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I have narrowed my choices to the following:
Meridian 561
Meridian 565
Krell HTS
Theta CasanovaI really can't decide which I want to get, it will be used though. I listen to probably 85% music. DD and DTS are imporant to me. The processor will be running:
Fronts: B&W N804's
Center: B&W HTM2
Rears: B&W CDM1NT
Sub: Atlantic Tech 272
2 McIntosh MC162's for the fronts
1 Acurus 3x200 Amp for center and rears.
Follow Ups:
Meridian has the Trifield mode, which actually enhances 2ch playback by making the frontal soundstage more focused. It is not some hokey ambiance mode or things like DPLII that steers sound from speaker to speaker.Most reviews of the Meridian gears praises Trifield, including one on TAS of the 861/800 in which the reviewer said the 800 could operate on its own, but he would prefer to have the $25k 861 working with it to get Trifield.
The 565 has 7 channel, good for all modes, including DPL (Dolby only recently are doing it with their DPLIIx). The 561 has 5 channel (plus 2 more if you use Meridian digital speakers) but has DPLII and some video switching.
Don't be so concerned with the Meridian 565 not having the latest and greatest DAC, the difference between them pales when compared to the advantage Trifield will bring you. Anyway, Meridian has all those like upsampling, FIFO jitter reduction, DVD-A decoding, etc.
Jof, having owned the krell hts for a while and a couple other high end processors, i think there is no other place to waste as much money for home theater. I was able to find a used lexicon to run my system which is similar to yours for $2k which is every bit as good as the others mentioned for movies and surround sound. I've wasted far too much money after home theater too, if you're listening to 85% much get a cheap processor and put that cash towards as good of a stereo preamp/amp as you can find.
I really can't speak to the other procs from personal use, but I've just returned from CEDIA where I was using a Casanova (loaned to us by Theta) to run one of our demo systems, and I was really surprised at its sonic quality...I generally use a Casablanca with standard DACs, and I think that the 'nova's sound was just about as good...maybe better in some regards.
Also there are a bunch of used ones on Audiogon right now, some at pretty good prices.
The warning is that unit I was using was not quite as flexible as the 'blanca, especially in the area of Bass management, though the all important assignable, tunable crossovers were all there. Also, it's important to find out the exact configuration of a used Theta box because they make a lot of features optional, for instance Circle Surround, and although they pride themselves on upgradability, the upgrades are certainly not cheap.
Best of Luck,
Jim T
There is an updated version of Dolby Pro-Logic II (DPL IIx) that will be out in a month or two. Most processors that can use software updates should be upgradeable -- you might want to check your choices, just in case. The new version is said to better address 6.1/7.1 systems regarding 2-channel to 6.1/7.1 conversion.If you're only concerned with 5.1, this is a non-issue.
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