2. home-theater
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Need Receiver Help: High Quality Ampification & DAC, Digital input to Zone 2, Older is OK

Hi,
I’m looking for some recommendations.

I currently have an Onkyo TX-NR5008, which has a killer amp (still one of the more powerful in a receiver) and a good DAC. I am using it in a 7.1 setup. It is older, and doesn’t have all the latest bells & whistles and not 11.2.4 channel support... but I don’t need that.

My main issue with what I have is that Zone 2 only supports analog inputs. I want to have Zone 2 be my 2 channel setup (different speakers) and my music library is all digital. The Zone 2 feeds to a separate amplifier.

Does anyone know of a receiver, and it can be an older model, that has the following?

- Great amp with 7 channels+ amplified.
- Great DAC.
- Zone 2 can route digital signals.
- 4K would be good.
- Good room correction would be good.
- Reliable / Good build quality.
Thanks!
sarsicism
spatialking's avatar
spatialking
610 posts
 
Hmmm, I think there is a better way to do what you want to do.   You only need one DAC and I believe that Onkyo should put the analog output onto its preamp output jacks in the back.   If so, you can just pipe analog to the second system.   
sarsicism OP
12 posts
 
I thought of that, but there is no way to turn off the home theater speakers in that scenario, so everything would be on at the same time.  Only zones allow you to control output like that. 
sarsicism OP
12 posts
 
I think I found the cheapest solution.  I will get a splitter for the toslink output of the Mac Mini, and then get a good, but inexpensive DAC.  That DAC's analog out will be an input for Zone 2 on my receiver.  Not the cleanest/simplest of solutions, but pretty cheap and should work.
spatialking's avatar
spatialking
610 posts
 
Sarsicism has a point.  If that second DAC is to your liking, you do have a solution. 
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