2. home-theater
  3. 128375-5802

Classe SSP-800 - Time to move on?

I'm looking for some advice...

I've been a happy owner of a Classe ssp-800 for the past 8 years.   Its been a terrific unit and I've found it to be a very musical.  Initially I focused on buying a high in audiophile processor that could also function reasonably well as a 2 channel preamp as it made a lot of financial sense at the time.

Since then my system has grown and changed a lot and I now have a dedicated Ayre preamp in the chain for my 2 channel listening which works great.

So my question is with all of the new home theater audio formats(and 4k) coming out and with room correction built in to a lot of processors now does it make sense to move on?   I've been specifically looking at the Anthem AVM 60, but am open to suggestions.   The whole idea of room correction sounds really good to me.

I would love to hear from some of you previous Classe SSP 800 owners to see if you had any remorse after selling your processor. 

Thanks




rshad0000
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Just for your information, for many years I continued to use a Krell HTS 7.1 until about a year and half ago when it finally died. Keep in mind this is a product that was released in 2002 (much older than your SSP-800). I had tried several other home theater processors that used HDMI and bluray hi-res audio (including a couple that were very expensive). None of them could reproduce what the HTS 7.1 did in sound quality!! Ya know what, I ended up putting in a new Krell S-1200U (which is about the same generation as your SSP-800).

I did try out the Emotiva XMC-1, which is --probably-- on the same par as the AVM 60. I would say that it gives you an excellent amount of performance for what you are paying. However, even the HDMI audio could not compete with the HTS 7.1 down-converted digital COAX audio! The resolution and separation-of-instruments just wasn’t there and the Emotiva sounded a bit closed in.

denny001
10 posts
 
I have had my SSP-800 in a Stereo / HT setup for 7 years.  The continuing changes to the HDMI standards makes for some difficult and expensive decisions trying to find the right time and product to make a configuration change in higher end systems.  For me, the only reason to change is to get 4K HD video thru a one box solution.  I remain happy with the Stereo and Home Theatre processing capabilities of the SSP-800.  I am looking for a quality HDMI video switch that supports the current HDMI standards and all audio processing modes.  With that approach, I could bypass all video switching in the SSP-800 yet retain the audio quality - at a fraction of the price to upgrade.  Can anybody offer an HDMI switch recommendation?  

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

@denny001 - I think what you are looking for is to have an HDMI switcher that will switch/process 4K video and send it to your display, while at the same time being able to send your digital audio to your SSP-800 processor. The problem with HDMI switcher/splitter (or matrix) is that an HDMI switcher device will query for every possible display device connected (EDID) and then select the minimum capable resolution. In this case, everything will be downconverted to 1080p even though your hdmi switcher and source are 4K capable. This is because the SSP-800 is not 4K capable and is a target device in the HDMI chain.

On product that -might- be able to do what you are looking for is the Lumagen Radiance Pro. This supports 4K UHD sources and 4K UHD displays. The Lumagen has 2 HDMI outputs. The HDMI 2 output is usually connected to the display. The HDMI 1 output can be connected to an AV Receiver (your Classe SSP-800 in this case) for audio only. In addition, the video for HDMI 1 can be disabled in the Radiance so it might ignore the 1080p limitation of the SSP-800. However, the big advantage of the Radiance is that it has a 21-point greyscale and a 4913 point color cube calibration. You can have an AV engineer calibrate it for your display (this is a significant improvement in color accuracy and impact). The downside of this is that the Radiance Pro is very expensive, starting at $4500.

http://www.curtpalme.com/Radiance.shtm

You can investigate HDMI Matrix switchers. I don’t know if they will do what you want, but they are also expensive. Gefen has a 4K UHD 8x8 Matrix switcher (GTB-HD4K2K-848-BLK) for $2,699.

Another downside of putting an HDMI matrix switcher before your SSP-800 is that you will not be able to see any on-screen menus from the SSP-800, since it is no longer in the direct video chain.

denny001
10 posts
 
@auxinput - excellent advice re the HDMI switcher.  I was not aware that a lower resolution component would impact all switch device outputs.  In lieu of a HDMI switcher, could I send all video sources direct to the 4k TV and use the HDMI out from the tv as the SSP-800 audio input?  Would  I have an audio delay using this configuration?

rshad0000 OP
269 posts
 
Denny001,

I'm looking at doing the same thing, but my plan/hope is that the new oppo 205 with 4k output has two hdmi outs.  That way i can run one to my projector and the other to the ssp800 (for audio only).   I already do something similar now with the oppo105 and 3D movies.   I send all video out of the 105 direct to the projector and the audio to the ssp800 since my ssp800 will not process 3D.
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