Classe SSP-800 - Time to move on?

Jh901,
Careful with the Cary. Their cinema series are full of bugs galore. A buddy and I both had the 11 before the Classe and it was dreadful. Cary never even acknowledged the fact when I spoke to them and I’ve read the same about the 12.

Just saying....

I won’t be moving on anytime soon. My Chinese made HDMI 1.4 spec SSP 800 and CA-5300 were purchased used in January 2015 for roughly half their new list price. So, I have only 3 years of service. The sound quality for both music and movies is everything I hoped it would be.

Patrick Butler of B&W Group NA has made it quite clear the current SSP 800 will never be updated to HDMI 2.0 or any object-based surround sound formats.

My SSP has been very reliable and stable especially with the latest 3.1.0 firmware released in October of 2016. The CA 5300 did require a round trip to Lachine for repair, but considering I was not the original owner, I was surprised and extremely pleased when Classé covered the fix under warranty.

A 7.1 surround system is as far as I plan to take my media room. The prospect of adding overhead speakers in my finished sheetrock ceiling is too unpleasant to consider. Also, until projectors can do a better job of projecting HDR, I will stick with my 1080 JVC. Even if I were to move to 4K, I would split the HDMI signal with an HD Furry or some such device if need be and continue using the Classé SSP.

Like many writers on this thread, I have researched options to keep my SSP-800 (with 1.4 HDMI board)  in my HT system while advancing to 4K video.  The Crestron and HD Furry witches mentioned appear to be very capable products, but designed for a professional video end user, not a plug and play consumer.  I lost a day trying to get a new, inexpensive DotStone 4Kx2K HDMI switcher to work to no avail.  The SSP 800 locked up & lost audio when more than 2 source components were added to the switch.  Probably something to do with EDID management, handshaking negotiations or other geeky terms.  My end solution was to upgrade my OPPO 103 to the 203 model to get 4K BluRay and add a ROKU streamer as the internet APP source thru the HDMI IN supported by the 203.  That video now goes direct to the TV via the main OPPO HDMI out and the audio out goes to the SSP 800 via the OPPO's Audio Only HDMI out. This is all working and there is no video degradation or audio delay issue.  My last step will be to direct the Comcast Cable direct to the TV and use the TV ARC HDMI audio out back to the SSP 800 for cable audio only.  To date however I have not been successful getting the Sony TV and SSP 800 to communicate via ARC.  I hope that the 3.1.0 Classe firmware update will resolve this problem.  The downside of this approach is the requirement for extra HDMI cables to the TV and requirement to change TV input section when a new source is selected.  A Logitech Harmony smart remote simplifies the latter issue.  

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Regarding ARC and the SSP-800. I did get it to work most of the time but only with a Best Buy brand Insignia LCD TV. When I switched to a newer larger Samsung, I lost ARC functionality. I think the ARC concept,at least in it’s early form, was half baked and not ready for prime time regardless of what brand components were used. I don’t believe I’ve tried ARC with 3.1.0 firmware loaded but I don’t think anything was mentioned in the Classe’ release notes pertaining to ARC.
I agree the Harmony Hub based remotes are wonderful.

I have a Classe CT-SSP AND CA5300 with B&W 803D2s/SVS sub.  I just added a OPPO-203 and connected it to LG Oled HDMI port 2 and use audio only out to SSP. I get awesome 4K video and superb sound of my 5.1 processing. I also used a XTZ Pro to test and fix my room through the PEQ built into the processor. I can’t imagine getting much better sound withought a big investment. FYI. Also use a Harmony 1 hub to control my devices.