Blu-ray disks.
>
> Video Handling:
>
> The other new feature of the flash amps is video handling. Most of 
> them will convert/upscale an analoge video source to HDMI (720p/1080p) 
> and some will also upscale HDMI inputs. The upshot is that you only 
> need one cable (HDMI) to your TV and you can change video sources with 
> a single button press. They also seem to throw in an onscreen GUI for 
> good measure.
>
> Has anyone played with running a media PC through the above? I'm 
> particularly interested in how the amp will handle an HDMI input that 
> actually comes from a DVI on a video card. The specific concern is 
> that the video card output isn't "standard", e.g. it's running at 
> 1360x768 rather than 720p/1080p etc. Again, does HDCP rear it's ugly head?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dylan
>
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