Funk

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High quality tools for working with digital and analog sources to radio and TV stations, recording studios and demanding home users.
AV Directory

Yamaha A-1020 Universal Blu-ray Player

Chris Heinonen

The number of Universal Blu-ray players on the market continues to be strong, despite the much-discussed "death" of SACD and DVD-Audio formats. While no longer mainstream enough to be found at your local Best Buy or other big box retailer, SACD especially remains a thriving format in the audiophile market. The A-1020 is a Universal Blu-ray player that handles virtually all disc formats you can throw at it. In addition to its Blu-ray and audio playback abilities, is has the ubiquitous Netflix support and integrated Wi-Fi for streaming the content. It sounds like a good package from the specs, but with the universal player market being so competitive it really has a lot of good competitors to deal with.

Blu-ray Players

NHT

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NHT was founded in December 1986 and shipped its first product, the Model 1 in 1987. Since then, NHT has challenged the notion that the very best sound reproduction...
AV Directory

Blu-ray Player for Older AV Processor?

Scott Wilkinson

I have a JBL Synthesis AV2 processor with HDMI 1.1 and eight RCA analog-audio inputs. I want to buy a new Blu-ray player, but I've been told conflicting info about what outputs the player needs to send 7.1 channels of HD audio to the AVP. I have been told that HDMI 1.1 will only accept 5.1 channels from a player, and to get all 7.1 channels, I need a player with eight RCA outputs. Other sources say the AVP should be able to handle 7.1 channels via HDMI 1.1. Which true?

I am looking at the Sony BDP-S790 player, which doesn't have eight outputs, only HDMI 1.4, versus the Oppo BDP-103 and 105. Which do you like best?

- John Baldino
Orange, CT

SECRETS Home Theater Q&A