2. home-theater
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What setup for my dedicated home theater?

So I have recently setup a dedicated home theater around an Epson Pro Cinima 800 projector and 100" screen. The wife and I LOVE it.

Originally I had a set of Monitor Audio B1 (smaller bookshelf) speakers in my office that I brought down and hooked up to an older Onkyo HT receiver. I picked up a matching MA center and pulled my old Definitive sub and BP2 bipole speakers (for the rear) out of storage.

Well now that we are using this room a lot more I picked up a brand new Onkyo TX-NR509 HT receiver (80wpc). It is great for the money but the first two months of use has been a reliability nightmare. So now I'm thinking about bringing my higher-end system in.

My living room system consists of the following: Snell E.5 (floor standing) speakers with matching center are a big step up from the MA speakers. I have a Rotel RSP-1068 (pre-pro) and RMB-985 (5x100 wpc) to power them. The problem is that the 1068 doesn't have HDMI switching so I think I'd have to upgrade this to a newer pre-pro.

I might have made a mistake getting the lower end Onkyo 509. I fear that the Onkyo can't properly power the Snells and I'd love to get some Rotel gear into the dedicated HT. Then I would move the MA's and Onkyo into the living room. So please ket me know what you think I should do. Thanks!
miatame
miatame OP
6 posts
 
Thanks for the response. I only paid $250 for the 509 so it was a very low risk expense. I wanted the newest surround sound formats and HDMI switching. I have my bluray, XBOX360, and hdmi cable box hooked up to the receiver which then runs in-wall to the ceiling mounted projector...so it is pretty important to me since swapping the cable is a real PITA. That's what I did with the older Onkyo receiver and I was done with that. I don't need anything crazy, HDMI 1.2 is fine since I couldn't care less about 3D and I only need it to transmit video. I do want the newest formats though since I've watched a few blurays in the lossless formats and the experience has been pretty awesome.

What is the deal with the "Emotiva UMC-1"? I've never heard of the company but a few onliners seem to love it for the $$. I think it looks cheap but whatever as long as it sounds good. I could run that to the Rotel 985 and bring the Snells into the HT. I bet that would be awesome.

Any other pre-pro suggestions? I have many hobbies to fund so keeping this under $500ish is important.

Thanks
kwa69's avatar
kwa69
19 posts
 
Buy a used ROTEL RSP 1570 I have one in my system it sounds great in 2 channel and the new digital formats.
miatame OP
6 posts
 
Okay, so as I was warned, the Onkyo AVR was a disaster. It seemed cool at first, just plug in a few HDMI cables, wire up the speakers, let the unit auto calibrate and enjoy! ...until it breaks...repeatedly! I've now had this POS unit in 4 times to fix the output stage. The repair place keeps blaming it on "user wiring defects". I have an old Onkyo running in the exact same system whenever this new POS breaks and no problems! I've even run the POS in a separate system with just a CD player and two small monitors and same garbled static output! UGH

So back to square one. Do I but a new/used AVR or a pre/pro and use my Rotel amp? I see a few Integra pre/pros on the board for sale 9.8 and 9.9 that have me intrigued. What do you think? They are both a few years old, so what new formats would I be missing out on? I've convinced the wife to up the buy in since the POS experience is frustrating her too. So I think I'm in the $600-$800 range now.
willland's avatar
willland
846 posts
 
"So back to square one. Do I but a new/used AVR or a pre/pro and use my Rotel amp? I see a few Integra pre/pros on the board for sale 9.8 and 9.9 that have me intrigued. What do you think? They are both a few years old, so what new formats would I be missing out on? I've convinced the wife to up the buy in since the POS experience is frustrating her too. So I think I'm in the $600-$800 range now."

Sorry about your bad experience with your Onkyo TX-NR509. I have used an Onkyo TX-SR705 for over 5 years with zero issues at all. With that said, most of the time I used it as a pre/pro with a 200w/ch multichannel amp so never any power issues. It now resides in my bedroom system with a 5.1 satellite speaker system that does not tax the amps at all. I think a used Onkyo/Integra pre-pro is an excellent choice with your Rotel. From my understanding, these pre-pros are excellent performers and reliable.

Bill
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