I'm Wearing Her Down!!!......I forsee a 2ch living room setup in Youthman's living room.

[Vital]

Wow! I had no idea they cost that much, what in the world... I bought mine brand new for $350 or so at the most a few years back. Scratch that idea!

[willland]

Michael,

Sorry about suggesting the Onkyo TX-8050 receiver again, I forgot you are using your HK.

Here is a nice piece that just may do the tricks you want. Not sure of your budget but this Denon looks very intriguing.

http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/DENDNP720AE/DENON-DNP-720AE-Network-Audio-Player-Radio-Tuner-Ipod-Airplay/1.html#!specifications

Bill

[Scrappydue]

How about just an Apple TV? You can stream from your computer to it and control it all via the REMOTE app on the ipad and phone. And it's only 99$

[Youthman]

How about just an Apple TV?

That is one of the things I'm considering.

How would the Apple TV differ from the Bluetooth Adapter? Any benefits over one than the other? $99 definitely would be within budget since I was originally planning on buying a Bluray player but am no longer at this point.

[ivanhurd]

How about just an Apple TV? You can stream from your computer to it and control it all via the REMOTE app on the ipad and phone. And it's only 99$

This is what I was thinking too. Not sure the benefit of doing it over the bluetooth thing tho...I'm sure there would be some added things in there that you would use...probably even built in streaming options.

[Vital]

We have the Apple TV and like it a lot. Didn't think about it but that's an option as well I guess even without a TV. You can use your iphone to control it.

[Scrappydue]

How about just an Apple TV?

That is one of the things I'm considering.

How would the Apple TV differ from the Bluetooth Adapter? Any benefits over one than the other? $99 definitely would be within budget since I was originally planning on buying a Bluray player but am no longer at this point.

i don't know anything about the Bluetooth stuff but the Apple TV can just turn on and then be used as an airplay device from any idevice or you can stream your iTunes library right from your phone to it as well.

[Youthman]

Sorry about suggesting the Onkyo TX-8050 receiver again, I forgot you are using your HK.

No, that's quite alright Bill. My HK is really a really old Prologic Receiver. I would like to upgrade it. I was considering Harman Kardon's HK 3490 2ch Receiver.

In a moment of weakness, I bid at the last 5 seconds of this Harman Kardon HK3490 2ch Receiver. But I was outbid. [] That's totally not like me to be impulsive like that. I really still have to buy a coffee table and a small end table and then I can buy a receiver.

I just realized tonight that the Apple TV will not work with my current HK AVR70 as it does not have Toslink. Guess I'll be looking for a 2ch receiver.

[Scrappydue]

Could always get a little more audiophileish (is that a word lol) and try and

Find a cheaper DAC. That would ramp the quality of the digital files up from the Apple TV. Especially if you like the Harmon Kardon you have. Something like a used xda-1 from emotiva? Just a thought to get out of "having to have" a new receiver.

[Youthman]

Something like a used xda-1 from emotiva?

I'm not sure how the XDA-1 compares to the UMC-1 but it just had too many options for my taste. Having to manually adjust each EQ band was not my cup of tea. I'd rather have a good auto calibration software and let it do it's thing. Again, that may not be the case with the XDA-1 as I am not familiar with DACs.

[ivanhurd]

just realized tonight that the Apple TV will not work with my current HK AVR70 as it does not have Toslink.

What's wrong with using HDMI?

[Youthman]

Apparently HK made two AVR 70 receivers. Mine is the 10 year old model pre-hdmi and only has Dolby Prologic (that ought to date it pretty well).

This is what mine looks like.

[Scrappydue]

Well youth from what I can find on google images that act seems to have two optical inputs and hdmi so you could use either or? And the xda-1 would only convert an optical (toslink) to an analog signal then just go to the act with a set of red and white rca's. but like I said your act should have all the inputs you need on it? But hey I could be wrong

[Scrappydue]

Ok well I see you posted you have some old one that I can't seem to find a picture of or even any info on lol. So like I said all a DAC is designed to do is to take a digital signal in this case the apple tv's toslink and turn that into an analog signal that would right into your avr. Everything we hear us analog and is converted before we hear it. So normally nowadays all stuff is converted in our home theater processors. But in this case the digital signal would get processed before the receiver. Besides MOST (not all I'm guessing) separate DAC's should be better than the ones in our receivers. Exception for those that have spent thousands on Avrs.

[ivanhurd]

Ah, well shoot...I suppose you could also just get a cheap 2 channel like you said too.

[Mongo171]

An OPPO 103 would do you right.

[Youthman]

An OPPO 103 would do you right.

The Oppo looks nice but it would likely be a waste since there are no plans to add a TV in this setup. I would be paying a lot extra for features that will not get used (bluray, HD audio decoding, 4k upconverting etc). It would only be used as a CD player and Pandora streaming. Seems like there are MUCH cheaper options that would yield as good of results.

[Youthman]

Well, I had been watching an Ebay auction for this HK 3490 and at the last minute, was able to snipe it.

I
have no doubt it will be a great unit for the 2ch setup. Later down the road, I'll buy an Apple product (Airport or Apple TV) so that I can stream music
from my iPhone and iPad to the unit. For now, it will be CD's and headphone jack from my iPhone to the HK for Pandora listening and iTunes.