Recommended receiver for HT

Hello dbphd,

     Oh, great!  You're soon to be another famous resident and you'll be known as 'The Green Amp Old Man of Montecito'.  I can't wait.

     Okay, your post clears things up for me, thanks.

     Now I'm thinking about how to best configure and setup all your very good equipment for optimum performance and ease of use. I just have a couple questions: 

1.  Wouldn't you rather use your KEF Ref 1s for both your music main speakers and as your L+R front main speakers for HT?  I know a good and safe method to do this if you'd prefer to.  You'd still be able to use your KEF LS50s as side and rear surround speakers.

2.  Do you have a plan on how to setup your system so you can utilize your soon to exist 4-sub distributed bass array system, either with or without one or more of your SMS-1 bass manager units, for both music and HT?

     Also, I wanted to answer a question you asked before about how much heat the NAD amps give off.  If they're anything like my class D amps, they won't get warmer than luke-warm.
  

Thanks,
   Tim

Tim,

1. That’s the setup I moved away from with the Parasound preamp and amps. The Ayre preamp and amp drive the KEF Ref 1s. I don’t want to use them to watch TV, so the HT and music setups are separate. How can you connect two amps to one speaker?

2. I have a plan, but the HGS-15s have yet to be repaired.

The NAD C 328 I’m using now for TV stays cool to the touch.

db

Hello dbphd,

1."How can you connect two amps to one speaker?"  
     Your Ayre VX-5 amp has XLR and RCA inputs.  The Oppo205 has both outputs for the L+R stereo/ L+R front mains and your Ayre preamp has both outputs.  Both can be connected and, since you're only going to send signals from one or the other at a time, the amp will just amplify whichever inputs are active-like an automatic switch.   I wasn't aware you don't want to use the Ayre amp and Ref 1s for HT.  No problem, you have enough amps and LS50s.

  "The NAD C 328 I’m using now for TV stays cool to the touch."

     Good, the NAD M22 should be the same.

     I think we just need to figure out how to get a 7.1 signal from the Cox cable box to the Oppo.  What outputs are on the cable box?  
     If it has an HDMI output, you can probably use that to get the video and audio to the Oppo ( that's what I use on my Oppo 105) and then use the HDMI output of the Oppo to connect to your projector for the video. This will allow the 205's very good video processing to be utilized, too. 
     I think we just need to set things properly on the Oppo and Cox cable box menus for the surround sound to work.  I'm not sure yet if you'll be able to get 7.1 sound from the Cox box but it should be at least 5.1.  I'll try to figure this out.
     Don't forget you'll need cables for the Oppo surround ch outputs to your amps, too.

Later,
 Tim
 
  

Tim,

The Cox receiver has HDMI that I'll take to the Oppo where it will be split into video and audio.  Video will go directly to the projector, audio to the NAD amps.  I'm pretty confident audio will be at least 5.1.  When I wrote that Cox TV audio was 2 only channel I had misremembered that the limitation was video, no 4 K video.

db

Hello dbphd,

     That's good news. 
     Yes, an HDMI cable will be connected from the HDMI main output on the Cox cable box to the HDMI input on the 205. Another HDMI cable is connected from the HDMI OUT (Main) on the 205 to the Main HDMI Input on your projector.  Then cables are connected from the 7.1 audio out jacks on the 205 to your amps, XLR or RCA for the l+r stereo/front l+r mains outputs and RCA only for the remaining channels and sub.  
    You'll probably need to connect all 7.1 channels to the amps and speakers to determine if the Cox cable box is sending 7.1 channel surround to the 205 or just 5.1.
     Once your subs are repaired and hooked up, the last steps will be going into the 205's setup menus and making sure everything is configured properly.  Things such as the proper video output resolution settings on the 205 for your projector, crossover frequency for your subs and the trim level, size and distance settings for each of the channels. 
     If the Cox cable is not 4K but your projector is 4K, I know the 205 can take an inputted 1080P video signal and up-sample or upconvert it to a 4K picture.  Do you know if this processed 4K picture will be of sufficient resolution for your purposes?

Tim