A "new" system and a quad system -- advice on setup and components

[rmorit01]

Hello all,

I have been more on the vintage side of quad in terms of hardware -- I have a Sansui QRX-5001, QRX-6001 and a QRX-7500. The 6001 has been my main receiver (light refurb and problematic caps have been replaced.
I also use "vintage" Epicure M202 in the setup, these are 4 ohm with an 8" woofer and inverted dome tweeter on "two sides" of the speaker. I have a stacked pair in front and two for the rear -- my media is mostly blu-ray quadio and stereo albums -- no other media and no need for decoding from albums. I have an Oppo-105 set to downmix to 4.0 and hooked up through the rca outs to the 6001. Lastly my TV/Movie content is from an Amazon 4K stick plugged into the Oppo -- I am currently pleased with surround effects in movies from this setup and I won't every move to a 7.1 or atmost system.

What I have been considering is just going 5.1 for movies and if anything happened to the quad receivers or the Oppo I would switch to full HDMI from my sources and use a phono pre-amp for the turntable (a Dual 1229). Note I have speaker switches to connect different configurations and if I wanted to I could setup a dedicated stereo system (I have some older Toshiba seperates that I may use for that).

At the low end Yamaha has this receiver Refurb Yamaha RX-4VA 5.2 - at this price nothing "says 4 ohm" capable but I understand that at this price point.

I have spotted a used Anthem MRX 310 and 510 on the local marketplace which would be a used alternative.

What else should I consider in terms of modern or used AVRs, seperates or pre/pro --- I more often find used all analog gears like Marantz MA-500 monoblocks in my areas, Marantz DP-870 and an AV-6000 but all in for 4 mono blocks that is more than something brand new.

Thanks for your input - Bob

 

[barfle]

Hmmm. I just saw this post for the first time, and I’m sorry nobody bothered responding to your questions.

What I understand is that you’re considering 5.1 for movies from your Oppo (and Amazon streamer), but want to also use stereo from your LPs.

There are quite a few receivers and pre-pros that can do those things. I had a Marantz 7701 (I’ve seen a few on ebay for around $400) that has one set of 7.1 analog inputs (you don’t need to use them all) and several stereo inputs, including a phono stage. You can mix the HDMI video from your Oppo and 7.1 analog audio. I did just that for a decade.

 

[par4ken]

You should still be able to find an AVR with analogue inputs and then you are all set. I also use my Oppos to downmix to 4.0. One caveat is that SACD's don't downmix without converting from DSD to PCM. If you output 5.1 that is not a problem.

As for stereo, I recommend playing everything via one of the QS Vario-matrix decoders in your current equipment. No Dolby decoder will do as good a job and simply listening in "stereo" is unthinkable to me. Another caveat, the Sansui decoders outputs are not passed to the tape output jacks, so you can't tap the signal there in order to feed it to the AVR. Oddly most of the older QR models (which have crappy decoders) have pre-out/amp-in jacks, while most or all the QX models do not. Sadly my suggestion will not work without some modification, (you would need to add jacks to tap the output signal off of the receivers preamplifier (wiper of the output potentiometer).

One advantage of using a more modern amplifier than those in the Sansui receiver's is a bit better sound. I've long considered vintage equipment from the seventies to have what I call "transistor sound". It is most pronounced in lower end models with quasi-complementary output stages. The higher end models with complementary-symmetry output sound slightly better.

Another suggestion is to use professional amplifiers like those from Crown (available used at reasonable prices) for the amplification but you would need a modified receiver to drive it.