From 2ch to Multi-channel

[Hubird]

I have a NAD M51 which I'm very impressed with, it’s connected directly to a ROTEL RB 1070 2ch Power Amp and my Win7 PC as the source.

I was using a pair on Dali Zensor 1 Bookshelf speakers as my mains but recently acquired and switched to a pair of Dali Zensor 7 (got them for a good price).

I have a reasonable collection of Blu-ray and DVDs which I have ripped to my PC (as well as a large CD collection all ripped to FLAC) everything is obviously listened to in 2ch audio using J-River Media Centre / XBMC.

I was thinking of selling my pair of Dali Zensor 1 speakers but then I thought I could possibly use them as rears in some sort of surround setup.

I can’t see it being easy (and no way would it be cheap) to find an AVR that comes close to the NAD / Rotel setup for 2Ch audio and I don’t want, what I’m interested in is suggestions on adding surround to my current system.

Any thoughts?

 

[his dudeness]

I have a NAD M51 which I'm very impressed with, it’s connected directly to a ROTEL RB 1070 2ch Power Amp and my Win7 PC as the source.

I was using a pair on Dali Zensor 1 Bookshelf speakers as my mains but recently acquired and switched to a pair of Dali Zensor 7 (got them for a good price).

I have a reasonable collection of Blu-ray and DVDs which I have ripped to my PC (as well as a large CD collection all ripped to FLAC) everything is obviously listened to in 2ch audio using J-River Media Centre / XBMC.

I was thinking of selling my pair of Dali Zensor 1 speakers but then I thought I could possibly use them as rears in some sort of surround setup.

I can’t see it being easy (and no way would it be cheap) to find an AVR that comes close to the NAD / Rotel setup for 2Ch audio and I don’t want, what I’m interested in is suggestions on adding surround to my current system.

Any thoughts?

it can be done,you need a av amp with pre outs which you use to connect your left and right channels to the rotel,set volume on the rotel to say 10 oclock run auto set up on the av amp so it sets all your channals for surround,for music you dont need the av amp on,just use the nad and rotel as you do now.

 

[margetti]

Yamaha DSP-E800? Almost gaining vintage status (no hdmi!) but might be worth a try if you're just dabbling with the multi-channel idea - cheap as chips on ebay (£20-40).

 

[naughty573]

i reckon it can be done if you purchase an AVR that has pre-outs ..... you connect the PC as normal to the M51 then you connect the pre-outs on the M51 to the CD inputs on the AVR ...... then you connect the Rotel amplifier to the front preouts of the AVR - so basically you are just adding one step inbetween ie the AVR ..... so it might be a good idea to get the same interconnects between the AVR and the DAC and then the AVR and the power amp so the odds are that it keeps the same sonic signature between those items

then you just add the rears and the centre channel to the AVR like usual ..... so surround sound is played via the AVR and you can connect things like blu-ray players etc to the AVR while other digital sources that need to be played in stereo only can get connected to the DAC

you also simultaneously connect the PC to the AVR using HDMI into possibly the DVD or Blu-ray HDMI input so you can view the movies on the PC via the AVR ..... when viewing the movies you can obviously leave the DAC switched off (this obviously depends on your graphics card having HDMI but nowadays entry level graphics cards with HDMI are pretty cheap)

the level of AVR you would need is obviously dependent on your budget but to do what i propose obviously means you need to find a unit that features pre-outs, so this rules out the cheapest entry level units

using J-river and Kodi/XBMC for the movies is more than adequate but since you are using the PC as a source maybe you should also consider a dedicated stereo app for the stereo music ie like for example Foobar 2000 or itunes for windows ..... these would make the libraries or playlists an easier more manageable task. Using multiple software is also convenient when one bit of software doesnt do exactly what you want done ie for movies i use Kodi as well as k-lite codec pack (MPC-HC for movie playback) and also VLC since that already supports H.265

it can be done,you need a av amp with pre outs which you use to connect your left and right channels to the rotel,set volume on the rotel to say 10 oclock run auto set up on the av amp so it sets all your channals for surround,for music you dont need the av amp on,just use the nad and rotel as you do now.

you are assuming that his Rotel is an integrated amp but it is a power amp ie no volume controls ..... so he will still need the AVR on if he connects the DAC to an input on the AVR plus the power amp to a pre-out on the AVR ..... and he is forced to do it that way since the Rotel wont have multiple inputs since its a power amp