[siava1018]

What Amps/receivers are you guys using?

[ted_b]

Although there are many ways to do multi channel, I am doing a combination of things.  For hirez music I use the analog outs of my Oppo to an analog mulitchannel preamp, to separate dedicated Modwright and McCormack amps.  For movie surround I use hdmi and a Denon receiver (as surround processor) then send the sides and rears to the receivers own amps.

I will be trying to help pioneer multichannel computer audio, and documenting it here.  Things like DoP version 1.1 allow multichannel native DSD, and so I'd like to start there, with likely a Mytek 8 channel DAC or set of stereo  Mytek's.  The drivers need to be figured out, though.

[Russtafarian]

I agree with Ted.  I get the best results for multi-channel SACD and DVD-A with good analog gear.  Analog output from a universal player to an analog multi-channel preamp + power amps.

Not that I've tried them all, but I haven't been able to get the same level of sound quality using HDMI into a home theater receiver.

One option for building an analog multi-channel music system is to pair a newer universal player (Oppo, Marantz, etc.) with an older home theater processor that has high quality multi-channel analog inputs and outputs.  These high-end HT processors like Parasound, Lexicon, B&K, etc are relatively inexpensive since folks have been dumping them to get processors with HDMI switching and Bluray audio codecs.

Russ

[simon wagstaff]

I use a Denon AVR-100 and BDP-A-100 100th anniversary receiver and universal player. For me the kicker is that I can connect them together using Denon-link IV, basically an ethernet connection that supposedly has much less jitter. I can run CD, DVD-A, SACD and blu ray with this connection.,

I have an AVA U70 tube amp that I use for the fronts, a pair of VMPS smaller subs and use the receiver's amps for the center and rears.

i haven't done any direct comparisons with other set ups but am very happy with this as a digital front end.