Howdy, new around these parts. I'm looking to upgrade a 20-year-old Marantz AVR and was hoping to get talked out of making unnecessary mistakes.
First, a little orientation to my situation.
I do not have a dedicated HT room. Rather, live in a NYC apartment where the system is in our primary living space (sharing space with piles of toys from the 1 and 6 year olds).
Realistically, I doubt that I'll ever bother with more than 5 speakers on the listening plane. Subwoofers are right out -- and entirely unnecessary for load the place up with plenty of low-end energy.
In another life, I spent a fair amount of time and money chasing 2-channel fidelity. The two-channel system is quite OK, and includes wires and isolation solutions that cost several times what I paid for the old Marantz AVR. I befriended acoustic engineers who excepted payment in beer and music to tinker with and optimize the system. My room is -- by far -- the weak link. Sadly, that won't change. But it still sounds pretty good.
The HT bits run into a bypass on the stereo preamp for the front L & R speakers (Verity Audio Parsifals). Center is an old Thiel SCS 3.0 (runs at 4 ohms, little finicky for power), surrounds are some Def Tech BPX bi-polar whatevers (easy, unfussy, unspecial load).
The ask:
The Marantz AVR has got to go. These days, without HDMI, it just won't do its admittedly modest job of making the whistles and bells go for very basic surround sound.
So, then what? I've spent several weeks reading reviews and such. Stumbled upon this place, liked the ethos, and thought to ask.
I had settled on a solid 7.1 pre/pro and some extra channels of amplification. Was zeroing in on the Outlaw 976 and likely a 5-channel amp -- for which the Outlaw offering also looked plenty sufficient. That way, I can make all of my current speakers go and build in the ability to add two more if I ever get around to it. That, I think, is the reasonable play.
But then I started down the rabbit hole of object-based sound processing and the new crop of silly. While there's little chance of adding more than five speakers in my space on the listener's plane, I could very reasonably add a couple/four height channels. So, then I start thinking, is there a reasonable way to get that done...?
From what I've read (here and elsewhere, bust most convincingly here), the answer to that question is most likely: no, not at the moment. Ruling out AVRs as something that doesn't interest, looks like the principal entry points for Atmos/DTS:X capable processors are Emotiva's two offerings and the Monoprice right in between. All of which are new-ish and have their fair share of compromises. (To be politic.) Each would get me way more channels than I would ever use, but there seems to be no other way to break the plane and grab even a pair of height channels. (Realistically, I'd want to run 5.0.2, maybe 5.0.4.) They would also get me (theoretically, and/or eventually) some more advanced room correction -- which my "challenging" room would greatly benefit from. But that all comes at the cost of 3-4 times that of the Outlaw, as well as -- probably -- a 7-channel amp v. a 5 and two-to-four height channel speakers (which I would do on the cheap, because I'm not sure I see the point in doing otherwise).
So, there it is. My question. The answer, I think, is to make happy with the old generation codecs and wait for the rest of it to mature. But that, given my room constraints and disinterest in spending enough to get passed the arguably-shaky entry point for the current-gen stuff, trying to scrape into Atmos/X functionality is just not worth it at this point.
Does that sound right? Many thanks.
First, a little orientation to my situation.
I do not have a dedicated HT room. Rather, live in a NYC apartment where the system is in our primary living space (sharing space with piles of toys from the 1 and 6 year olds).
Realistically, I doubt that I'll ever bother with more than 5 speakers on the listening plane. Subwoofers are right out -- and entirely unnecessary for load the place up with plenty of low-end energy.
In another life, I spent a fair amount of time and money chasing 2-channel fidelity. The two-channel system is quite OK, and includes wires and isolation solutions that cost several times what I paid for the old Marantz AVR. I befriended acoustic engineers who excepted payment in beer and music to tinker with and optimize the system. My room is -- by far -- the weak link. Sadly, that won't change. But it still sounds pretty good.
The HT bits run into a bypass on the stereo preamp for the front L & R speakers (Verity Audio Parsifals). Center is an old Thiel SCS 3.0 (runs at 4 ohms, little finicky for power), surrounds are some Def Tech BPX bi-polar whatevers (easy, unfussy, unspecial load).
The ask:
The Marantz AVR has got to go. These days, without HDMI, it just won't do its admittedly modest job of making the whistles and bells go for very basic surround sound.
So, then what? I've spent several weeks reading reviews and such. Stumbled upon this place, liked the ethos, and thought to ask.
I had settled on a solid 7.1 pre/pro and some extra channels of amplification. Was zeroing in on the Outlaw 976 and likely a 5-channel amp -- for which the Outlaw offering also looked plenty sufficient. That way, I can make all of my current speakers go and build in the ability to add two more if I ever get around to it. That, I think, is the reasonable play.
But then I started down the rabbit hole of object-based sound processing and the new crop of silly. While there's little chance of adding more than five speakers in my space on the listener's plane, I could very reasonably add a couple/four height channels. So, then I start thinking, is there a reasonable way to get that done...?
From what I've read (here and elsewhere, bust most convincingly here), the answer to that question is most likely: no, not at the moment. Ruling out AVRs as something that doesn't interest, looks like the principal entry points for Atmos/DTS:X capable processors are Emotiva's two offerings and the Monoprice right in between. All of which are new-ish and have their fair share of compromises. (To be politic.) Each would get me way more channels than I would ever use, but there seems to be no other way to break the plane and grab even a pair of height channels. (Realistically, I'd want to run 5.0.2, maybe 5.0.4.) They would also get me (theoretically, and/or eventually) some more advanced room correction -- which my "challenging" room would greatly benefit from. But that all comes at the cost of 3-4 times that of the Outlaw, as well as -- probably -- a 7-channel amp v. a 5 and two-to-four height channel speakers (which I would do on the cheap, because I'm not sure I see the point in doing otherwise).
So, there it is. My question. The answer, I think, is to make happy with the old generation codecs and wait for the rest of it to mature. But that, given my room constraints and disinterest in spending enough to get passed the arguably-shaky entry point for the current-gen stuff, trying to scrape into Atmos/X functionality is just not worth it at this point.
Does that sound right? Many thanks.
