5.1 surround setup with 5.1 or 7.1 receiver?

admin_exported

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Aug 10, 2019
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Hi all,

This is most likely a noob question, but I've been reading a lot about the new HD audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD master audio and I would like these properly decoded.. However, I do not have the room for a 7.1 setup, so i am going to buy the HKTS 11 (as the Q acoustics 1010i are too expensive to order outside the UK). (If someone has better suggestions for that budget, please feel free to share also).

Now for my receiver, I've been looking around and the Yamaha RX-V565 seems very interesting. Unfortunately I dont find many professional reviews, so I cant really tell. I'm also not an expert on these things and listening in a shop won't always make me much wiser. I do however want the best bang for my buck.

Some features that I really need:

- 4 HDMI inputs
- ofc 1 HDMI output ;)
- 1 optical input

- decoding of all new HD formats and most older formats and being able to output this on my 5.1 speaker setup!
- radio function is a plus , but most have this
- analog to HDMI upscaling and HDMI - HDMI upscaling, although if this is lacking, its not a deal breaker as my tv can scale too. (Samsung LE52B750)
- and of course very clear and good sound. Preferably something that is able to perform a nice job for music as well. I read that the yamaha isnt able to include his subwoofer when he's doing stereo music. Considering my HKTS 11 front speakers probably can't handle much bass, this would be a negative.

- multizone function would be great, and this would probably the biggest reason to take a 7.1 over a 5.1 receiver.

Should i go with the yamaha, or could i spend my money on a decent 5.1 receiver instead? I do notice that most current 5.1 receivers are not able to decode TrueHD and others.

Thank you very much for your reply :)

EDIT:

Oh and for my budget, we're talking about a 500 € for the speaker setup and 500 € for the receiver. Since my speakers currently cost a 422€, that leaves me 578€ for the receiver ;). Roughly a 509£.
 

professorhat

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Dec 28, 2007
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Just to expand on that a little - HD audio isn't really anything to do with 5.1 or 7.1, in fact most new films are still encoded in 5.1. The big improvement with the new HD audio formats is they are encoded losslessly, compared to the old Dolby Digital / DTS formats which are lossy compression formats - this is the equivalent of ripping a CD into the Apple Lossless / FLAC etc. formats, rather than 128 kbps MP3 format. Since detail is not lost from the studio master, it sounds much better and more detailed.

So fear not, you can enjoy proper HD audio with a 5.1 setup

As for 5.1 receivers - virtually all new 5.1 receivers over the £400 - £500 mark now should be able to decode the Dolby TrueHD / DTS HD Master Audio formats.
 

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