Bluray/CD player for Yamaha RX-V661 or new receiver?

[admin_exported]

I am looking to bring Bluray to my slightly out of date home cinema and stereo system. My trusty CD player is also on the blink, so I'd like to also me able to play music discs without them sounding terrible. We have a lot of DVDs, so it needs to play these well on our 40" Samsung LCD (older HD Ready type, cant recall the number, was top notch in 2006.)

The system today is based on a Yamaha RX-V661 receiver, B&W MT-20 speaker set with sub and a Yamaha. The system is not in a dedicated listening room/home cinema, just in our living room, which is the corner of a whole open-plan living/dining/kitchen area. I'm fairly happy with it, but feel the center speaker has to be adjusted up quite high to hear dialogues properly (without the rest of the speakers shaking the kids out of bed.)

In short, which disc player should I add to the system and will the receiver cut the mustard for a few more years? Should I hang on until I can afford a better receiver, perhaps? (My previous stereo was a NAD amp + B&W 601 setup that I loved and miss!)

Thanks for any advice in advance!

 

 

[chudleighpaul]

Your Yamaha receiver still has some life in it. Provided you buy a Bluray player with on board decoding and analogue outs, such as a Panasonic BD85 then you will see and hear a great improvement in picture and sound quality. Your dvds will look good as the Panny is a decent upscaler.

With regard to your CD's you would hear most improvement if you bought a dedicated CD player.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your advice. Is it correct that I can also feed the Yamaha with LPCM input over a digital link? Would that give better or worse results than going via a multi channel analogue setup? I'll check out the BD85.

I'm trying to avoid a dedicated CD player, not because I don't see (hear!) the advantages, more that the wife sees the aesthetic advantage of having less boxes in the living room. Is there really not a Blu-Ray player that can do the same sort of quality as a budget CD player, say an Azur 340C?

 

[The_Lhc]

linkmic:
Thanks for your advice. Is it correct that I can also feed the Yamaha with LPCM input over a digital link? Would that give better or worse results than going via a multi channel analogue setup?

If the amp is old ass you suggest then it won't have HDMI inputs, which would be required for HD audio, this is what using the multi-channel analogue inputs would provide, if you use an optical or coaxial digital connection you'll only get the old DD/DTS audio, not the newer soundtracks.

I'll check out the BD85.
I'm trying to avoid a dedicated CD player, not because I don't see (hear!) the advantages, more that the wife sees the aesthetic advantage of having less boxes in the living room. Is there really not a Blu-Ray player that can do the same sort of quality as a budget CD player, say an Azur 340C?

Not at the BD-85 sort of budget, no.

 

[Anonymous]

I've done a bit of reading.ÿ

The receiver has 2 HDMI 1.2a inputs and 1 output. HDMI 1.2 appears to support upto 8 channels of uncompressed digital audio in the LPCM format. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI. So it seems that the key thing is that the Bluray player can decode and push out uncompressed digital audio over the HDMI link, or that it has analogue outs and can be hooked up that way.

I've not really said anything about budget for the combined disk player, other that it should obviously be in balance with the rest of the system. Is the Cambridge Audo 650BD a contender?ÿ

 

[The_Lhc]

linkmic:
I've done a bit of reading.ÿ
The receiver has 2 HDMI 1.2a inputs and 1 output. HDMI 1.2 appears to support upto 8 channels of uncompressed digital audio in the LPCM format. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI. So it seems that the key thing is that the Bluray player can decode and push out uncompressed digital audio over the HDMI link,

Oh, ok, yes that should be ok, as long as the BDP's doing the decoding as you suggest.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I think I've arrived on a Sony BDP-S370 as that says that it can decode and bitstream the HD formats. I might also claim an Cambridge Audio Azur CD player if I can find one at a good price.

 

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to close the loop on this thread. I landed on the Sony BDP-S370 and can confirm it works as I expected with the Yamaha RX-V661. Very happy with picture and sound quality so far!