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Thinking outside the box for a moment, if you are willing to assemble several components for your stated needs:Marantz AV-600 tuner-pre-proc/ No DD. Onboard Pro-Logic. Analogue audio processing. Quite simply, this is the best sounding real world HT pre-proc for 2 channel stereo; it can be bettered but for several times the price. Oh and you also get the 2000mk2 remote.
Marantz DP-870 DD processor. Smooth sound, with excellent detail retrieval, quiet backround. Perfect interface with the AV-600 and when DD is not needed, signals are passed straight through and un altered.
Link-Dac 2 or 3 for 24/96 CD playback. Again the best sounding real world processor. Maker is determined to keep this unit current as standards change, so there should be an easy upgrade path.
All products readily available used, with remainder of factory warranties in some cases AND total should be a lot less than 1k !!
Expect around $3-400 for AV-600, ~$200 for DD processor and ~250 for Link Dac.
Good Luck.
Ross
Doesn't have HDCD, but the B&K Reference 30 had been doing a pretty damn good job at my house for the last couple of weeks. It has an analog direct mode, so if HDCD is a must and you use a DVD/CD player that can decode HDCD, you'd just be passing the decoded signal through the volume control of the Ref. 30.See Ya. Dave
... your B&K is like the Meridian in that the "direct" mode is misnamed. If it controls volume then it does so in the digital domain meaning it upsamples & then downsamples again - hardly "direct" in the true sense of the word. Fortunately the Meridian does not seem to mangle the analog signal and your B&K might not either but this sort of deceptive description annoys me as it is misleading.John
Incorrect. There is NO A/D conversion on a direct analog source on this preamplifier. Period. Nada. None.The Volume control is implemented following the D/A conversion giving "Direct" sources a path like this:
Input --> Volume Control --> Output
Read my review.
John
I just bought a Ref30 this past xmas and still being very impressed with it. In the case of the Ref30. The 'analog by-passed' is volume controlled for output stage gain preamplication but the original source signals are basically left untouch in the sense of up/down samples. The unit also has a true 5.1 'direct' or by-passed for DVD-A or SACD 5.1. I have had several pre/pros came and gone in my h/t in the past few years and no doubt the Ref30 has found a new home in mine. Thanks for your post on my 7.1 speaker surrounding question. Is there any good movies in EX format you've watched lately? My jaw was dropped while watching/listening Gladiator in DTS-EX mode with 7.1 setting. The Ref30 is THX-Ultra certified BTW.
... pretty awesome sound track although I'm not a fan of this type of mumbo jumbo.The movies I appreciate most have great stories with believable characters, well acted, and subtle soundtracks that add to the movie atmosphere. Low key ones like "You've Got Mail" are what my wife & I enjoy most. Maybe the situations are a bit contrived but top actors can get away with it.
Isn't HT great? I feel sorry for those snobby dyed in the wool 2 channel addicts who look down on HT as if it is a blot on the purity of the audio landscape. They do not know what they are missing out on and will not be told.
Cheers
John
I am one of the very few lucky dogs out there who can afford or manage to own two dedicated systems under one roof; one is a two channel and another is h/t is what I meant. As an audiophile or videophile myself, I've learned over the years that you cannot mix and match both sounds into one without pretty big sonic compromises. No matter how good your pre/pro may be sonically it cannot match or compare to, say class A preamp let it be tubed or ss. I will continue to enjoy keeping two systems until that day when everything is literally controlled by Fire-wire IEEE1394, all the way from source to transducer. Until that day, drop in one of my favorites SCDs into my SACD1, dim out the lights and ah....
Take care
... any cheap path to achieve good digital sound reproduction. The bright side is the rapid improvement made in digital processing in the last couple of years.Not cheap, but audition the Meridian 568 & 861 processors. They are among the relatively few which will process 2 channel music brilliantly along with DTS, DD etc. The processing of Dolby pro logic from these is as awesome as DD. Being card based they offer upgrades to DVD-A but may never accommodate SACD as this is a rival system.
John
John,They also aren't fools ;-D
If SACD should eventually win the format war, and a digital output
specification is standardized, I suspect the people at Meridian will
have a card / firmware upgrade to handle SACD.
The California Audio Labs has the best 2 channel of any processor that I have heard. It does dolby digital, and pro-logic very well. It is a processor aimed at audiophiles with a focus on 2 channel analog. It only has a few surround modes as a result of the focus on music first. If music is your first priority then you will love it. However if you prefer 20 different sound modes some that you have created yourself then this may not be the unit for you. The Aragon Soundstage also has a good 2 channel by pass but it's digital to analog conversion does not sound nearly as good. With that said, it is still a lot better than a lot of the processors that convert everything to digital. A lot will depend on your price point.
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