Recommendation needed for a bargain AV Processor

[budgetblown]

Hi,

I recently inherited a 37" TV and installed Virgin cable services for TV and Broadband. The problem I have is that my current pre-amp - a Thule PR350b - doesn't handle HDMI. It handles stereo beautifully when being used as a DAC via OPTI, and is a stonking bit of kit in terms of build.

What I need is a processor with HDMI and Svideo input, and if it has in-built amplifiers then it has to be able to pass through to my power amps. I don't need an amazing amount of channels - the room is too small for anything except a 2 speaker setup, and those speakers handle an extended frequency range nicely enough.

I doesn't have to be new, either. Ideal budget would be around the £200 mark maximum - less is far better, although I'm seriously considering stretching to an Onkyo nx626 since they're on sale around the £299 for new units with 3 year guarantees right now. It ticks most of the boxes, and is available in black. I never thought I'd be such a tart about the colour of my equipment, but there we go!

Any and all recommendations gratefully received.

 

[mr marcus]

dont know if you're familiar with avforums....but their classifieds would be your best bet....seen a few processors on there...though not sure if you'll get hdmi within that budget...you might

as you say you could use a ' av receiver' as a processor....that wouldgive you hdmi upscaling and switching...loads are on avforums all the time due to upgraditice....you'll get a lot more bang for you buck going used

 

[budgetblown]

less than helpful, they were. One guy trying to sell one of his own products- which will allow me to cludge a solution, but not solve all the issues - who then got snotty when I said "no thank you" and recommended a 1.5k pre-amp. I like the wam, people are more sensible here.

Sometimes.

 

[Flimber]

To be fair, I don't think anyone got "snotty" at all and the recommendation was more of an "if only":

http://www.avforums.com/threads/av-receiver-processor-recommendations-desperately-needed.1842747/

Joe's very knowledgeable and offered a nice solution which allowed you to keep your (very able) existing kit.

If you go to the AVF Classifieds section for Amps and Receivers and click the "For Sale" button of any ad it

will remove the Wanteds/Trades and you can see a healthy selection of available kit. Onkyos aplenty. I recently

picked up a Denon 2807 there, albeit in Silver, for £80 which would seem to do everything you want too (?).

HTH,

Mike.

 

[Flimber]

The other thing you could do - don't know why I dint think of it before - is keep everything as is and just have an HDMI switch at the rear of the TV, even velcro'd to it if you're that box phobic, and let that switch your HDMIs with a macro on your remote to set Thule to the appropriate source. For your stereo setup, the Sky box's digital output will be fine, won't it ? At the very least it'd be a f'now, no ?

 

[mr marcus]

I was going going to suggest a separate hdmi switch box....not a one box solution but miles cheaper

 

[budgetblown]

Figured out a f'now, until I get the setup I want. Tivo feeds opti to pre-amp, hdmi to TV with sound muted. Laptop feeds opti to pre-amp, svideo to TV with sound muted. Still inputs for CD/mobile available. Many cables, but it'll work at least. It's nice to be able to keep the Thule a while longer, since it does very well as a DAC.

 

[cjr]

Sony ES legacy AVR via SPDIF or non 7.1 HDMI. Plenty around. You can even get a STR-DA5200ES for £150-200 these days.

 

[David.D]

A Yamaha DSP-AX763 would do just about everything you want, Svideo, HDMI, Pre outs.

About £150 on eBay and worth every penny.

 

[brystonian]

A Yamaha DSP-AX763 would do just about everything you want, Svideo, HDMI, Pre outs.About £150 on eBay and worth every penny.

+1 or a DSP-AX863SE or RX-V1065. All go pretty cheap and would do what you want.

 

[Arfa]

Is the old Audiolab 8000AP in budget these days? Otherwise maybe one of the Emotiva processors, maybe just in budget.

 

[craigmclellan]

Before my TV had enough HDMI sockets, I just used an automatic switching HDMI switch alongside my current VA555ES AVR.

I did upgrade (in terms of codecs and sockets) to a Yamaha RX-V667 IIRC, but I sold it and went back to the Sony as it's legacy decoding sounded better.