What is this feature called?
Hi there,
I am struggling to identify the name of a feature I am looking for in a new Home Cinema amp.
I have a Roksan Caspian M2 hifi-amp, and I want to use this to drive the front, main speakers. I want to let the Home Cinema amp receive the input from the source, send sound to the other speakers (sub / centre / rear), but pass the signal onto the hifi-amp which in turn powers the main speakers. I believe this is a feature of some AV amps, but I can’t figure out what it’s called and therefore can’t figure out which amps support this feature!
A second question is that where a home cinema amp has hdmi inputs, I presume this also carries the audio and that you don’t need to separately attach an optical / digital cable. In this case, what are the digital / optical inputs actually used for these days?
I’d be really grateful if someone could point the way with these two questions.
Your struggling...... 
The feature you are talking about is called "Pre-Outs".
HDMI can carry audio and picture....though with certain Sky Boxes, the audio has to be sent by Optical.
Does the Onkyo NR609 have it?
http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/products/tx-nr609-35517.html
I can see zone 2 line outs and one pre out, and a separate sub woofer pre out, so I'm not sure.
If it doesn't, is there an alternative amp at around this price that will support this function?
Looking at the manual, that seems to suggest the only connection you can make with an amp is the Zone 2 setting in another room. It may be worth looking at whatever is the current Marantz model as my AV receiver was around that price when it came out and had pre-outs. It certainly makes a tremendous difference!
No the 609 doesn't. As far as I can tell:
Onkyo - the 709 is the lowest in the current range that has preouts.
Yamaha - the 771
Denon - 3312
Marantz - 6006
Sony - can't find it
None of these are exactly budget, but there may be options on the second hand/discontinued market, or even real bargains in older receivers if your bluray player has analogue outs to do the HD decoding for you...
Thank-you all for your really helpful comments.
John - that's particularly helpful to have this list - thanks for pulling together.
Its called pre-outs. The AV amp processes the signal and sends it to the outputs bypassing the amplifier stage.
Optical inputs can be used for cd players, to bypass the cd's dac and use the AV amps, you can also use the optical with an Airport Express.
Paul's BR/805 system thread
(where the photos live) Paul's Flickr page