Need a good decoder/preout, nothing more

[introvert]

I might have posted about a year or so ago on this topic. I'm in need of a new receiver, but I have pretty unique needs for it, and I'm looking for a suggestion as I'm very unfamiliar with home theater/home audio gear (but I can assemble a nice pro rig if you need!).

I work in the games industry as a sound designer. At the office, I've got a nice dolby decoder setup. At home, I don't (and I like to work from home when I can). Instead, for the past year and a half, I've used a consumer receiver as a decoder. I feed it a digital signal (via optical and coaxial, depending on whether I'm playing back from the PC or console development systems), and I take the analog output from the preouts back into my audio rig, where I can capture it, route it to my Genelec 5.1 system, etc.

For the past year and a half, I've been using a Pioneer VSX-816 for this duty. It worked well for a while, but about a month and a half ago the front right channel died. I thought it was the preout, and so I ordered a replacement board from Pioneer (for $45 + shipping... sigh). I swapped the old for new, and it worked for maybe a day before it stopped working again.

I'm not going to sink any more cash into repairing this unit. I just want to get a new one, and I'm looking for suggestions. I'd like to keep the price relatively cheap ($200-300 would be best), and I'm only concerned with the quality of the decoding and the presence of a preout on the back of the device.

I'm already looking around at some units, but I thought I'd drop a post here to see if you ladies and gents had any suggestions. Thanks for your time!

[Mike P.]

Not sure if you're looking for new or used, but for a decoder only, there's the Technics SH-AC500D with optical and coax digital in and analog out. The specs are here:
http://www.audio-ideas.com/backiss/w..._sh-a500d.html
and one is for sale here:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ele/586360409.html
For 20 bucks you can't go wrong. Other then that your only option would be a receiver.

[introvert]

This is why I came here. Wow. Like I said, I'm very unfamiliar with home audio products. I didn't realize they were selling consumer grade decoder units like this.

I've emailed the guy with the craigslist posting. I've also found a few on eBay. We'll see what happens. But yeah, for this price, even if I get it and it sounds bad/doesn't meet my needs, I haven't lost much. Thanks!

[Mike P.]

introvert wrote:

This is why I came here. Wow. Like I said, I'm very unfamiliar with home audio products. I didn't realize they were selling consumer grade decoder units like this.

I've emailed the guy with the craigslist posting. I've also found a few on eBay. We'll see what happens. But yeah, for this price, even if I get it and it sounds bad/doesn't meet my needs, I haven't lost much. Thanks!

Those decoders were from a few years ago when receivers were "5.1 capable" and still needed an off board decoder for the processing. I used one for years, still have it, and can vouch they do a good job. Although the one for sale doesn't come with the remote, all levels can be set on the unit itself, if I remember correctly. If you do get it, let us know how it works for you.

[introvert]

I did notice that it doesn't handle 24/96 though. Read it on a review. While not a dealkiller (games are still operating at 24/48, at least for this generation), it is slightly annoying. With my old receiver, I liked listening to DVD-As in my studio from time to time.