Switching sound preo/pro… upgrading to HD a/v

I sold off my Lexicon MC12B, which had great low freq response for the TRWs. Why? Because it’s completely incapable of supporting the latest audio codecs. The new MC12B-HD supports HDMI audio in, which gives you support for 7.1 channels of MPCM from the BluRay player. Except the Lexicon MC12B-HD still only support 5.1 thru MPCM! Lexicon is really behind the curve for state of the art home theatre audio performance.

SO now it’s time to upgrade…  I am looking at either the Denon AVP, or the Integra 9.9. The latter is about 40% the street cost of the Denon, at least. It says it goes down to 5Hz, which is good for the TRWs. The Integra is 7.1 out, which is not as much as the Lexicon or the Denon, but I can make it work.

I use the Lake Contour EQ to take the single LFE/Subwoofer out, and split it to the 3 subwoofer bands I require. 30-80Hz for the Wilson Watchdogs, 20-30 Hz for the Wilson XS and 0-20Hz for the TRWs.

I will probably get the Integra, and if I don’t like the sound, I will eBay it off and get the Denon. However, it looks like the Integra is still not available. So we’re in a waiting period here, while audio vendors catch up to high performance audio codec support with full 7.1 or more decoding.