Where are the PreAmps with DTS HD?

[Twist]

Are there any PreAmps besides Denon's AVP-A1HDCI that does DTS HD Master Lossless Audio? I heard the 14k ($7x2) Denon's Pre/Amp Combo output to Martin Logans 7.1 setup on the the movie "Speed" in Blu-ray. It sounded amazing. I noticed when he put the same Blu-ray movie on another system (same but diff pre) with a non DTS HD preamp it sounded worse than Dolby Digital 5.1. So before I purchase anything I wanted to ask you guys. For me, since Blu-Ray is the new winning format I think I sould be setup with the latest, right?

Or am I just being selfish (stupid) wanting the lastest greatest?

 

[Burke]

Integra DTC-9.8

The Integra DTC-9.8 does DTS-HD MA decoding as well as all other current formats (even SACD DSD).

This assumes that the Blu-ray player will output DTS-HD MA in bitstream via HDMI. check carefully as most players do not. I purchased the Sony BDP-S500 just for this and it outputs DTS-HD but not DTS-HD MA, down converts it to DTS 5.1 and output that. I am not a happy camper about this.

But the Intgera DTC-9.8 is a great buy at $1600 list.

 

[Twist]

Is this the best possible combination for music & movies?

Would the new Denon AVP-A1HDCI for the preamp and the McIntosh MC207 for the 7-Channel Power Amplifier be the best possible combination for music and movies? Magnolia said it was. But you guys are the real hands on professionals. Could anyone give me some advice for some nice hardware for my current speaker setup?

DENON
http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3922.asp

MC207
http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...at=Power+Amplifiers&prodid=1096&product=MC207

I'm using 2 Vantages, 1 Stage, 4 Passages, and 1 Descent i. The reason why I'm thinking of going with the Denon is because of its future capabilites and lastest technology (dts HS MA, HD Radio, XM Ready, ect.). Or could I get better for the same money with out the Denon and the McIntosh??

ANY REPLIES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

 

[mrmike]

Marantz is coming out with the av8003 this spring. Should be in the 3k range.

 

[JonFo]

Would the new Denon AVP-A1HDCI for the preamp and the McIntosh MC207 for the 7-Channel Power Amplifier be the best possible combination for music and movies? ...

Twist, the Denon is probably the best pre for current and future format compatability. Its sound qualities look great on paper and early user reports are very favorable to many other high-end pre's.

Either the Denon amp or the Mac amp would do fine with your speaker array.
I still recommend considering a Sunfire TGA7400 as an option and putting some money into room treatments.

Again, room treatments will improve your sound more than any amp ever will, by an order of magnitude at least. So please do not ignore that very important aspect of the system and budget some for it.

 

[STV]

Would the new Denon AVP-A1HDCI for the preamp and the McIntosh MC207 for the 7-Channel Power Amplifier be the best possible combination for music and movies? Magnolia said it was. But you guys are the real hands on professionals. Could anyone give me some advice for some nice hardware for my current speaker setup?

DENON
http://usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3922.asp

MC207
http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/mcprod/...at=Power+Amplifiers&prodid=1096&product=MC207

I'm using 2 Vantages, 1 Stage, 4 Passages, and 1 Descent i. The reason why I'm thinking of going with the Denon is because of its future capabilites and lastest technology (dts HS MA, HD Radio, XM Ready, ect.). Or could I get better for the same money with out the Denon and the McIntosh??

ANY REPLIES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

Wow that is too cool that you actually got to audition the pre/pro and amp with Martin Logans! Knowing that it sounded as good as it did really makes me feel good. So you auditioned them at a Magnolia store? Did they mention when they will be available for purchase? I pre-ordered mine from a specialty AV store sight unseen, as it is the only pre/pro on the market that has all the goodies (and then some) that I have been dreaming to have.

Just curious, did you get a chance to listen to them with 2 channel material?

So if Magnolia has the pre/pro and amp in their store(s) for demo, I can expect that my dealer should have mine very soon. This is great!

Yes I agree with Jonathan, the Denon is most likely the best choice. With everything it has, right now it's in a class all its own. It not only has all the connectivity, processing, and decoding options one would want or need, it's a fully balanced design which is icing on the cake.

Pairing up the Denon pre/pro with a McIntosh 7 channel amp would be freakin' awesome! But like Jonathan mentioned, Sunfire has some pretty amazing amps also. I will be using my Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature-Series II amp with the Denon AVP. Now after hearing the demo you had with the AVP/POA with Logans, I am now even more anxious to get mine.



Seth

 

[Twist]

Room Treatments?

What do you guys mean by room treatments? I'm thinking of changing my Vantages to Summits. They sounded very good! I heard them with the MX120 and MC207. People are telling me that the Panasonic Blu-ray Player does the DTS HD MA internally, and that I don't need my mac preamp to do anything. Is this true or was that guy just a salesman??

 

[ralflar]

Forget room treatments. No one who can afford big buck gear needs them.

Kidding . Executive summary: the sound waves emitted by speakers interact with the environment (room, furniture etc.), mostly in ways which don't sound good. Think of echos and bass boom.

You should read up on this. Learning about room acoustics, room treatment/optimization, speaker setup etc. takes time, but it is necessary to understand these things (or hire someone who does) to get the best or even good results out of any system, even a cheap one.

 

[Statman]

What do you guys mean by room treatments? I'm thinking of changing my Vantages to Summits. They sounded very good! I heard them with the MX120 and MC207. People are telling me that the Panasonic Blu-ray Player does the DTS HD MA internally, and that I don't need my mac preamp to do anything. Is this true or was that guy just a salesman??

The Panasonic bitstreams the signal to the pre-pro which has to decode it. I've recently purchased a Panasonic BD30 and a Denon 3808CI just for these features.

 

[JonFo]

What do you guys mean by room treatments?

Twist, please spend a few minutes and read up on the impacts and benefits of room treatments in this thread I posted on the topic.

My fairly well researched opinion is that a well treated room will improve the sound from your Vantages more than switching to Summits ever would.

There is no piece of audio gear that can possibly approach the level of impact that well placed, quality treatments can do for the sound.

Not this amp vs that amp, not cable x or Y, not even processors with fancy 'room correction' (although it is very, very effective), will make the kind of difference that treating the room will.

Trust me; I had one of the more complex systems with active speaker and room correction, housed in a custom engineered room with careful placement of my MartinLogan's, yet adding $7K of room treatments made the biggest difference to the sound quality and enjoyment. I seriously regretted not having done that years before.

 

[JonFo]

... People are telling me that the Panasonic Blu-ray Player does the DTS HD MA internally, and that I don't need my mac preamp to do anything. Is this true or was that guy just a salesman??

Yes, most new players will decode all the codecs on-board (some have to to mix in menu sounds over the soundtrack). Then they stream high-resolution LPCM over HDMI to the process. The process gets up to 8 channels of PCM, which it them applies volume, bass management (and possibly room correction) to before feeding to the amps.

So strictly speaking, you do not need High-Res codes in the pre-amp to lsitent to these soundtracs.

However, the best possible quality will come from solutions like Denons, where the pre-amp is doing the high-rez format decoding internally. This has to do with digital clock timing synchronization and jitter management.

 

[jzoz01]

Yes, most new players will decode all the codecs on-board (some have to to mix in menu sounds over the soundtrack). Then they stream high-resolution LPCM over HDMI to the process. The process gets up to 8 channels of PCM, which it them applies volume, bass management (and possibly room correction) to before feeding to the amps.

So strictly speaking, you do not need High-Res codes in the pre-amp to lsitent to these soundtracs.

However, the best possible quality will come from solutions like Denons, where the pre-amp is doing the high-rez format decoding internally. This has to do with digital clock timing synchronization and jitter management.

Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong......

None of the current players internally decode all the formats (Denon 3800BD and Panny BD50 will) and only a few will bitstream them all (Samsung 1400 & Panny BD30). Most don't handle the new formats at all or will only convert TrueHD to LPCM but not bitstream it.

 

[jk319]

The Panasonic bitstreams the signal to the pre-pro which has to decode it. I've recently purchased a Panasonic BD30 and a Denon 3808CI just for these features.

I also have the Pana 30 to bitstream. I later found unfortunately that it has a -5db in the LFE via HDMI. *shrugs*. I guess the ideal solution is to run all towers as full-range, and then turn sub's gain up a bit.

 

[Statman]

I also have the Pana 30 to bitstream. I later found unfortunately that it has a -5db in the LFE via HDMI. *shrugs*. I guess the ideal solution is to run all towers as full-range, and then turn sub's gain up a bit.

I read on the AVS forum yesterday that supposedly there is a fix coming. I've done the 1.4 firmware upgrade.

update


There is a fix for the bug!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=998399

 

[jk319]

Fantastic news. Thanks. :bowdown: