What is the difference between an AV Receiver & an Amp?

[admin_exported]

Sorry guy's and gals, this is probably the stupidest question you have ever received on here but I don't know. Long story short is I'm looking to finally reap the benefits from all the HD Sound on blu-ray discs.

I currently have an old Samsung blu-ray player which I'm planning on updating to the Sony BDP S370. Now in order to benefit from the HD sound I need to connect the blu-ray player to an Amp or AV Receiver then on to the speakers. So it's a couple of questions really:

1) What is the difference between an AV Receiver and an AMP ( As I've seen some AV Receivers with build in players)

2) I see the Sony BDP S370 have various onboard decoding of formats DTS HD, PCM etc so will I need to ensure the AV Receiver has the same conversion possiblities. There's no point the one can perform the decoding and the other one can't.

3) Can you benefit from HD Sound by connecting your speakers direclty to your blu-ray player?

 

[Andrew Everard]

1) Receiver has a radio tuner built-in, amp doesn't. An AV receiver also has surround decoding and processing, plus multiple channels of amplification and (usually) video switching; you'll also find these in an AV amp, but not in a stereo amplifier.

2) No, you don't need the same decoding in both. The Sony can decode and output as PCM, so that it can work with some older receivers without decoding for HD audio; other players go further and have decoding and analogue conversion right through to multichannel analogue outs, so they can connect to older receivers with multichannel digital ins.

3) No, you'll need amplification between the player and speakers.

 

[Ronald Archiebald]

An AV Receiver is optimised for movies while a dedicated stereo amplifier, for music.

 

[Anonymous]

Ronald Archiebald:An AV Receiver is optimised for movies while a dedicated stereo amplifier, for music.

I think he meant the difference between an AV Receiver and an AV Amplifier, for which Andrew has clarified the matter.

http://www.denon.co.uk/site/frames_main.php?main=prod&MID=3&ver=1

If you look at the Denon website you can see if has AV Receivers and AV Amplifiers.

Hope this helps

 

[Ronald Archiebald]

Ah, right. I stand corrected. Thank you for pointing this out.

 

[Anonymous]

Its a question I didnt know the answer too either. I just thought AV Amplifiers were more Higher End

Status : Still A Home Cinema Newby

 

[Anonymous]

How do AV receivers compare to, say, normal audio receivers? I've been looking at the Onkyo TX-NR609 receiver, and it looks like it's mainly designed for home cinema use. However I'd also like to be able to use it as a HiFi amplifier and connect a turntable and cd player to it. Do you think this would be a suitable receiver for that? Or can you recommend any other alternatives (in a similar price range) that might be better suited?

 

[bigboss]

How do AV receivers compare to, say, normal audio receivers? I've been looking at the Onkyo TX-NR609 receiver, and it looks like it's mainly designed for home cinema use. However I'd also like to be able to use it as a HiFi amplifier and connect a turntable and cd player to it. Do you think this would be a suitable receiver for that? Or can you recommend any other alternatives (in a similar price range) that might be better suited?

I was part of "The Big Question" a couple of years ago where we compared AV receivers at different price brackets with a budget Hi-Fi amplifier. The Hi-fi amplifier was just effortless in its performance. It was better than even a £2000 AV receiver.

Having said that, I was quite impressed with the music performance of Denon AV receivers (including the 1910), & was disappointed with Sony's top of the range 5400.

You should demo the products. The benefits of an AV receiver are obvious. Your second option is to buy an AV receiver with pre-outs, so that you can add a Hi-Fi amplifier in the future if you're not happy with the sound.

 

[Oldboy]

How do AV receivers compare to, say, normal audio receivers? I've been looking at the Onkyo TX-NR609 receiver, and it looks like it's mainly designed for home cinema use. However I'd also like to be able to use it as a HiFi amplifier and connect a turntable and cd player to it. Do you think this would be a suitable receiver for that? Or can you recommend any other alternatives (in a similar price range) that might be better suited?

I own the Onkyo 609 receiver and for music i use a Marantz 6003 cd player in conjunction with my Dali Zensor 5 fronts with the amp in pure mode and although the sound is more than acceptable for a receiver in this price range my next upgrade will be a matching Marantz stereo amp (6004). I'm still unsure how i can go about integrating it into my system but i'm of the opinion that for music it's pretty much essential as the stereo performance of the 609 is not good enough for my tastes as i listen to quite alot of music.

The 609 is better than most in it's price range and if you only use it occasionally for music then it may well be acceptable but if music is a priority along with movies then you will want to add a stereo amp like myself. No matter what receiver you buy at this price point none of them will get close to a stereo amps performance i'm afraid, it's just one of those things that no matter what you spend on the receiver in this price bracket a budget stereo amp will always trounce it for music reproduction.

For example i recently upgraded my speaker setup and although i did gain some extra performance with music in my current set up i now know that when it comes to music it's the amp that's the issue and i intend to do something about it quite soon.

 

[Oldboy]

bigboss,

As i've said above i know my 609 receiver is the weak link now in my system when it comes to music and i've been looking at getting a Marantz PM6004 amp to compliment my cd player and speakers but how can i go about integrating it into my system?

I was thinking of just unplugging my speakers from the receiver into the amp when required but it's a pain in the you know what and i'm bound to get annoyed with it sooner rather than later so is there another solution other than this when i add the Marantz amp that won't affect sound quality?

Many thanks.

 

[The_Lhc]

As i've said above i know my 609 receiver is the weak link now in my system when it comes to music and i've been looking at getting a Marantz PM6004 amp to compliment my cd player and speakers but how can i go about integrating it into my system?

Unfortunately, without the correct pre-outs on the AV amp this is going to be awkward.

I was thinking of just unplugging my speakers from the receiver into the amp when required but it's a pain in the you know what and i'm bound to get annoyed with it sooner rather than later so is there another solution other than this when i add the Marantz amp that won't affect sound quality?

Not many, no, other than buy another AV amp with 5/7.1 pre-outs.

 

[bigboss]

Yes, as the_lhc said, maybe an idea to buy an AV receiver with pre-outs so you can connect the Marantz to it.

 

[Oldboy]

That's that idea out of the window then!

I'm not inclined to buy another receiver as i've only had my Onkyo 609 for 4-5 months so i simply can't justify it so soon after buying this one, apart from the music situation i'm very happy with it so if i buy a stereo amp i will just have to unplug the fronts from the receiver into the stereo amp when i want to use it. Fortunately i have banana plugs all round so it won't be much of a chore, just a little awkward, but it is at least a solution.

I may get tempted into a new receiver when the 2012 ranges land at retailers and the reviews have come out but i can't say it's a priority for me just to get the correct pre-outs, it would have to be a significant upgrade to sound quality and that would probably mean going up the range of few steps which of course would mean parting with alot more cash.

No doubt the upgrade bug will grab me at some point but it's nice to not be in any rush and to know what specific connection to look for if/when i do.

Many thanks to you both for the info, much appreciated.

 

[AmigaNut]

I think somewhere you can get a switch box so that you can switch out the speaker to what amp, I may be wrong.

Pulling the cable each time is a tedious chore ant a good idea.

I had a box years ago when I bought a yammy cdp and my stereo at the time had no aux sockets (1986 ish).

Sure I have seen simillar on the net for speakers.

Like this or simillar

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Input-Source-Speaker-Selector-Switch-4-Zones-New-TS4D-/380412798536?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58925ea648

AmigaNut

 

[Oldboy]

Many thanks for that info, much appreciated!

I will have to look into some sort of switching sloution then similar to the one in the link you provided but many thanks for the idea as it could provide a solution, shame it would mean adding another box to the rack but you can't have it all eh