Starting over

[oldbob]

I have not had a dedicated home theater for quite some time. My last one was based on Theta products and Vandersteen speakers, which really dates me. So, now that there are lots of decent AV products out there that don't cost and arm and a leg I am thinking I might jump back into a home theater.
I am probably different from most in that I have no interest in much sub action and am perfectly happy with just a center/left/right system. I am over the extreme sound part of home theater, much more interested in image quality and I rather watch a good movie with "natural" sound over a bad story with fantastic sound.
I have a decent 4k TV and have concerns about receivers that claim to have passive 4K pass through. Do they truly have no affect on the picture quality? Anyways, looking for reccomendations for a receiver, not concerned about cost but am concerned about picture quality and if the receiver has a good reputation for durability.
Not interested in speaker recommendations, I know what I like.
Thank you in advance. Sorry to have been gone from the forum for so long but, decided to live overseas for awhile then spent a year in the mountains of NC decompressing.

[Ovation]

I've not been looking too closely at AVRs recently, but I have read that the trend in many companies is towards passive 4K passthrough, as the TVs include (in many cases) high quality video processing already. Also, those AVRs that have such processing almost always include a way to shut them off (much like one can indicate "no" for a subwoofer). The NAD T758v3 is one that does not have any video processing, as per this review. I don't know if it is something you'd find interesting otherwise. It would be on my list of options if I were currently shopping for an AVR.

[oldbob]

Thank you for the info. I just don't trust "passive passthroughs". But, I guess it is a necessary evil. The reason I don't trust the concept is my old Theta Casablanca supposedly had passive analog passthrough. Theta insisted that it did, yet, if I ran my phono amp with it the sound clearly changed. At least I could simply use a separate pre amp and phono amp for a dedicated analog system and just use the Theta stuff for digital. With video you can't do that. If there was a high end 4k system where you ran your video direct from the player to the tv and only the sound through the av receiver I would look into that. But that means a different cabling system than HDMI.

[Ovation]

Thank you for the info. I just don't trust "passive passthroughs". But, I guess it is a necessary evil. The reason I don't trust the concept is my old Theta Casablanca supposedly had passive analog passthrough. Theta insisted that it did, yet, if I ran my phono amp with it the sound clearly changed. At least I could simply use a separate pre amp and phono amp for a dedicated analog system and just use the Theta stuff for digital. With video you can't do that. If there was a high end 4k system where you ran your video direct from the player to the tv and only the sound through the av receiver I would look into that. But that means a different cabling system than HDMI.

Not necessarily for all sources. UHD Blu-ray players have two HDMI outputs—one with 4K video and associated audio and a secondary one that is audio only. It is intended to allow those with non-4K AVRs to still benefit from the audio but could be used to bypass the AVR completely for video purposes if one doesn’t trust the passive setting. I don’t know of other source devices that can do the same thing but, currently, UHD Blu-ray is where the concern is most critical.

[Lex]

Hey Bob, I been asleep at the wheel. Really, I think I just kept to much crap going on the last year to be a good forum owner, and I guess I need a helluva lot of decompressing. But that cannot start until I can find peace, and that means walking away from day job, and I guess I need to put another year and 2 months in if I can. It gets harder every day. I really have my system in a state of disarray, I am not sure what I am going to do. But then I don't watch many movies now. I think until I do, I am content with TV and sound. Right now I have two flat screens, one plasma, and one 4K LED or LCD, whatever it is, I think the latter, certainly not OLED It's a curved front Samsung 55". My MC-12 needs to go in for repair, I am using an MC8, lost 2 channels to my Proceed amp5, but have a spare amp to produce 7 channels if I want, I just don't have ROOM for it all. I may add on, or I may retire, or I may convert a room to small HT, I don't know yet. Or I may just play my guitars and drums, lol.

Nice to see you back around Bob.

I tried to move to a Marantz Pre-pro, dismal results for me, I should just sell it as is, I really should. Difficult to operate, and my triggers ALL broke to kick ams on. I got the MC-8 off ebay pretty reasonable until I get my MC-12 fixed. I'll do audio, and video separate except for old component I guess. Gonna keep my old audio side and hope it lasts. Well, I did get my Aerial SW-12 plate amp fixed finally, that was really great to get back like it is supposed to be!!! Heck of a 12.5 woofer, and they beefed up the amp internals, it kicks it now!
I had to turn it down the other day, the bass was just overbearing late at night on something stupid like HGTV or something, I can't recall for sure.

Doug

[TEK]

According to your demands I would have done some serious evaluation to find a solution that keep the video feed away from the sound system.
One case beeing that the movie format still is changing and we are already seeing talks about 8k.
Getting a 4k receiver meams that it will need to be changed if you upgrade your tv at a later time - even if tat does not give you anything you want...
Most tv now has several inputs as well as a audio return channel. You might check out if feeding your high quality sources directly into the tv and either use the return channel to your sound system or a receiver.
For those you will need to switch input channel on the tv to get the right picture - but a good universal remote may fix that for you (look into logitec harmony if you go in that direction).
And with this solution you could make do with a stereo system instead of a receiver -
As multichannel sound does not seem to thrill

How many sources are you looking at?

[Ovation]

Right now I have two flat screens, one plasma, and one 4K LED or LCD, whatever it is, I think the latter, certainly not OLED It's a curved front Samsung 55".

All LED TVs are LCD. LED is not a screen technology per se, it is the light source for the LCD panel (instead of the CCFL lights that were once in all LCD TVs but are now relegated to bargain basement sets). The ability to control light throughput with LEDs is vastly superior to CCFLs, but each is a light source, not a screen tech (unlike DLP, LCD, plasma, OLED, LCoS [aka DIL-A at JVC and SXRD at Sony]).

[Lex]

I will be a cheerleader on the side line living in the past probably. It's a matter of space and practicality, and true musical interests. Well... I will figure it out once I get retired. Until then, things will remain pretty much as is. Might get my MC-12 fixed soon though. That's how things go.

lol Ovation, I get it, I get a picture, but I do like the film like quality of Plasma still, over my 4K. But someday, it will be gone, so I try to conserve it as best I can, love that set. 60" Samsung.

I love all this stuff, just a matter of what I can justify space and $ wise for my needs. Things change as you get older I guess...