jayrbee70 Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 Hi all, My current 6 year old setup includes a 34" Sony CRT TV (all 90kg of it!), Marantz DVD (DV4200) and 5.1 amp (SR6200), and B&W speakers. I'll shortly be embarking on the upgrade path - on the shopping list so far are a 58"-60" plasma (not sure which one yet but tempted by the latest LG 60"), and a DVD recorder (cause I'm sick of VCR quality - thinking Panasonic DVD recorder). I'm happy with the speakers. My question regardes the amp, and my apologies for what I'm sure is a stupid question, but I'm happy with the sound quality - would upgrading to the latest 'HDMI' models make much difference, other than ease of connecting, or should I stick with what I have? What advantages would a new amp give me? There's no fixed budget as such - value is more important. Thanks in advance for any advice. Jeremy
eleventyseven Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 I'm sure many "audiophiles" might disagree with me Jeremy but there doesn't seem to be anything you've mentioned that builds a compelling case to upgrade your amp (in my humble opinion). I for one still have an 8 year old Denon amp with a single optical out providing 5.1 sound from my DVD and PS3 players (via a switchbox). I like you am happy with the sound but I'm sure if I did upgrade the amp (along with my speakers) I would get better sound. Being into value though, I'll be waiting until this one blows up before an upgrade. From what I know about DVD recorders (and I'm happy to be corrected here) they will only access an analog signal which means, depending on how good your signal is, you might still only get "VCR" type quality (and not widescreen) as the picture is only as good as your signal. If you're not the type that records movies for viewing several times you might want to think about a PVR (Beyondwiz, Topfield, Tivo, etc) which record digital TV to a hard drive. Check this link out to give you a fair idea of what you should be negotiating on your tele. Regarding the main companies that sell plasma's I would rank them Pioneer, Panasonic, Samsung and lastly LG (but again, my opinion). Tv Prices My 2 cents worth anyway. Good luck with your purchases.
Jeffie1503561482 Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 When you get a blu ray player, then you should consider an HDMI amp. Otherwise standard digital connections to your current amp will do.
petetherock Posted October 31, 2008 Posted October 31, 2008 I agree with jeffie Unless you move into High Def, HDMI does not improve your setup. You can use the HDMI of the Panasonic DVR to connect to the TV, and the optical out to your HT setup. When you don't want to listen to the Ht system simply use the DVR and the TV.
fademan Posted November 2, 2008 Posted November 2, 2008 If you're going to go 7.1 - then you need to upgrade your amp support the latest HD audio from blu-ray.
fawlty99 Posted November 2, 2008 Posted November 2, 2008 hdmi won't make any difference in your setup. If you get BD later on then maybe. BTW - pana make a DTV VCR/DVD recorder. I've got 2 of them & they are great. The VCR or DVD recording from DTV is very good & you have the convenience of using either vcr or dvd.
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