Looks like I need a new pre/pro

[PaulyT]

Well, my ancient old Onkyo 885 seems like it's about to fail, or maybe already has. I had to power cycle several times last night to get the HDMI connection to work for any of my various sources. And this morning I can't get it to work at all, just says "no signal."

I don't need anything fancy in my system. What are the least expensive options these days for a receiver with pre-outs? I'm still using my active crossover system with the crossover designed by Soundhound, and speakers from Flint.

 

[mcad64]

Well, my ancient old Onkyo 885 seems like it's about to fail, or maybe already has. I had to power cycle several times last night to get the HDMI connection to work for any of my various sources. And this morning I can't get it to work at all, just says "no signal."

I don't need anything fancy in my system. What are the least expensive options these days for a receiver with pre-outs? I'm still using my active crossover system with the crossover designed by Soundhound, and speakers from Flint.

Pauly, you didn't say how many preouts?
How about this from Marantz
Cinema 70s Slim 7.2-Ch x 50 Watts 8K A/V Receiver
Edit: Didn't read the fine print. Factory refurb. Nice little receiver though.
Search continues...I'm on it!!
Budget??

 

[heeman]

Pauly, you didn't say how many preouts?
How about this from Marantz
Cinema 70s Slim 7.2-Ch x 50 Watts 8K A/V Receiver
Edit: Didn't read the fine print. Factory refurb. Nice little receiver though.
Search continues...I'm on it!!
Budget??

I am running this in my living room system. Highly recommended. My plan is to use it in the HT when I upgrade to 4K.

 

[Batman]

Pauly I have access to Marantz if you want to look into them.

 

[PaulyT]

Pauly, you didn't say how many preouts?
How about this from Marantz
Cinema 70s Slim 7.2-Ch x 50 Watts 8K A/V Receiver
Edit: Didn't read the fine print. Factory refurb. Nice little receiver though.
Search continues...I'm on it!!
Budget??

Actually that looks pretty decent, I don't mind a refurb for that $$ savings.

I only need 5.1 channel pre-outs. I only have two rear surrounds, and no atmos.

 

[jamhead]

Denon 3800 and up their series line.
What I like is they have a preamp mode for all channels that disengages the voltage to the amps which improves their DAC measured performance.

I recently purchased their previous series (Denon 6700) and am using in Preamp mode with ATI amps for all channels.

No issues - I really like the Denon.

 

[jamhead]

The Marantz Cinema 70 DAC measured poorly. Not sure it’s audible however.

My real issue with the Marantz was the porthole on the front. It was hard for me to see sitting 10 feet away and I use the display for volume setting without a display on.

 

[PaulyT]

Thanks. For right now, the refurb Marantz at half the price of that Denon is more realistic for me. Honestly, I don't do critical listening in my HT anymore, it's only used for netflix and video games. My more critical listening is done with headphones. But I don't want to have to buy new speakers, either, so I want to be able to use my existing active crossover stuff, which requires pre-outs. Otherwise, I'd just get the cheapest budget amp I could find.

Sorry, audio heresy. I suck.

 

[PaulyT]

Ok, pulled the trigger on the Marantz refurb, came with free 5 yr extended warranty, so good enough for me.

 

[PaulyT]

So the unit came a week ago, and I'm further embarrassed to say I just got it installed today. So far all it's working well, I did a manual-by-ear tune up and it sounds just fine. I need to break out my old RTA and measurement mic stuff to do a bit more sophisticated job of it, but I'm out of energy right now. One of the surrounds was pulling off the wall a bit - I have plaster walls which I HATE SO MUCH and they don't hold even heavy-duty plastic screw inserts (whatever you call those things) worth a damn, so with a heavy-ish speaker, it's an issue. So I gave up and just put that one speaker on a tall stand for now. Not ideal, but not super-critical. Then one of the channels in the other surround wasn't working for a while (even my surrounds are active crossovers, two channels per speaker), and suddenly it started working again. Dunno if it's the old crossover (Rane) or amp (Sony 4-channel) that's having issues, but I don't have anything to replace these with right now so I'll hang on until the bitter end. All this gear is probably pushing 20 years old now.

 

[PaulyT]

Next step will be to see if there's any possibility of reprogramming my also-ancient Harmony 650 for this new unit. I think the software's still out there and being maintained (independently of logitech?), so we'll see.

 

[Botch]

Next step will be to see if there's any possibility of reprogramming my also-ancient Harmony 660 for this new unit. I think the software's still out there and being maintained (independently of logitech?), so we'll see.

When my Harmony 1's backup battery died, I was able to log and it reloaded my settings, but that was 5, 6 years ago. Keep us posted.

 

[PaulyT]

Another plus here is that I dusted/cleaned under components that also haven’t been moved in 10+ years… yikes

 

[PaulyT]

This is a little tangential, but… One of the biggest things I remember Flint saying way back when is that a measure of the quality of an audio system is the emotional impact playback brings to you. I’m going back to some of my standard evaluation playlists, and this stuff still sounds kind of fucking awesome, and that makes me happy.

 

[PaulyT]

Lol or maybe I should say, this is making me very happy, so it sounds pretty fucking awesome

 

[PaulyT]

Norah Jones @ Ronnie Scott’s - Nightingale, this gets me EVERY SINGLE TIME… crying like an emotional first timer

 

[PaulyT]

Success! Just had to download the MyHarmony software, it remembered my account and all previous settings. Added the marantz device (which it had in its current database) and remapped the activities/buttons, and all seems to be working pretty much exactly as before.