you know what, im scrapping this whole tube idea.
that Onkyo has everything i need including pre-out for a secondary 50w power amp i will be employing for my patio speakers.
i had walked away from AV-Receivers because a lot of them have more channels than i will ever need and i don't know which is better, this convers my needs at a good price.
That was a very smart decision.
However you need to be aware, that that unit has no bass management. So your main speakers will be full range and you can add a sub to supplement them.
There is not HDMI connectivity, only low grade composite connections, which are no longer useful.
We really do not a good 2.1 channel pro/pro or receiver with bass management and a selection of HDMI inputs and outputs. Such I thing does not exist as far as I can tell.
So for AV use you are now forced to buy multichannel devices with complex set up whether you like it or not. This is bad. The vast majority of rooms and systems would be better off with 2.1 channel in my view, if there was a simple unit available like I described.
I argued the point with someone very high up the food chain in Marantz last week. He says there is no demand, but I told him that he does not realize how many customers he is turning away. This is a very bad state of affairs especially for classical orientated listeners. They seem to be condemned to ipod docks now, and they are not happy.
I have one AV room, and two systems that are two channel plus sub.
Until recently two of the systems were vintage two channel work arounds. How ever my wife could just not get the hang of the one in our Eagan home, and hated all the wires.
So this was the end result.
I ended having to put in a huge multichannel pre/pro. My wife is pleased however, and finds it very easy to use, and she is happy.
However a neat little 2.1 pre/pro would be much better!
