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AVR with Front L/R Pre-Out and Digital Audio Out?

ftv

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Hi,

Just got new speakers and want to use them in my living room in double-duty mode with my 5.0 surround setup and a 2-channel setup. My older receiver does not have any pre-outs so that can be changed out for a suitable new AVR or processor or whatever works. Center speaker sits behind the TV so will prob go with a phantom center, rear speakers are in-walls (nothing fancy), so power requirements are low. Inputs are cable box, Apple TV (HDMI only), Blu-Ray, and a gaming console at times.

AVRs with front L/R pre-outs are fairly common (I will feed that to an amp's HT bypass input), but I also want to watch Youtube music videos and feed the audio to an external DAC (which will feed into an amp's line input). Problem is, I cannot find an AVR that actually has a digital audio out that will carry the audio signal coming in on its HDMI inputs (some have a digital audio out as a pass-through for its digital audio inputs, but not HDMI audio). My present solution is to use my TV's optical out to the DAC, but that only works for the built-in apps, not for audio coming in via the HDMI inputs (I use the TV's Youtube app which works but that sucks as the TV's remote is not all that user friendly).

So given those wants, with whatever combination of AVR/processor/DAC/streamer/amp (could buy all those if necessary though would prefer to let sound quality dictate the choices for the 2-channel), what choices do I have? Spending a lot on an AVR/processor does not make sense given my use cases, not sure an inexpensive HDMI audio extractor (between AVR and TV) would work but never tried one, a DAC with HDMI (assuming I can send a 2nd HDMI signal from the AVR to it) such as the Evolve II-4K HDMI v2.0b Multi-Channel DAC, a streamer with HDMI input such as Bluesound Node (has HDMI eARC input, will that work with HDMI fed from AVR or TV and send digital audio out via its digital outputs?), or maybe some fancy analog/digital pre- or integrated amp that takes HDMI in but also has excellent sound quality including support for 2 external subs.

Any ideas/comments welcomed!

Frank
 
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ftv

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Turns out my TV has an HDMI ARC port that I may be able to use to send the audio to a Bluesound Node so that may work in conjunction with a new receiver that has front pre-out.
 

Chrispy

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Digital audio outs are limited mostly due DRM let alone being particularly useful. Some of the "slimline" type avrs have just L/R preouts, tho. Not sure why one would want such a limited avr otherwise, tho.
 
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ftv

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Digital audio outs are limited mostly due DRM let alone being particularly useful. Some of the "slimline" type avrs have just L/R preouts, tho. Not sure why one would want such a limited avr otherwise, tho.
Funny you mentioned slimline avrs, just looked at the Emotiva BasX MC1 but at $1100 vs $1500 for a Denon X4700 I'll go for the latter.

You may be correct about the DRM, though LG says you can connect their TV to a sound bar via optical or HDMI ARC.
 

Chrispy

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Funny you mentioned slimline avrs, just looked at the Emotiva BasX MC1 but at $1100 vs $1500 for a Denon X4700 I'll go for the latter.

You may be correct about the DRM, though LG says you can connect their TV to a sound bar via optical or HDMI ARC.
You can connect the tv's audio output via optical or hdmi arc is what that means (and those need to work in conformance with current drm standards). The MC1 isn't a receiver, it's a pre-pro (and likely a buggy one).
 

Nattage

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ftv

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Thanks for the suggestions/replies - I ended up buying an Arcam ARV10 at a good price with a digital audio out port, and it works with audio received via HDMI so all is well!
 
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