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Krell S1200 or Yamaha CXA5100?

These 2 seem to be close in used price 1500 for Yamaha and 2K for basic S1200 Krell.  I am looking for best quality performance through HDMI DTS MA and Dolby TRU HD. I am using a Panasonic UB900 which seems to be a good digital transport compared to the other BR players I"ve had and since it has dual HDMI outs I don't care about video capabilities of the processor and don't care about the atmos feature since I'm only using 5.1 speaker setup. Just audio from HDMI is mainly all I'm concerned about.
nak127
nak127 OP
9 posts
 
Just thought I'd give a late update to direction I went here. I ended up going with Yamaha CX-A5000 since after doing research it was about same unit as 5100 minus the Atmos and a few other features I didn't care about. The CX-A5000 also has comprehensive Internet radio section which was discontinued on the 5100. It was also about 500 bucks cheaper and I think excellent value for a grand. When using this as a HT processor it easily bests anything I've ever heard although I haven't heard anything newer than it so just wanted to be clear about that. I did see in some reviews that the 5100 did match the high end Marantz in HT just not in 2 channel so guess you pay the extra money to have both. I was pleasantly surprised at the 2 channel of this unit. It was much better than their 3030 receiver which has some of the same chips as this unit. Much smoother than that receiver which I thought a bit bright. Compared in 2 channel to the Krell AVS the Krell does beats it although the Yamaha is still very good. I never got to hear a S1200 which I probably would have preferred but just went this route due to price and good reviews I've seen. .
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Thanks for the update, nak127!
nak127 OP
9 posts
 
Hey Auxinput I just re read one of the posts you did. Must have overlooked it. You mentioned some processors will not do tru full bandwidth processing. Do you have list of those or a link?
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Unfortunately, I do not have a definite list.  I know that the Theta Casablanca will limit everything to 96khz, which is really good (but it's not going to be the same as a 192khz DAC).  I believe that I read the Classe SSP-800 will automatically convert everything to 96Khz before it sends the data to the DAC chips (they state that 96khz is the best rate for those specific DAC chips).

There are many processors that will use an off-the-shelf DSP board or similar.  These DSP boards have a backplane data bus that is limited to 48Khz.  This means that everything is automatically "sample rate converted" to a maximum of 48Khz regardless of the source media.  Most receivers will do this and some processors, depending on what the manufacturer is doing.  This is perfectly fine for home theater and movies as blurays will not be produce higher than 24bit / 48Khz (except maybe for 1 out of 10,000).  But it will still be a limiting factor if you are trying to use the processor/receiver to play 2-channel hi-res audio (such as 24/96 or 24/192).  This has been going on for years.

It's difficult to say what is really going on inside a receiver.  This may be changing as manufacturers may be implementing better DSP modules and backplanes.

If you are primary using a processor for movies or analog preamp, you're fine.  You can use an dedicated external DAC for doing any of the critical 2-channel music.

maella
2 posts
 
Hey Auxinput . I own S1200 for last few years. I have experienced the same issues as you mentioned above. Please tell me whats is the laptop software and how did you get it ? Same with new firmware.  I did drop an  email to  service@krellonline.com, tech@krellonline.com  few months ago, but still no answer from them. 
I love my S1200 it sounds incredible, so I'm desperate to fix that issues.
Thanks for any help.
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