MEASUREMENTS: ONKYO TX-NR1009 as HDMI / SPDIF DAC... Are AV Receivers any good?

The rat's nest.Running separate components like multichannel processors/preamps to monoblock amplifiers are generally considered the ideal, "cost no object" approach to home theater. In the real world, cost and space are considerations and AV receivers become the "Jack-of-all trades" central device that most of us have in the home theater setup. But like the proverbial "Jack", it's useful to also consider the second part of that saying... Just how...

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MEASUREMENTS: Separate vs. AV Receivers (Emotiva XSP-1 vs. Denon AVR-3802 vs. Onkyo TX-NR1009) as Analogue Preamp.

Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit too dramatic using that epic battle between Godzilla and Rodan above :-).With the recent acquisition of the Emotiva XSP-1, I wanted to see just how well a separate pre-amp with audiophile design in mind stacks up against something more ubiquitous like the AV receivers out there. Remember that a preamp at its core has very basic functionality - it allows switching of the source and volume control by adjusting voltage...

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ONKYO TX-NR1009 In The House...

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend everyone! Sadly we don't have the same "Black Friday" deals you lucky Americans enjoy :-).I realized something the other day... I refuse to be deprived of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) in the new home theater / sound room! These are of course the "new" (DTS-HD MA announced back in 2004, TrueHD in 2005) lossless surround formats available on Blu-rays. Furthermore, I want to finally be able to play...

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MUSINGS: Updates & The Value of Objective Measurements...

Life has been busy getting things done with the new home. Also, I went ahead and bought a new Paradigm SUB 1 to add to my home theater room along with a Signature C3 center channel - piano black of course :-)...  Should be an exciting fall/winter as I get things up and running!In the midst of this, I'm going to try getting a few comparison measurements of the pre-amp characteristics of the new Emotiva XSP-1 vs. my old Denon 3802 AV receiver...

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