Hey,
So, long ramble, I'm starting a new project, and I thought it couldn't hurt to get some "expert" advice. In a nutshell, Dad's living room setup has outlived its projected lifespan and is now in dire need of an upgrade. The current setup is a 63" Plasma circa 2010, with an RX-V663 AVR with pre-outs to the Emotiva power amp driving the 5.0 setup of B&W 703 towers and the smaller surrounds & center. The AVR receives inputs from the Explora Ultra via HDMI over Cat5e as well as the little Blu-ray player. And then a Harmony 900 to unite them all. This worked ok, Dad prefers his DSTV remote, but everything functioned as needed, mostly.
Now, the setup has gone wonky, and without ease of use, there is no use. This is their secondary TV watching space, in the big room for guests and the big TV for Supersport and music Blu-rays. The emphasis must be on simplicity to operate. The current situation is not that anymore, so a bit of budget has opened up for a new project.
Firstly, the TV belongs in the arc with Noah. It still works, and the mindset has always been, if it's not broken, don't fix it. But the AVR is unreliable now, and replacing one and not the other would be insane. The Yamaha RX-V663 originally did duty in the small living room where the folks spend most evenings. Then its IR receiver somehow died. So it was replaced with a Marantz 1508 slimline, which has been great. It is old now, but it works fine. Then the Emotiva UMC-1 processor in the main sitting room went to heaven, so I yanked the Yamaha from the basement to replace it. Luckily, it had pre-amp outs, so the Towers still got enough juice for decent sound. But with the IR dead, it was a chore to operate. I finally got all the parts to solder a cable for the IR input from the Harmony blaster, and Logitech yanked their cloud database for Gen1 remotes. Finding battery replacements is impossible anyway, so the remote is e-waste.
First is a new AVR. I'm leaning towards the Denon X1800H. It seems to have all the bells & whistles, and there appear to be some decent specials going. I looked at the JBL stuff, but it seems a lot was sacrificed for aesthetics. This thing will live behind a little door anyway, so function over form. I must just verify that the local version comes with pre-outs for fronts. The power spec is plenty for the centre & surrounds, but those towers want watts. If it has pre-outs, i can keep using the UPA-7 power amp for those while it lasts, and then get a proper 2-channel amp when the budget opens up again (or the UPA-7 dies. It has lived a good life, but the years have not been kind. One of the 125w channels have already gone).
Second is the TV. The room is large and open with plenty of light. So I was looking at Mini-LED, and the Hisense U7N caught my eye, but some investigation brought me to the TCL c755. I found a special on one that should work. Just need to get an installer in, that old plasma is too heavy for me to mess with.
I think I'll need new extenders and a new splitter for the Explora (it's in a rack in the basement). I saw some stuff on Amazon US that *might* work. Getting something that supports both Dolby Vision & Atmos for that length looks tricky, but it seems like that is what the Explora is set up for, and it will be the primary source for DSTV and streaming. Probably replace all the HDMI cables with new spec ones while I'm at it.
Finally, the remote. I've looked at everything, but Sofabaton seems the only option. I can't find anything on anyone in South Africa using one of those. Hopefully, one can program it with the DSTV remote to work for the Explora? Seems like a mission, but what else can you do?
So, that was a long story for a short question: Any input or advice, particularly on the TV and AVR?
So, long ramble, I'm starting a new project, and I thought it couldn't hurt to get some "expert" advice. In a nutshell, Dad's living room setup has outlived its projected lifespan and is now in dire need of an upgrade. The current setup is a 63" Plasma circa 2010, with an RX-V663 AVR with pre-outs to the Emotiva power amp driving the 5.0 setup of B&W 703 towers and the smaller surrounds & center. The AVR receives inputs from the Explora Ultra via HDMI over Cat5e as well as the little Blu-ray player. And then a Harmony 900 to unite them all. This worked ok, Dad prefers his DSTV remote, but everything functioned as needed, mostly.
Now, the setup has gone wonky, and without ease of use, there is no use. This is their secondary TV watching space, in the big room for guests and the big TV for Supersport and music Blu-rays. The emphasis must be on simplicity to operate. The current situation is not that anymore, so a bit of budget has opened up for a new project.
Firstly, the TV belongs in the arc with Noah. It still works, and the mindset has always been, if it's not broken, don't fix it. But the AVR is unreliable now, and replacing one and not the other would be insane. The Yamaha RX-V663 originally did duty in the small living room where the folks spend most evenings. Then its IR receiver somehow died. So it was replaced with a Marantz 1508 slimline, which has been great. It is old now, but it works fine. Then the Emotiva UMC-1 processor in the main sitting room went to heaven, so I yanked the Yamaha from the basement to replace it. Luckily, it had pre-amp outs, so the Towers still got enough juice for decent sound. But with the IR dead, it was a chore to operate. I finally got all the parts to solder a cable for the IR input from the Harmony blaster, and Logitech yanked their cloud database for Gen1 remotes. Finding battery replacements is impossible anyway, so the remote is e-waste.
First is a new AVR. I'm leaning towards the Denon X1800H. It seems to have all the bells & whistles, and there appear to be some decent specials going. I looked at the JBL stuff, but it seems a lot was sacrificed for aesthetics. This thing will live behind a little door anyway, so function over form. I must just verify that the local version comes with pre-outs for fronts. The power spec is plenty for the centre & surrounds, but those towers want watts. If it has pre-outs, i can keep using the UPA-7 power amp for those while it lasts, and then get a proper 2-channel amp when the budget opens up again (or the UPA-7 dies. It has lived a good life, but the years have not been kind. One of the 125w channels have already gone).
Second is the TV. The room is large and open with plenty of light. So I was looking at Mini-LED, and the Hisense U7N caught my eye, but some investigation brought me to the TCL c755. I found a special on one that should work. Just need to get an installer in, that old plasma is too heavy for me to mess with.
I think I'll need new extenders and a new splitter for the Explora (it's in a rack in the basement). I saw some stuff on Amazon US that *might* work. Getting something that supports both Dolby Vision & Atmos for that length looks tricky, but it seems like that is what the Explora is set up for, and it will be the primary source for DSTV and streaming. Probably replace all the HDMI cables with new spec ones while I'm at it.
Finally, the remote. I've looked at everything, but Sofabaton seems the only option. I can't find anything on anyone in South Africa using one of those. Hopefully, one can program it with the DSTV remote to work for the Explora? Seems like a mission, but what else can you do?
So, that was a long story for a short question: Any input or advice, particularly on the TV and AVR?
