kennyt

I am curious to see what you all think of this.

I have had some of the best pre/pro's ever made, including my reference Meridian 861v4. I have also had many reference level pre/pro's along the way, going back to the Proceed PAV/PDSD combo, Linn 5103, etc....

Clearly, the pre/pro market is one of the fastest changing markets in audio, and has been for a long time. New audio and video formats have outdated older units quickly and greatly dropped any potential resale value. The best of the best pre/pro's from only a year or so ago are completely outdated now because of HDMI and all the new HDM advanced codecs.

So I ask you, is it worth buying an ultra high end AV preamp or should we all just buy the new Denon or Integra pre/pro and save our money until this crazy ride stabilizes?

__________________
Ken Taraszka, MD
Associate Editor
http://avrev.com/
http://hometheaterreview.com/
http://www.avrevforum.com/

rlpiii

I am hoping all the other new audio formats will just die, and MCPCM will become the standard. I don't see a future for lossy compression, I think the new lossy formats should have never been developed.

HDMI has been around now for, I think, at least 2 years. If you were buying a pre/pro in the last 2 years w/o HDMI, you should have known better.

BTW, high-end pre/pro's usually have really good trade-in/upgrade policies w/ the manufacturer i.e. Halcro, Lexicon, etc. So, if you have been essentially throwing away your high-end pre/pro because of new advances in processing, and buying new brands, spending $8 - $10k+ . . . then maybe you should have chosen more wisely with your original purchase.

kennyt

Considering we are just starting to see pre/pro's with HDMI that even will accept PCM now....

__________________
Ken Taraszka, MD
Associate Editor
http://avrev.com/
http://hometheaterreview.com/
http://www.avrevforum.com/

deacongreg

This is a great question kenny. You certainly can not knock the quality and sound at that level of equipment. However, with companies like Anthem, Integra, and now Denon stepping up their game, you have to wonder............Because the sound quality and craftmanship here, is excellent as well. And if the connections, features, and flexibility are here, then why not.

Because, at the end of the day, you want your system to be functional and working.

prerich

To this part of your post I say - Here, Here! Bravo!!!! Many of the prepros and people that use receivers as prepros already pass lossless PCM - whats the point if you boast about your storage rate but use it for compressed sound. Just use the extra storage for uncompressed lossless sound and be done with it!

HT Junky

The latest switch to a single wire was monumental. There is arguably better ways of achieving this than HDMI, but I sure like what it does to the back of my equipment rack.

The changing of connection types, by far, had the largest sweeping effect to my system. I hope it stabilizes for a while.

The six wire deal with SACD and DVD Audio really sucked.