Originally Posted by sptrout

I have had both system configurations and although both sounded good, HDMI is a much easier road to travel. The main issue with analog AVR/Blu-ray configurations is bass management, or lack of.

Depending on your exact equipment, the bass management function may be handled by; 1) AVR (not likely for most), 2) Blu-ray Player (possible with newer models), or 3) neither one (very possible).

As you can probably guess, #3 is a very bad thing. That was my case when I was using a Denon 3300 AVR connected via 5.1 analog to a Samsung P1400. The P1400 only allows the user to set speaker "sizes" (small or large). Setting to large does nothing, setting to small sets the crossover to 100Hz for each speaker. There is no speaker distance setting capability, and more importantly, no 10-15dB LFE boost that is required and provided by a normal bass management system.

My first problem (this was over a year ago) was trying to figure out why I had no bass. After much research I figured out that I needed to increase the LFE channel 15 dB. After discovering that little landmine, I had to figure out how to increase the LFE channel on the analog LFE input only (not screw-up all the other inputs).

The Denon 3300 does have the capability of trimming levels on each input, but the manual does a very poor job of explaining how (your REALLY have to read between the line). After much trail and tribulation I was finally able to get the levels set. However, there is no way to get around the lack of speaker distance setting - - cannot be done.

After about a year using this equipment I replaced the 3300 with a Onkyo 805 and now I just bit stream everything from the P1400 to the 805 and let it do all the work. Life is good........

Sorry for the long story. 5.1/7.1 analog can work, you just have to be very careful that you know exactly what your equipment can and cannot do and be prepared to try to overcome anything that is missing.