What have you got ? and can it play music to an ok standard ?

[chris@panteg]

I thought i would start the ball rolling as it were

I know some of you on here hate surround sound , and to be honest my interest has waned over the years , but i have had surround since 1987 , but until 1998 i used cheap add on unit's , a Marrantz thingy and then the Mordaunt Short processor.

At the moment i have a Yamaha RXV1700 which believe it or not has a very good phono stage , well IMHO ! i compared it to the 640p and there didn't seem anything in it , overall the big yammy performs well and of course is great with movies but it is a compromise to be sure ! and i accept that , its not bad though and sounding so different to the other set up actually give's a nice contrast .


So what have you guy's got ! have you found a good allrounder or do you just hate AV amp's with a passion , i find the Yamaha does the bis for me and with the Freeviw and sat HD box , DVD player and playstation malarky , i need the conectivity of this beast.

[WAD62]

As I've mentioned on a couple of other threads I've integrated my main stereo and AV surround sound systems, via a Yamaha DSP800.

Which provides basic DTS and DD 5.1 decoding, rear, cantre, and subwoofer channels and amplification, whilst passing the L & R channels to my Audiolab 8000Q (main stereo pre amp).

I actually spread the centre channel across the left and right front channel, which means this is passed to my main stereo too, and have ceased to use a subwoofer as there is so much bass from my main system and surround speakers already.

It is very easy to balance the channels.

So my TV(Viera), SKY HD, and Blu-Ray(Viera) player all feed into the Yamaha DSP800 digitally, which is feeding/driving my rear surrounds (Bose AM-5s), the front R & L (and therefore centre too) are then fed into my main Audiolab 8000Q/SX/P stereo amps, and then to my Mission 753s. All my AV channels are set to full.

I think this is a nice compromise for anyone who has a lot of money invested in their main stereo, and is also a great way of utilising that quality stereo system in their AV solution.

Movies & Sport (Sky sports HD is often in DD 5.1) sound excellent, and music blu-rays sound fantastic on DTS, particularly because the centre is spread between L & R, I'd tried a centre speaker (mission 780C) but I found the sound much better when passing it to the main stereo.

Works for me and I think one could do this with most decent AV amps, I just like the fact that the DSP800 was designed for this purpose.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

The dsp 800 - How do you set the centre channel to the fronts ... Is it just a setting on the amp?
Does it have 6 channel ins and outs?

[WAD62]

How do you set the centre channel to the fronts ... Is it just a setting on the amp?

Hi Hamish,

Yes it's a setting on the DSP800...

Makes a massive difference when playing back music dvds/blu rays, as an awful lot gets put through the centre channel, and I'd rather my main system handled that.

It only does 5.1 however, but will also accept analogue inputs, but that would undermine it's value IMHO.

Using the AM-5s at the back gives me a kind of pseudo 7.1, well sort of

Edit; Perhaps its one small downside to the DSP800 is that it pre dates HDMI, so for the audio I run optical toslinks from my sources to the DSP800, and HDMIs from them directly to my TV for the video, it would be nice to be able to use it as an HDMI switcher too...

[Vinyleyes]

Hi Hamish,

Yes it's a setting on the DSP800...

Makes a massive difference when playing back music dvds/blu rays, as an awful lot gets put through the centre channel, and I'd rather my main system handled that.

It only does 5.1 however, but will also accept analogue inputs, but that would undermine it's value IMHO.

Using the AM-5s at the back gives me a kind of pseudo 7.1, well sort of

Edit; Perhaps its one small downside to the DSP800 is that it pre dates HDMI, so for the audio I run optical toslinks from my sources to the DSP800, and HDMIs from them directly to my TV for the video, it would be nice to be able to use it as an HDMI switcher too...

Just noticed all the DS 800 owners here .. I am considering going the same route and would like to ask a question. Does the 800 act as a pre amp to the Main power amp that one needs to be added to the system to power the front two speakers ... .. or can one use an integrated or pre power combo fo feed into there.
Also .. can it be used as a stand alone DAC say for MP3's from a computer.
Thanks ..

[Reid Malenfant]

Just noticed all the DS 800 owners here .. I am considering going the same route and would like to ask a question. Does the 800 act as a pre amp to the Main power amp that one needs to be added to the system to power the front two speakers ... .. or can one use an integrated or pre power combo fo feed into there.

Yes the 800 acts as a pre amp. It has a volume control that controls the pre outs to the front channels as well as the internal amplifiers for centre & surround speakers. You could use it into an integrated but then you'd need to make sure that the volume control was always set at precisely the same position (to get everything balanced) when using the 800, this is why lots of amps these days have bypass switches. If you happen to have an integrated which has pre outs & power amp inputs which are linked you could feed directly into the power amp section by using a switch box

Also .. can it be used as a stand alone DAC say for MP3's from a computer.
Thanks ..

I have no idea what so ever

[Vinyleyes]

Hi Mark ... what I am after here is getting my preamp into the game for all signal processing ( except vinyl of course). So is there is nothing to stop me using ANY AV amp out there as long as it has pre outs. I was thinking that using the AV pre would expose the signal to inferior pre amp processing .. but are you saying that all the AV pre does is act as a volume control and I could go from there into my pre and power .. I understand now about using a switch box but am just looking at all options. If all the pre does is act as a volume contol then I could consider anything .. and the TAG AV32R looks the best option quality wise .. all the AV receivers I have read up on are suffering in their ultimate sound quality compared to standalone amplification. ..... Or is the very fact of using any AV pre going to degrade my signal out to the power amp .. even if it goes to my pre first .. ?

[WAD62]

Just noticed all the DS 800 owners here .. I am considering going the same route and would like to ask a question. Does the 800 act as a pre amp to the Main power amp that one needs to be added to the system to power the front two speakers ... .. or can one use an integrated or pre power combo fo feed into there.
Also .. can it be used as a stand alone DAC say for MP3's from a computer.
Thanks ..

Yes, yes, and yes...is the short answer.

1. Put your centre channel across the L&R front channels, if you want to make the most out of your stereo setup
2. Set your Pre/integrated stereo amp volume at 12 O'clock, on the appropriate input
3. Balance all the channels using the DSP800E white/pink noise generator

Now whenever you want to watch a movie, select the input from the DSP800E, set your stereo volume at 12 O'clock and away you go. Everything is now controlled by the DSP800E volume control

P.S. the onboard DAC will handle stereo for your mp3s too, it's not the best DAC but it will work, and if it's only mp3's it'll be ok.

[Vinyleyes]

Excellent .. ..... Thanks Will and Mark .. ........... I think then I'll go the Yam 800 route for now and use that to learn my way around AV stuff and setting up. Then if I get into this big surround sound thing for movies and DVD music concert movies I will explore getting a better AV HD capable processor .. whether it be an exisiting all in one deal .. or something like the TAG // and figure out how to use all my own amplification with them ... I have a Nak PA-7 and Quad 405 that would be nice for surround channels ... In fact I am going to try out the PA-7 as my main amp as well .. loads of grunt there for movies .. ... In the meantime the Radford is the main power amp for sound quality .. until I can get/afford something better

Cheers

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Yeah, me too ... This is exactly what I have been looking for ... I skimmed over the 800 thinking it wouldn't have all the specs I needed ... Turns out it does and you can get them for about £40 ... And in black too ... Perfic! Cheers Will ...

Do us a tiny favour will, can you measure the box including the feet for me ...

And, when you say dsp 800, that's the same as a dsp e800 isn't it ...

Oh and another thing, using the multi channel outs from a bluray into the multi channel in, then rear speakers out the dsp 800 then multichannel out from the dsp 800 to my pre amp for the front speakers surely means you aren't using the "dsp" part of the dsp 800 so the out dated 5.1 and dts spec is of no relevance anyway... The bluray player is doing the dts hd or whatnot hd audio bit and just sending analogue signals to the multi channel amp part of the dsp 800 ... Right?