MojoLists

To upgrade or make do with what you have is a constant question home theater enthusiast must answer on a regular basis. The most common problem facing us today is to upgrade our old receivers to one that can handle HDMI. Even receivers purchased today may not handle HDMI or only switch the video, as is the case in my living room where my Harmon Kardon passes two HDMI signals.

This works in that room as the speakers are hand me downs from my first 5.1 system 10 years ago and HD audio isn’t an issue. My problem comes in my dedicated theater where I have a Kenwood Sovereign receiver, one of the few I have found capable of driving the power hungry 4-ohm load of my Magnepan system through a full on action movie without overheating.

The Kenwood doesn’t even do component video switching but I am not giving it up, I love the warm sound and frankly, can’t afford to upgrade right now. I had to ask myself if HD audio was worth it and I decided it was so I waited until a Blu-Ray player came out that was capable of sending all of the HD audio formats via analog outputs. I settled on the Sony S550, I love it, the sound improvement over standard Dolby, and DTS is impressive, more open, detailed and enveloping.

HDMI switches are readily available at reasonable prices if you are running out of connections on your television. These switches can be manual, automatic or remote controlled depending on your budget.

I decided I could live with the Kenwood for a while longer, not that I have much of a choice and the cost of the Sony S550 was significantly lower than upgrading my receiver. For those of you who want to keep your DVD-A/SACD player connected to your receiver inputs look to Zektor for a high quality 8 channel analog switch or consider the budget solution of using a A/V switch.

In addition Denon has a universal Blu-Ray player, priced somewhere close to new car territory that solves this problem altogether. Oppo is also jumping into the universal Blu-Ray market with a rumored MSRP between $499 and $599 and considering the quality of their DVD players, this may be a real bargain.

If you enjoy the sound of your current receiver do your wallet a favor and keep it, you can still enjoy the sound and visual improvement of HD without falling into the upgrade trap. Besides, the receiver you want to buy today will likely be outdated next week.

 I have a sizable collection of DVD-A and SACD discs and I love most of them. I know vinyl is the perfect format but I just couldn’t talk myself, OK, I couldn’t talk my wife into restarting my music collection in another format which would require a considerable investment in a player and the records themselves in order to hear a difference.

 Despite the naysayers, I can hear a difference on well-recorded DVD-A and SACD discs but there is a new format for music that is just getting off the ground. Blu-Ray offers the potential for uncompromised sound, although it is digital and that is good enough for me. I don’t have my cables running through boxes of Peruvian sand and yes there are people who swear it makes a difference.

I am talking about music only discs here, not concert footage, which is readily available. My search was nearly fruitless aside from 30+ classical titles on Amazon. I was thrilled to see there is a market but I didn’t find anything I was interested in buying again. A few hopeful articles are out there but nothing concrete for future mainstream releases. This puzzles me as Universal Music was an early addition among Blu-Ray supporters.

Blu-Ray has potential because of the number of players, including PS3’s that are out and with the format war over this seems to be the next logical step for those who realize that all MP3’s sound like crap on a good system.

*UPDATE* Neil Young is releasing a 10 disc Blu-ray music collection available 2/24/2009. This is a great opportunity to see what the format is capable of. The projected price, well over $300 will mean I will not be hearing these anytime soon :(

Home theater technology is a funny thing in that every piece you install today is likely to be outdated tomorrow. Computers still work in much the same way but to a lesser degree than they did 5 years ago. The HDTV you purchased two years ago, you know the one that included the DVI port that would keep your system up-to-date for years to come, isn’t all that friendly in today’s world. DVI is still useful but HDMI quickly took over and is a superior technology that handles both audio and video.

As a semi-reformed early adopter, I have jumped on the DVD-A, SACD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray bandwagons as quickly as possible. My mind appears incapable of fathoming the world not embracing each and every new technology. Looking back, I have found this mental instability has been a common theme throughout my life and based on the marketing robots that pump out this stuff, I am not alone. It doesn’t matter if it is the newest lure for bass fishing or the latest, greatest universal remote, I want it or I am unable to move forward in my endeavor.

I am a marketer's dream come true, I was diagnosed with upgradeitis at a very early age. I also have an overwhelming collectors bug that I can’t shake. I am not a pack rat but I am compelled to own every new movie and CD I read a good review on and not so good ones when the price is right or at least perceived to be right.

This blog will follow my adventures through new technologies, getting by with old ones and my thoughts on various movies and music. Like many of you, I live on a tight budget and have to find a way to make the most of what I have. So stay tuned and get a little guidance on what you need, should lust over, and even pretty things that are best avoided.