Upgrading to surround sound setup.

[admin_exported]

Hi, i have decided to upgrade and the following seem to be what i am looking for :

Pioneer PDP-LX5090

Yamaha RX-V1900 or RX-V3900 receiver if the latter comes with a discount.

I own the first 60gb PS3, now would you recommend i keep that for playing games and buy a separate blu ray player ?.Also i want to connect my Arcam Alpha 9 integrated amp and Arcam Alpha 8 cd to the av receiver, so they play the music through a pair of B&W P4 floorstanders.Oh i want to use the speakers as my front speakers, in tandem with the other surround speakers but don't know if they are compatible with Hi def blu ray sound .About the surround speakers i don't know which make and models is recommended.I doubt i would need a sub, just a centre speaker and two rear speakers.Can anyone help with the setup please.All help is appreciated.Forgot to mention the RX-V1900 has 4 hdmi inputs/1 output so if i connected a stand alone BD player and my PS3 will one work when the other is off ?.

Nathan.

 

[Anonymous]

Your speakers won't know the difference between HD and regular audio (although your ears will) as the signals are always analogue by the time it reaches them.ÿ

It sounds like you'd like to have both the old Arcam amp and the new Yamaha receiver connected to the same pair of front speakers, which is unusual. Does the Arcam amp have pre out sockets? If not then probably your best option is to ditch the Arcam amp and connect your CD player and PS3 to your new receiver. Alternatively it might be possible to buy an external speaker switch allowing you to choose between the new Yamaha receiver and the Arcam amp.

If it does have pre out sockets then you could connect these to the pre in sockets on the Yamaha. But it's likely that you'd still find that the Yamaha does some processing of the signal. To be honest, if music is your priority then you may be better off consider an Arcam AV receiver. There are some really good deals around at the moment.

Assuming you go with the single receiver option, connect up as follows:

* Plug the PS3 into the receiver via HDMI and set it to send either Bitstream or Linear PCM over HDMI. The PS3 can send most HD audio formats as (compressed) bitstreams for decoding in the receiver nowadays, but if you want to hear DTS Master HD, you'll need to let your PS3 decode it internally and then send it to the receiver as (uncompressed) PCM. You could also connect up a separate dedicated Blu Ray player in the same way. ÿ

* Plug your CD player into the receiver using either the optical / coaxial digital connection (assuming it has one) or stereo analogue sockets. Since you've got a pretty good CD player, you might find that the analogue connection sounds better, but experiment with both if you can.

* Run a single HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV.

Oh and for my money, a decent sub makes all the difference to movie watching.

 

[professorhat]

Erm, you need the Yamaha to have pre-outs (which both the 1900 and 3900 have) - you then connect your stereo amp to the front pre-outs, and the CD player to the Arcam stereo amp. The front B&W speakers are connected to the Arcam, so that when you play music on the CD player, you only have the Arcam amp and CD player on. All the other speakers are connected to the Yamaha receiver, as are the Blu-Ray player and the PS3.

This setup isn't unusual at all and there's a number of posts which go over this in more detail if you have a search.

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

...Or you could do as the prof suggests. Either option is a compromise though. My own preference would still be to track down a receiver that works well with music. The Yamaha's may fit the bill (I haven't heard either of them) but the Arcam's are probably a safer bet.

ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Beaverme and proffesor thanks for replying, to ansewer your question the amp has two pre amp outputs.The music would be my second priority to the tv and av last.The cd player has two choices digital out ( jack type ) or stereo analogue with banana plugs.I also own an Arcam Alpha 7 tuner, so knowing the receiver is a tuner also i will leave that plugged in the Arcam.Another question when both the receiver and amp are in av which takes priority in regards to volume of all the speakers.

 

[Anonymous]

Iloveacoustic:Another question when both the receiver and amp are in av which takes priority in regards to volume of all the speakers.ÿ

Connected as the prof suggests, adjusting the volume control on the receiver would affect all speakers, while the volume control on the amp would continue to affect the two front speakers. When setting it up presumably you'd need to find a level for the amp volume control that provided a good balance with the receiver. ÿ ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Assuming you are saying the receiver controls the front speakers and the surround, the Arcam maybe would cause them to be excessivly loud.Maybe not when in av mode.I will try setting up the cd player as you say Beaverme.

 

[Anonymous]

Well we're moving beyond the bounds of my own first hand experience, but presumably as you turn up the volume on the Yamaha the gain on the pre out also increases correspondingly. Consequently the input level into the Arcam is higher and so is its output. Is AV mode a feature of the Arcam amp? Does this bypass the volume control within the Arcam? In which case you may have a problem if the power amp gain in the Arcam doesn't match the gain in the power amp section of the Yamaha. ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it does have an av mode it has two av inputs, a little switch at the back to switch it from music to av and dial at the front far left side that i can choose between phono, av, cd, tuner and iirc tape too.I don't know if the av mode bypasses the volume control as i have never used an integrated amp with an av receiver before.

Edit the choices in the amp are as follows the listening side is phono, aux, cd, av, tuner and 1 tape.The record side is all of them and tape 2.

 

[professorhat]

Good post here where Andrew lists exactly what to do.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah i noticed the thread before you posted prof and thanks anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the way i mentioned the setup in the first post is not how i want it to be setup.This is the idea i have in mind, switch my Arcam Alpha 9 integrated amp to av via a switch at the back and connect the av receiver to the amp using the av outputs to the av inputs of the Arcam.Also use the pre amp outputs of the Arcam to the pre amp inputs of the receiver, then plug the hdmi cable from the ps3 into the receiver then the hdmi cable going to the tv.Don't want to unplug the cd player and tuner from the Arcam just switch that to music again.Just had a tip to turn the volume down when reverting back to music from av as it's defening.Can you tell me if the volume in av is a slight difference or is it as was mentioned would damage the windows ?.

 

[Messiah]

Iloveacoustic:I think the way i mentioned the setup in the first post is not how i want it to be setup.This is the idea i have in mind, switch my Arcam Alpha 9 integrated amp to av via a switch at the back and connect the av receiver to the amp using the av outputs to the av inputs of the Arcam.Also use the pre amp outputs of the Arcam to the pre amp inputs of the receiver, then plug the hdmi cable from the ps3 into the receiver then the hdmi cable going to the tv.Don't want to unplug the cd player and tuner from the Arcam just switch that to music again.Just had a tip to turn the volume down when reverting back to music from av as it's defening.Can you tell me if the volume in av is a slight difference or is it as was mentioned would damage the windows ?.

This is unnecessary. You should have your main front speakers connected to the stereo amp.

As for the volume it will need to be turned down when switching from using it with the receiver for use with another sourse unless the Arcam automatically switches the volume for you.

 

[Dave_]

Agree with messiah r.e connection. On the volume query, if you use the arcam in the a/v mode as you suggested it disables the volume control on the arcam (when tape2/processor input selected) allowing your receiver to take overall contol of the volume! When another source is selected i.e cd player the arcam's volume control will be enabled and the volume will revert back to what ever it's set at on the volume control

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys for cleaning that up and Dave that is something else i was about to ask about cheers.

 

[Dave_]

Forget to mention,you should use the "tape2/processor" input's on the arcam rather than the "a/v" input to enable it to work in the way i described above

 

[Anonymous]

But the processor and tape 2 sockets is for them not the av receiver or am i wrong ?.