Getting multi-channel pre-outs from a low-end AVR

[dcard]

Have upgraded my home theater to 4k and not happy about necessary upgrade to get my 4k to new tv.

Want to continue to use my Parasound 220W/channel x5 power amp (2205A) but hate to spend 700-1000 minimum to upgrade my Emotiva UMC-200 processor. I have two home theaters, so anything I do is times 2.

The least expensive upgrade is a full blown singing and dancing AVR with pre-outs for about $500.

But if I don't use pre-outs, I can get a low-profile AVR that will fit in my cabinet, like the RX-S602 reviewed on this site.

I just don't pay attention nor listen close to "theater levels" when watching videos...so not terribly concerned about quality.

Listening to music is a different story. Very picky. I am thinking about passing digital optical PCM 2-channel out from AVR to an external DAC that has volume control (wyred4less?) and auto-switching the line level L-R sources for this to my power amps when listening to music.

************** THE QUESTION ***************

Can I fake multichannel outputs by using resistor dividers on those AVR's speaker level outputs? And if it is even feasible, how big a hit on audio quality could I expect. I am assuming modern amps will not destroy themselves with a high impedance load (or open circuit). I certainly do not want to simulate speaker loads at 8 or 16 ohms and create heat with high wattage resistor loads. Yes, I know these amps are designed for complex impedance loads, but, but....

Speakers are B&W 805's (and matching center model). Left and Right channels have an line-level active Linkwitz-Riley crossover (Hsu) that passes LF to a pair of Hsu ULS-15's and feeds the 805's 90Hz+. Suspect my 220Wx5 Parasound is way overkill in that arrangement. Leftover from floorstander days, it is an 85 lb emotional attachment (like my dog).

 

[j_garcia]

Contact Emotiva and see if they have any leftover MC-700s around, or check their forums and see if anyone might be selling one. It lacks 7.1 channel analog inputs though, but has outputs to handle all the amp channels. Otherwise you are most likely looking at AVRs or Outlaw 976s ($929, wait for sale, maybe they'll give you a deal on 2).

 

[dcard]

As I said earlier, I have two Emotiva UMC-200's. It was a long painful path with firmware updates to stability with those units, and still years later flaky behavior now and then that can only be cleared with a remove-power reboot. Not the best WAF factor. I'll take decrease in sound quality for rock-solid operation.

Reading the (Emotiva) forums on the MC-700 is like opening up an old wound. Flaky behavior on EDID handshakes, no Dolby Vision, and the killer: It won't put up any OSD display for any feed that is 4k. The head guy says that "you don't need OSD after initial setup."

And I am going to drop $700 times 2 for that experience?

Just curious on how much of a quality hit I would see with a simple speaker-to-line level converter (resistor divider). I'll bet someone has taken an AVR with pre-amp outputs, and put those speaker-level resistors in and ran some comparative signal tests.

Sounds like something someone at Audioholics would do.

 

[dcard]

p.s. and I hate the fact that I will lose OSD (on-screen display) if I went with the MC-700

As the source material changes on whatever source is selected, today I get a small popup telling me what the source is, and what the surround processor is doing to it.

Sometimes, source audio is only passed as stereo, and I may want to hit a button to have the processor synthesize to multichannel.

Often there is a problem in the system. A Roku setting got changed and I am downgraded on audio quality. From the HTPC, a Windows update took out my TrueHD signal and downgraded to compressed Dolby 5.1. This sh1t happens ALL the time.

I think I will be lost without the popup.