Getting the Clarities--but what do I power them with?

[Pcar928fan]

yeah i'm not in any rush and even HDMI 1.1 would do. i'm going to attempt to use an old onkyo analog receiver with a RMB 1095 as a power amp for a pair of vistas but i'm not too sure how well all of that will go

1095 is a nice big power amp! The 1075 was recently rated as a best buy in one of the mags... The Perfect Vision I think, or maybe it was Home Theater, I can't remember and the 95 is the big brother... I like mine...really fires up the center and surround channels in my system!

 

[JohnP]

Look at optical digital vs. RCA digital. If you want a QUALITY interconnect you will spend MANY hundreds of $$$ on a nice clear pure glass optical cable, for the same money you can buy a SUPER NICE audioquest copperhead or better interconnect.

James,
You can buy a nice quality glass optical from this dude for $20 and it is great. http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1171757112

 

[Pcar928fan]

James,
You can buy a nice quality glass optical from this dude for $20 and it is great. http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?cablintr&1171757112

That is good to know! The guys from the Home Theater Store that came out and did my update were saying how hard and expensive it is to find really good quality optical at a price comparable to quality copper digital cables so they always advise using that connection w/ good cables vs. the optical with cables of the same price because they will be of much lower quality...

 

[Robonaut]

I've become intrigued by the idea of setting up a 2 channel system now and then upgrading to 5.1 as funds allow, so I've been looking for pre-amps/integrated amps with home theater pass through and I think that I've found one that fits my needs--the Cambridge Audio 840A.

From what I've seen, this thing has gotten universally positive reviews. It has a lot of a great features: home theater pass through, XLR inputs (which is kind of a must for me for a pre-amp/integrated without a digital input), pre-outs for hooking up a powered sub, etc. It also puts out 200 watts into 4 ohms, which is as much as the Parsound A23--so I think that it should have plenty of power for the Clarities. Oh, and it looks really cool!

The price is also quite nice--at about $1,400, it would save me about $600 compared to the Marantz or Denon receivers.

What do you folks think? Does anyone have experience with Cambridge Audio gear? From what I can tell, they're a pretty well respected company.

Too bad that they don't seem to make a matching SACD player...

But I can put the money I save towards getting a used Sony SCD-1 or a Marantz SA-11S1.

 

[Burke]

Too bad that they don't seem to make a matching SACD player...

I aquired an OPPO DV-981HD 1080p High Definition Up-Converting Universal DVD Player with HDMI http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/index.html. I have been very happy with the sound, and this will play anything, DVD, CD, SACD DVD-Audio and DVD-Video. I have it hooked up to a Pioneer VSX-74 via an HDMI cable that passes both the video and digital audio, so I can not speak to the units onboard DACs, But I love mine and at $229 it is a steal.

 

[Crawdaddy]

I've become intrigued by the idea of setting up a 2 channel system now and then upgrading to 5.1 as funds allow

I'm following the same strategy. There's too much uncertainty right now (for me) to invest in HT. CES announced some new flagship receivers (Denon and Sherwood I believe) that will process the next gen hi-rez audio formats. I'm holding out for this feature to be more common in other receivers (I'm a Rotel fan), HDMI 1.3 to be embraced, and an end to the Blu-Ray / HD DVD war before I spend more money on my HT. I'm guessing this will be a year out.

In the meantime I'm spending on 2 channel. I've ordered an Odyssey Audio Candela pre and sent in my Odyssey Extreme Mono's in to the shop for an upgrade. (I should get these back this week!)

If you're in the market for great 2 ch w/o breaking the back...I'd recommend you check out Odyssey. odysseyaudio.com The website isn't the best (doesnt even show the Candela) but a guy named Klaus Bunge is the owner and a pleasure to deal with. Also lots of good info over on audiocircle.com.

So I'll be rockin' soon :rocker: and will continue to enjoy SD DVD over my Arcam DV78 > Rotel RSP 1066 > Sanyo PLVZ2 HT while I save up $$$ for next year when I'll jump into the next gen HT stuff.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers! :cheers:

 

[twich54]

I concur with your approach, build a killer two channel set-up and then as time and $$$ allow expand it into your HT . Way too many "great" Ht set-ups really suck when it comes to serious two channel listening, probably the biggest culprit being TV's and entertainment centers.

 

[ralflar]

Robonaut,

I don't know the Cambridge Audio 840A, but starting with a two channel setup and HT pass thru is the right path to follow. I would like to comment on your statement re. XLR inputs ("must have"), though.

XLR connections are most effective where the noise is high compared to the signal level. Since the background noise remains more or less the same with short cable lengths it is the signal level which determines the advantage of XLR over RCA. In other words, the smaller the signal, or the longer the signal path, the higher is the potential benefit of XLR connections.

Nowaday's digital sources output signals at very strong levels, often 2Vrms. That level is high enough to (over)drive many power amps. Consequently, pre-amps actually attenuate for the most part. The signal level on the connection between digital source and pre-amp/integrated amp is constant and high, therefore XLR connections are not better than RCAs per se. They do have an advantage between low level analog sources (such as MC pickups) and amp stage, and between pre- and power amps, if both ends of a connection are differential, XLR has no inherent benefit.

In other words, unless you have very low level sources and/or long cable lengths between pre- and power amp, don't worry about XLR inputs. Properly shielded RCAs will be just fine.