Haywood Gets a New Receiver

[Haywood]

After much deliberation, I just pulled the trigger on a Marantz SR6010 and an HDFury Linker. This completes the system modernization that began last February with the acquisition of my Sony XBR 940C and will hopefully do me for another ten years. I thought about going with a less expensive receiver, but in the end, I could not say no to 50% the receiver I've been wanting to buy for the last year.

The HDFury Linker is an interesting little device that will allow me to play full UHD HDR content in the living room and mirror it on the 1080p television in my kitchen/dining area. It is a pretty slick little scaler that also removes the HDCP copy protection, make it possible to down-convert to 1080p and play it on my little HDMI 1.4 TV set. The Marantz has a full 7x2 HDMI 2.0a HDCP 2.2 matrix switch, so there will be no limitations on what we can watch out there.

Once I get set up, our primary source components will be a Roku Ultra and the HTPC I built running the OpenPHT Plex client skinned with Aeon Nox. I may or may not bother with UHD Blu-Ray. My next big expenditure will be full ISF calibration, but that will probably have to wait awhile.

 

[Haywood]

After spending so much on my new display and relatively little on the new source components (Roku and HDPC) and receiver, I got to thinking about the overall balance of my system. I've never skewed this far toward video before and was curious about the overall distribution of funds across the stack. It worked out to roughly 46% on audio, 43% on the display and 11% on source components. It seems like this is a pretty good balance for a system that is used 90% for TV and Movies and 10% for music.

 

[heeman]

Congrats on the new toy and may we say...........................


YOU SUCK!

 

[Haywood]

Update

One of the reasons I bought this receiver was the Zone 2 HDMI output, which will feed the kitchen system. I recently discovered that I cannot connect more than one Harmony Companion remote to my Hub at one time and yesterday I discovered that Harmony remotes cannot send commands to more than one Hub. This put a bit of a kink in my plan until I did a bit of research and learned that you can connect one touchscreen remote and one non-touchscreen remote to the same hub. The answer to the Zone 2 control problem is IR extension and the easiest way to do that is with a pair of those wireless IR blaster pyramids that go for about $50. The cool thing is that I already have a pair of those from when I did a two zone system in Florida. I now feel justified in my gadget hoarding, because they only spent six years in a box.

That left the remote. I did not want to spend $300 on a new remote, but a little research on compatible remotes and some time on Amazon led me to the Harmony Ultimate One for $150. This will be a very nice upgrade for the living room and only cost $50 more than the Hub I originally thought I was going to buy.

Now I just have to wait for the Receiver, Linker and Remote to get here.

 

[Towen7]

I too am a gadget hoarder. I can't remember how many times I've bought something but didn't use it where/when I intended.

 

[Haywood]

The best part is that my dad gave my wife and I a nice chunk of money for Christmas this year on the condition that we not use any of it on bills or debt repayment. That money paid for almost all of this upgrade. I honestly would not have done it right now otherwise, given everything else.

 

[Haywood]

The gear has begun to arrive. The first thing that came in was the new Harmony Ultimate One. The one hit I took in exchange for the $150 I saved was that it lacked dedicated buttons for lighting control, but I can still create lighting activities or build lighting into activities. It was a good trade-off and I am happy with both the remote and the overall bargain.

The Linker and the new HDMI cables arrive today. The receiver arrives tomorrow. I already had the Roku Ultra, which now festoons my desk. I decided to run a 50 foot analog audio cable for Zone 2 as well as HDMI, so I can do music without having the kitchen TV on. That should be here no later than Monday. The IR repeater pyramids have been in the garage for years. I am very excited. The final setup will look like this:

Main System
Sony XBR75X940C 75-Inch UHD HDR TV
Marantz SR6010 Receiver
Marantz MM9000 Amplifier
Roku Ultra
MSI Cubi i3 HTPC running OpenPHT with the Aeon Nox skin
Samsung Blu-Ray Player
Paradigm Studio/40 v.2 Main Speakers
Paradigm Studio/CC v.2 Center Channel
Paradigm Monitor ADP-370 Side Surrounds
Infinity Reference 2000.2 Rear Surrounds (up-firing behind the sofa)
SVS PB12-Plus/2 Subwoofer
Logitech Harmony Home Hub
Logitech Harmony Ultimate One Remote
Radio Shack Wireless IR Repeater

Kitchen/Dining Room System
Samsung 32-Inch 1080p HDTV
Boston Acoustics Soundware XS 2.1 Speaker System
HDFury Linker (HDCP Stripper/Scaler)
Logitech Harmony Companion Remote
Radio Shake Wireless IR Repeater

 

[Towen7]

The gear has begun to arrive. The first thing that came in was the new Harmony Ultimate One. The one hit I took in exchange for the $150 I saved was that it lacked dedicated buttons for lighting control,

That's weird since the less expensive "Companion" does have dedicated lighting buttons. However it doesn't have a touchscreen (or any sore of screen for that matter).

 

[Haywood]

That's weird since the less expensive "Companion" does have dedicated lighting buttons. However it doesn't have a touchscreen (or any sore of screen for that matter).

I have the older version of the Companion, which also lacks lighting controls. Both of my remotes are one generation too old for that. I got the Ultimate One, because you can only have one touchscreen and one hard-button remote per hub.

When I do lighting, I am planning to use a combination of Google Home, a Samsung SmartThings Hub, a Harmony Extension Hub (so I can build living room lighting into activity macros) and Z-Wave toggle style dimmer switches from GE. I will likely do a front door lock and garage door opener as well (someone could theoretically hack my network and gain entry, but they could also walk around to my back door with a simple brick and accomplish the same thing).

 

[Haywood]

CRAAAAAAPPP!

My package from HDFury contained an Integral and not a Linker. I submitted a support ticket, but I know I won't get the linker until next week.

 

[CMonster]

CRAAAAAAPPP!

My package from HDFury contained an Integral and not a Linker. I submitted a support ticket, but I know I won't get the linker until next week.

That sucks, but if they don't make you return the Integral please keep in mind a fellow forum member who hooked you up with a Squeezebox...

 

[Haywood]

HDFury got back to me. They shipped a Linker and an RMA for the Integral. It should be here next week.

 

[Towen7]

I'm pleading ignorance on these HD Fury products.
It looks like your using the Linker essentially to down-convert 4K and/or HDR content to 1080p non-HDR for display on a second set in another room. It looks like the Intergral can do that and a lot more.

 

[Haywood]

I'm pleading ignorance on these HD Fury products.
It looks like your using the Linker essentially to down-convert 4K and/or HDR content to 1080p non-HDR for display on a second set in another room. It looks like the Intergral can do that and a lot more.

The Integral is a great product, but will not work for this use case, because it does not contain a scaler.

 

[The DirtMerchant]

Haywood, another YOU SUCK.
I really am jealous of your well thought out methodology, setup, know how, full use of tech
and and hardware.

 

[Randy]

Main System
Sony XBR75X940C 75-Inch UHD HDR TV
Marantz SR6010 Receiver
Marantz MM9000 Amplifier
Roku Ultra
MSI Cubi i3 HTPC running OpenPHT with the Aeon Nox skin
Samsung Blu-Ray Player
Paradigm Studio/40 v.2 Main Speakers
Paradigm Studio/CC v.2 Center Channel
Paradigm Monitor ADP-370 Side Surrounds
Infinity Reference 2000.2 Rear Surrounds (up-firing behind the sofa)
SVS PB12-Plus/2 Subwoofer
Logitech Harmony Home Hub
Logitech Harmony Ultimate One Remote
Radio Shack Wireless IR Repeater

Haywood, you have remarkable taste in speaker and sub selection.

 

[Haywood]

I got the receiver and the remote mostly set up other than Zone 2. The only real issue so far is that I had to enable CEC between the receiver and the TV in order to use the HDMI ARC for TV sound. For some idiotic reason that I have yet to nail down, the TV randomly decides to switch to internal speakers regardless of which source component is playing. If I cannot figure out what the cause is, I will likely revert back to optical and turn off CEC.

The difference in sound was notable and I attribute it to Audyssey. The system has not sounded this balanced since I left Florida and the subwoofer issues I've been fiddling with on and off since I moved here just disappeared. The only thing I tweaked were speaker size and crossover point settings. Everything else was pure Audyssey and I cannot over-emphasize how pleased I am with the sound. I was even able to dump the external EQ for the rear speakers, as the Audyssey EQ handled it completely.

This is the first touchscreen Harmony remote I've ever had and using it with the Hub is quite different than using a Companion remote with the hub. The learning curve was not that bad though and I am really enjoying the new remote in this setup. There are still some quirks and kinks I need to work out, but I think it will be pretty solid once I do. The only real frustration I have is that there is no way to directly access picture modes on my TV, so I cannot put simple commands on the remote for Day and Night picture modes. I have to switch to the TV device and navigate a menu. This is not the fault of the remote and it is not really that big a deal since we usually use the TV at night anyway. It is just annoying.

The Roku Ultra is very fast and the picture quality is great so far. Other than the improved 1080p home page, excellent 4K video quality and snappy interface, it is still a Roku box and offers the same experience provided by any other Roku box.

At this point, all I am waiting for is the arrival of the HDFury Linker and the Chromecast Audio. When those arrive, I will finally finish setting up the second zone in the kitchen. I also bought a 50 foot analog stereo cable (RG59 RCA) to run from the Zone 2 analog output to the sub-sat system in the Kitchen. There are two reasons for this. First, it will be nice to be able to play music without having to turn on the kitchen TV. Second, I am concerned that the scaler could cause just enough signal delay to create an echo effect between the living room and the kitchen. Those systems are very close to each other and any discrepancy is very audible and very distracting. I would much rather deal with a minor lip sync issue in the kitchen if I have to. Either way, it was a cheap fix that will just add to the growing bundle of cables circumnavigating my living room.

 

[Haywood]

I figured out how to shut off CEC and leave ARC enabled. Problem solved. Now if I can only figure out why my wife's iPhone and iPad cannot detect the receiver as an AirPlay device (iTunes can)...

 

[lulimet]

I figured out how to shut off CEC and leave ARC enabled. Problem solved. Now if I can only figure out why my wife's iPhone and iPad cannot detect the receiver as an AirPlay device (iTunes can)...

My guess would be that maybe the receiver only supports Airplay audio and not video. Just a wild guess, I don't know for sure.

 

[Towen7]

Try turning on Bluetooth and wifi on the portable devices.