Okay, so you have confirmed that DH does infact use an encoded 5.1 signal. That was what i was asking, and not sure if true. I have also suspected that if you give the marantz receiver a stereo signal it would try to use dolby pro logic give you a (not as good) DH signal.
yes
The benefit to using the marantz receiver as apposed to a DAC, is that it is the same price as a cheap soundcard + DAC. Plus it gives you options to hook all kinds of other stuff up to it, Bookshelf speakers, whatever.
true, passive speakers would become an option. But here's something that'll start to mess with ya: speaker impedances are usually only 8 or even 6 ohms. {Funny Voice:} HOW DO WE LOWER RECEIVER OUTPUT IMPEDANCE FOR SPEAKERS NOW? :O
Joking aside, I have no idea what the output impedance of the speaker outs are, but if they are even 1 ohm, then the very popular Pioneer speaker line that came out last year, all with 6 ohm impedance, would cause global warming and nuclear winter according to the ohm-matching synergy theory, simultaneously.
Ok, so maybe I wasn't done joking, but I'm trying to be lighthearted while making a point. I've seen a lot of people "scared" of output impedance and propagating the theory, but I haven't yet met a person who could cite a creditable source and convincingly prove the theory. I HAVE met DIY'ers who have made convincing arguments to the contrary, and referred the origins of the theory/myth back to a company (who happened to make low-ohm outputs) making claims about impedance matching problems for crossovers in multi-driver speakers (stereo headphones don't have any crossovers). It would be like Bose making a successful marketing claim that "The silver color of our headphone earcups are what gives our headphones sparkly treble. BETTER SOUND THROUGH RESEARCH, BEEOTCHES!"
I HAVE (ahem, sorry, caps lock) a post saved about this issue for, you guessed it, a future topic in my thread. I'm very interested how it'll play out, but I hope people don't get mad.
Its also unique to me because my nice home theater system using an Onkyo 806 receiver is setup in my living room, where my computer rig is also setup. I am currently using a 35' long HDMI cable from my computer to the onkyo receiver for when i want to listen to, or display content on my nice home theater setup. if i then put a Marantz receiver on my desk I could use its HDMI switch to go to both receivers (My 570 GTX only has 1 HDMI out).
Nice. Everything together is basically my situation too, though I'm not "allowed" to hook anything up to a TV so everything is connected to my computer monitor, at the moment.
Ideally I am trying to find the best solution for my computers headphone setup. it originally involved DGX->DAC->M-Stage->Annies, but the DAC is tricky because there arent any decent AC power, with optical input units I can find in my price range. But if the receiver could give me the DH and DAC through my video cards HDMI, then I could replace those things with it.
Im sure half of what I'm saying doesnt make sense, Im just throwing out random thoughts.
