I have a Denon AVR3803 and DVD2910 for many years and must finally upgrade the receiver for HDMI connections. The main feature I enjoy from my system is SACD playback through 5.1 ext-in connections. The current comparable Denon receivers are the AVRX2100W or 3100W, a great value as they are discontinued but have Wifi and Bluetooth features that I like, however they don't have the multi-channel ext-in that I need for SACD playback with this DVD player. The Denon DVD only plays 2 channel audio from HDMI. The AVR7200W is the only Denon that has the inputs but is out of my price range. I am also considering the Marantz SR5009 which is still a little more than I want to spend but has the inputs. My question is this: "for the money" - am I better off getting the cheaper Denon 2100W and upgrading my DVD to say an Oppo BDP-103 (or even an earlier one) assuming they would play SACD's through HDMI ? Or do I need to pay up for a receiver with 5.1 inputs to enjoy my SACD's ?
There are a number of issues.
If your player will send DSD over HDMI and your receiver has an inbuilt DSD decoder, then you do not need the analog multichannel inputs.
If your player can convert DSD to multichannel PCM and send it over HDMI I think you are OK. You will however be listening to PCM and not DSD. Purists will say this is not acceptable. It does depend on the sampling rate, as to get the full dynamic range of SACD you do need to transmit at a high enough bit rate. This does not usually happen.
If you can't do any of the above then you need the analog inputs.
There is one more issue. US and European SACDs are mixed differently with a different speaker layouts. US SACDs are really 5.0 or 5.1. However the rear channels on European SACDs are supposed to be the rear backs of a 7.0 or 7.1 system. To do that you need 7.1 analog inputs and plug the surround into the rear back inputs and not the surround inputs. Since all my SACDs are European, that is what I do.
In the digital domain, the rear information always goes to the side surrounds and not the rear speakers. That is the biggest issue in SACD playback, in my view.
SACD is an awkward hard to set up system, and very few get really decent results from it. It needs to be gone, and the world should go to audio only BD if you don't want a picture with it. BD gives the opportunity for a picture which is a big advantage.
