Reply To: 3rd party surround sound decoder

[Hyponx]

Hello BeoMedia,

I also had very similar target requirements when looking for my own setup and regrettably after a lot of searching I found  no product that met all those requirements. I actually considered buying the Canton you did and am sorry to hear it doesn’t work well.

I ended up buying a Denon X4700h second-hand because it has a preamp mode that turns off all the amps dramatically reducing its power usage. This in turn lets me hide it in a closed cabinet safely. I am overall very satisfied with the unit in general.

But the unit is obviously massive compared to the Canton and much more expensive.

The step down X3700H also has the preamp feature, and with the new X3800H just announced perhaps it will go on sale in the near future.

You could try and find the older X3600H(2019), X3500h(2018) or X3400H(2017), possibly second-hand, all have the pre-amp outputs (just check that they have the necessary channel count for your setup) but the amplifier can’t be turned off so ventilation is more critical. Also they run HDMI 2.0 so only 4K60.  But if you use eARC and the TV for higher refresh rate sources then that doesn’t really matter.

There is also an equivalent set of Marantz receivers that are near clones of the Denon, could look for those as well.

If someone knows of a better option I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing about it! I am hoping to move to the Beosound Theatre in the near future with my setup.

Best regards,

Hyponx