Will Onkyo TX-SR875 receive wireless music from iTunes on my iMac?

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I’m currently upgrading my rather tired old two channel hi-fi system to a 5.1 surround home cinema. I’ve picked up some equipment already in various sales with an eye or two on your recommendations, and now need to add the final elements to my set up.

I’ve already bought a Denon DVD-1930, the Linn Komponent 5.1 speaker package, some QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cable and an Atacama Equinox AV with an extra shelf to house my kit. I’m about to add Sony’s KDL-40W3000 and am strongly tempted by Onkyo’s TX-SR875, as your magazine (and most other sources I have researched) are full of praise for its multichannel movie and music abilities.

Now to my questions. I read your feature on multimedia hubs in the March issue with interest, as I wish to losslessly digitise my 1,500 cds and wirelessly connect my new iMac for audio playback. In the feature, however, you state there are few receivers capable of Mac and iTunes support. Will the Onkyo be up to the task, if I get a good broadband connection and add an Apple AirPort Express?

I will be using the Denon as a universal player for the time being, as I have some SACDs and a small amount of DV-As as well as DVDs. How do I connect this to the Onkyo to get the best audio playback?

I will be adding a Sony PS3 and Sky’s HD service in the very near future. Can you suggest some high quality cabling solutions for the above, without filling my room with wires? I like the idea of HDMI 1.3 from the PS3 handling uncompressed Blue Ray soundtracks, but am finding some of the interconnect/cabling options bewildering!

Thanks,

David in Dublin

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, the Onkyo will work fine - it'll just take a line input from the audio out on the Airport Express.

Best connection from the Denon to the Onkyo is an electrical digital for CD, plus six channels of analogue connection for DVD-As and SACDs, into the multichannel inputs on the back of the receiver.

Sony PS3 and Sky HD? HDMI for picture from both to the Onkyo, with a further HDMI cable to the TV, plus optical digital audio from the Sky HD box to the receiver for surround sound - the audio on the Sky HD box's HDMI output is stereo only. The HDMI connection from the PS3 to the Onkyo can carry multichannel audio, so will be fine.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew,

thanks for that, you've saved me a lot of head scratching...

David

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

Hi Narrowed Eyes. I'm doing a similar thing with my Airport Express and my Onkyo 605 and it works really well. At first it did seem quite quiet so you might need to boost the volume in the Onkyo Intellivolume submenu.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there Fuzzy. Good to know. And are you happy with the musicality
of lossless iTunes Vs a dedicated CD player like a Cyrus 6? Cuz that
was another idea, though I prefer the streaming option so the cds can
be stashed in the attic.

 

[FuzzyinLondon]

My iTunes collection is comprised of compressed mp3 files so it's probably not a fair comparison but I'm pretty satisfied with the quality that I get. I have tried hooking up my old TEAC CD deck to the Onkyo too and the quality was better but not by that much. My hunch is that if you're streaming high bitrate or uncompressed files over Airtunes then the gap would be even slimmer. Also, the 875 is supposed to be much better for music than the 605. I've found the 605 to be great for movies but haven't been blown away by its performance with music. Not that it bothers me that much as I mainly bought it for movies and surround sound.