Hey all,
Last time I bought an AVR HDMI didn't exist, and only the highest-end AVR had component video I/O I'm in the process of building an entirely new room with new equipment. Speakers arrangement is 7.2.4 Atmos. All speakers are my own design and build. The LCR are going to be fully active, driven by Hypex Fusion (ncore) amps with DSP crossovers. All surround speakers will be passive two-way designs.
I'm looking for either an AVR with 11.1 pre-outs or a pre/pro with 11.1 output. Budget is under $2k, preferably even less. On the AVR front the latest Denon/Marantz AVRs seem to fit the bill, but if I read Amir's review of the X4700 correctly, the new pre-amp mode only turns off the L and R channels? There's no way to turn off ALL amp channels? Or even just the L, C, and R? That sucks since the center channel carries most of the duties during movies, which means accepting the higher distortion at high output levels. The Anthem AVM60 looks like it fits my needs, but it breaks the budget by $1k. Something like the NuForce AVP-18 would be great, but it's limited to 7.1 instead of 11.1. I don't need room correction or a bunch of legacy inputs, so it's really just a quality pre-amp and Dolby Atmos decoder that I'm looking for. Is the latest Denon line my only real option?
Thanks!
Last time I bought an AVR HDMI didn't exist, and only the highest-end AVR had component video I/O I'm in the process of building an entirely new room with new equipment. Speakers arrangement is 7.2.4 Atmos. All speakers are my own design and build. The LCR are going to be fully active, driven by Hypex Fusion (ncore) amps with DSP crossovers. All surround speakers will be passive two-way designs.
I'm looking for either an AVR with 11.1 pre-outs or a pre/pro with 11.1 output. Budget is under $2k, preferably even less. On the AVR front the latest Denon/Marantz AVRs seem to fit the bill, but if I read Amir's review of the X4700 correctly, the new pre-amp mode only turns off the L and R channels? There's no way to turn off ALL amp channels? Or even just the L, C, and R? That sucks since the center channel carries most of the duties during movies, which means accepting the higher distortion at high output levels. The Anthem AVM60 looks like it fits my needs, but it breaks the budget by $1k. Something like the NuForce AVP-18 would be great, but it's limited to 7.1 instead of 11.1. I don't need room correction or a bunch of legacy inputs, so it's really just a quality pre-amp and Dolby Atmos decoder that I'm looking for. Is the latest Denon line my only real option?
Thanks!