Home Theater Receiver for just 3.1 channels?

[jjcha]

This is for a friend - fairly hardcore 2 channel audiophile and skeptical about digital and multichannel. He's got a gorgeous vinyl setup (Nottingham turntable, Wilson Benesch ACT speakers, VAC pre/power amplifiers).

He does want to improve his DVD/TV experience though and is looking into a separate system for his TV. He doesn't want rear surrounds, but is interested in L/R, center and sub.

Anyone got a recommendation for a good home theater receiver which has settings to deal with the fact that there will be no rear surrounds? Ideally, it would have a setting that would decode the Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 channels and just mix the missing rears (either straight, or with some delay/processing) into the front L/R channels. I don't know if there are any that do that.

Budget just for the receiver is about $1000.

Best,

-Jason

 

[cpw]

Does he want to use his existing main speakers or buy 3 speakers and a sub?
CPW

 

[jjcha]

He's getting new speakers and a sub, but that's separate from the $1000 budget. I imagine the speakers will be fairly average in terms of power demands (i.e., not high efficiency).

Best,

-Jason

 

[mulveling]

Quote:

He does want to improve his DVD/TV experience though and is looking into a separate system for his TV. He doesn't want rear surrounds, but is interested in L/R, center and sub.

Will he normally be viewing by himself, seated in the sweetspot? If so, I would go without a dedicated center channel (phantom center). That's what I did, since my TV is occupying the optimal location for the center speaker - placing above or below messed up the imaging. Especially being a 2-ch purist, I'm not sure he'll like a center unless it's a 3rd identical speaker placed at the same height as the right/left. I do very much like having rear surrounds with a well mixed 5.1 track - he should consider going 4.1 over 3.1 if he's just trying to optimize the sweet spot. Quote:

Anyone got a recommendation for a good home theater receiver which has settings to deal with the fact that there will be no rear surrounds? Ideally, it would have a setting that would decode the Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1 channels and just mix the missing rears (either straight, or with some delay/processing) into the front L/R channels. I don't know if there are any that do that.

I think any HT receiver worth a damn will do that - it's pretty basic feature - you tell the receiver which speakers you have, whether they're large or small, and the receiver figures out how to downmix the 5.1 track to each speaker. Of course some DVDs only have a 2.0 track, and receivers often offer features to upmix it to more than speakers. However IME these all sound terrible and one should play a 2.0 track only in 2.0 or 2.1 (of course your friend should know that).
Quote:

Budget just for the receiver is about $1000.

Hmm, can't help too much here since I don't have a lot of experince with recievers, but my Denon AVR-3805 has tons of features and good sound quality; I got it from the Crutchfield Scratch&Dent store for exactly $1K.

Edit: Alternatively, he could find the cheapest decent receiver with pre-outs and get a monoblock amp for individual speakers. For example, it should be possible to find a Denon AVR-1905 for $400-$450, and then add a pair of Outlaw M200 monoblocks for a total of about $1K. The monoblocks would provide better amplification for the fronts. The center and/or rear channels could be driven by the Denon until/if he upgrades. This method allows a bit more flexibility.