Amplifier options for integrating TV + streaming into an Apple TV setup

[Ravedave85]

Hi, First time posting but hope the collective knowledge can help me out with my upgrade. My HiFi serves a dual purpose for TV and music, and I’ve been on a journey to find the best/neatest (are these compatible!) solution. Tried AVR and 5.1 (way too many cables for my wife), tried new A/B amps: Yamaha, Denom, Marantz but offered nothing over my Arcam.

Current setup is Apple TV 4K(2022) to Topping E30ii to Arcam A75+ to Q Acoustics 3020. Tried adding a Wiim Pro as like the mini on my headphone setup but doesn’t play nicely with the Apple TV box and 24/96 is good enough for me where I’m not often sat in the optimal position to the speakers.

Considering a Class D amp (ideally 2.1) + maybe new speakers or a pair of active speakers, including Sonos 5s as play nicely with the Apple TV and can remove the latency. Budget £1000. Open to other ideas.

 

[Miniyouuuu]

Your AppleTv act as streamer. Be aware of this:

Class AB: Audiolab 7000 (neutral sound), Marantz Stereo 70( a bit warm), Leak 230(very warm sound)… any 2.1 amp with HDMI Arc input should work.

Class D: Bluesound Powernode.

I would choose AB amps with many outputs. In the future you’ll be able to expand with different amplification, external DAC, MiniDSP Dirac integration…

 

[srsxmi]

Hi, First time posting but hope the collective knowledge can help me out with my upgrade. My HiFi serves a dual purpose for TV and music, and I’ve been on a journey to find the best/neatest (are these compatible!) solution. Tried AVR and 5.1 (way too many cables for my wife), tried new A/B amps: Yamaha, Denom, Marantz but offered nothing over my Arcam.

Current setup is Apple TV 4K(2022) to Topping E30ii to Arcam A75+ to Q Acoustics 3020. Tried adding a Wiim Pro as like the mini on my headphone setup but doesn’t play nicely with the Apple TV box and 24/96 is good enough for me where I’m not often sat in the optimal position to the speakers.

Considering a Class D amp (ideally 2.1) + maybe new speakers or a pair of active speakers, including Sonos 5s as play nicely with the Apple TV and can remove the latency. Budget £1000. Open to other ideas.

Food for thought: You might try a Sennheiser AMBEO soundbar, its really quite nice with 10 channels available. You can stream to it in stereo or multchannel, and is plays very well with Apple TV; its sounds best when fed by eARC HDMI.

Hearing is believing and you would likely save money. Also, Apple Spatial Music streams 10 channels of audio to it, as do movies, as you would expect.