New receiver help

[LGP08]

Hello,
I've been researching receivers for a couple weeks. Read tons of reviews, I am still lost.

Here is my set up:
Samsung 52" LCD 1080p 120hz (LV52A650)
Panansonic DMP-BD35 - blueray player
5.1 surround - Paradigm Speakers (not sure of model)
xbox 360
wii
HD Comcast Cable

I've been looking at the Marantz SR5003 or SR6003 and the Denon 2309ci. Leaning heavier towards the SR5003.

Also I don't know if it would be a better idea to get a less expensive receiver and purchase a 5 or 7 channel amp. Or get one of the listed above now, and purchase an amp later.

My concern with the less expensive receiver is that it will not have all the latest HD audio / video processing I will need. Will the Blueray player process all the info so that the receiver doesn't have to do it?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
thanks

[BADuHamel]

Hello,
I've been researching receivers for a couple weeks. Read tons of reviews, I am still lost.

Here is my set up:
Samsung 52" LCD 1080p 120hz (LV52A650)
Panansonic DMP-BD35 - blueray player
5.1 surround - Paradigm Speakers (not sure of model)
xbox 360
wii
HD Comcast Cable

I've been looking at the Marantz SR5003 or SR6003 and the Denon 2309ci. Leaning heavier towards the SR5003.

Also I don't know if it would be a better idea to get a less expensive receiver and purchase a 5 or 7 channel amp. Or get one of the listed above now, and purchase an amp later.

My concern with the less expensive receiver is that it will not have all the latest HD audio / video processing I will need. Will the Blueray player process all the info so that the receiver doesn't have to do it?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
thanks

Your Blu-ray player will decode all of the new audio codecs onboard an output them as PCM via HDMI to any HDMI receiver or Pre/Pro capable of processing multichannel PCM, so unless you would prefer to bitstream the audio codecs and decode them outside of the player, you'll not need to worry about finding a receiver capable of decoding them.

There are some reasons why you might want to consider bitstreaming over decoding in the player and sending as PCM. Some people don't want to be confined to the quality of the decoders in the players, though many say that theoretically the decoders should all sound the same. The primary argument, however, for bitstreaming via HDMI vs. sending as PCM is "jitter". PCM is prone to jitter and bitreaming the the codecs over HDMI avoids the issue of jitter entirely.

Without getting too technical, in general terms jitter is caused by the digital clocks for each component being out of sync and signal loss, which can degrade sound quality.

In answer to tyour question about whether you should get a cheaper receiver and later get a multichannel amp, that is one option, as long as you get a receiver that has pre-amp outs. Another option is to get a multichannel pre-processor and multichannel amplifier combination. Many home theater enthusiasts (and audiophiles) argue that going this "separates" route allows for much higher quality components and, ultimately, better sound quality. Of course, it's all subjective and much of this depends on your budgetary contraints, etc.

Personally, I do not fall into the camp that believes going with separate components automatucally gives better results. Before I had an AVR, I had a seperate B&K pre-amp and QSC power amp combo, and my AVR easily trounced it on sound quality.