[dayneger]

I finally got to listen to a pair of Linkwitz Orions the other day (very nice, by the way!) and toying with the idea of a future 5-channel system based on two Orions for L-R and just the tweeter and midbass for center and rears.  That requires 12 channels of amplification, with corresponding XOs.

Since all-digital systems like the Panasonic SA-XR45 HT receiver are starting to come into their own, I was wondering what it would take to drive the above system with two of these 6-channel receivers.

Unfortunately I know very little about how these things work in general and how the Panasonic is constructed in particular.  I seems like it should be possible, though, to use the front end of the 1st receiver as a digital pre-pro.  Then you splice in digital XOs in the signal path, with the outputs for the Orions going to the 6 amps in the 1st receiver and the other 6 outputs hard wired into the amps in the second receiver.

Would this work, and would it actually be a worthwhile idea?  

Dayne

[dayneger]

Dang, looks like I found a topic of near-universal interest!

[JLM]

Can't help much here, but to throw in my 2 cents:

There's an obvious cost mis-match here (and I'm a big fan of spending relatively more on speakers than most).

The Panny is great for the money, and I see digital as the way of the future, but face it, it's only $300.  And it really comes into its own only when fed digitally.

Wayne at Boulder is modding the Panny for SOTA performance, but only two channels, and that bumps the price to $1,000.  Spending $700 to mod a $300 piece causes nearly everyone to pause.  

Trying to use Pannys (modded to match the Orions quality) to serve all those channels would bump the cost and would starting looking silly.

The Panny is a price/performance/technology break through product, but the overall digital technology is still early on the maturity learning curve and this doesn't seem like the right tool for the job you have in mind.

[dayneger]

Thanks for the feedback, JLM.  I realize that 2 stock Panasonics cost about the same as the driver complement for just 1 Orion.  On the other hand, I'm not sure that the amps SL suggests for them are absolute worldbeaters, either--don't know on that score.

I guess I was approaching the 2 Panasonics as a digital pre-pro and two 6-channel digital amps.

If you could insert a digital XO in the signal path between the pre-pro and the amps, you'd have an active all-digital system for Orions or similar designs, possibly for a very reasonable cost.

Cheers,

Dayne

[dwk]

This could be an interesting project, but would be rather more difficult than you might realize.

There are a couple major problems

1) the 6th amp channel is ONLY used when decoding 6.1 surround formats. the multichannel analog input DOES NOT include a way to route sound to this amp.  So, using analog inputs you really only get 5 amp channels, plus volume control over the sub. This would mean that if you were using the analog inputs, you'd still need another stereo amp to get you up to 12 channels.

2) The analog inputs are really not that good. I'm certain there are many other 'conventional' HT receivers with 5.1 or 6.1 analog inputs that would be better suited to this if you were intending to do this off-the-shelf.

However, if you wanted to make a serious project out of it, using a digital xover that was modified to feed a couple XR45 (also modified, of course) directly via I2S lines, then you might really have something interesting. I think this could in fact be a killer system, but you'd pay for it with the effort and time involved in the mods.

[dayneger]

I've heard that the analog inputs really aren't that great on the Panny (I mean, how could they be at that price point), but using the digital amps would certainly be interesting.

Didn't know about the 6th channel, that's a bit of a bummer.  2 Pannys could still handle the left, right and center with 10 channels, at least.

Do do all that right with digital XOs etc would certainly be way way above my head, but it would be pretty interesting to compare with an analog system!

Cheers,

:_) Dayne