Connecting a Mini Hifi to an AV receiver

[johnnyone]

Hi Folks

Apols for the newbie question but here goes...

I have a Denon M38DAB which I use with a sky box and Samsung flatscreen TV. It's not a bad setup other than the options for audio from the TV and AV equipment to the mini system are limited.

There is an optical out on the TV, but no optical in on the Denon, so I connect the Sky box to TV with HDMI and run RCA cable to the Denon for audio playback. The DVD player connects to the TV with SCART (yes I know!) so the audio from that is cabled from the TV headphone socket to the Denon. I have very limited space but I'd like to get an AV receiver and upgrade the sound to 5.1 for film and dvd - but I don't want to lose the audio quality for CDs and DAB radio. Can the Denon connect to an AV receiver in such a way that I can switch just the Denon on to listen to CD and radio and the AV receiver for TV and video etc?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[duaplex]

Yes it can. It depends on the AV receiver you are buying, but some do offer more options than others in regards to this. You would take the Left and right analogues from the back of your denon straight into the receiver. This way the AV will push the sound through to your speakers in stereo mode.

AV receivers in general have come a long way since the old days, they are versatile in regards to what you can connect through them.

Which receiver are you planning to get?

 

[wireman]

...but I don't want to lose the audio quality for CDs and DAB radio. Can the Denon [M38DAB] connect to an AV receiver in such a way that I can switch just the Denon on to listen to CD and radio and the AV receiver for TV and video etc?

I have a Denon M39DAB in my bedroom and a Denon 5.1 AV set-up in my living room. The M38/39 are great units, but even they demonstrate very clearly the severe quality limitations of DAB radio (low bit-rate MP2) even against it's own FM tuner which sounds significantly better even if there are less stations to listen to on FM!

But as DAB is important to you (as digital radio is to me), my point is this: An AV receiver not only gives you FM radio, but radio via Freeview etc through an AV receiver also gives you a lot of the channel choice of DAB radio, but is of significantly better quality than DAB through your Denon - this is a limitation of DAB and not a reflection of the quality of your M38.

IMHO a lot of what makes the M38/39 sound good would be bypassed if you were to use the M38 only as a transport/source for CD and DAB. It does depend how far up the ladder you're able to go with an AV receiver/5.1 speaker set-up, but my feeling is that even with a reasonably modest AV receiver/speaker set-up (which should then enable you to connect sources using digital/HDMI rather than analogue) both digital radio/CD replay could be easily bettered by using your TV/box as the source for digital radio, and just using your existing DVD player for CD replay (although it might be worth upgrading that to a blu-ray/universal player if funds permit).

Of course - given that you seem to love your M38 - a much cheaper option might be to simply buy the M39 instead, which does have an optical input.