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Ok, that makes a lot more sense.

I agree with these guys that a 1700$+ DAC is way overkill unless you use it for some A+ headphones and will just have speakers as an extra alternative. Dali Zensor 1 ax includes an amplifier and DAC so starting from zero equipment they're about as cheap you can go to get a great system.

Dali spektor 1 and 2 are two are really good low budget passive speakers. There is also a Dali Zensor 1ax active that's great. They're surprisingly dynamic and detailed, but lack the finer details and bass of better and bigger speakers. I was at my local hifi store today and listened to...

There are a lot of post about those here and they don't point to any other meaningful differences when used in pre-amp mode. I have no first hand sources though.

Amir mentioned in one review that the DAC wouldn't limit the amplifier performance with a SINAD of 10db better than the amplifier. The context was measuring the pre-out of an AVR and its internal amplifier. The scale is logarithmic so the better DAC performance quickly becomes negligible and...

Stumbled upon a review of Audyssey XT32 here and it seems to be worth close the price of the x3700h alone so it should be a nice upgrade even for stereo music listening. There seems to be so much value packed into the receiver that isn't apparent to someone new to AVRs.

the BMR that is far superior Philharmonic Audio BMR? Thank you! Very useful information and good to know these are viable options to use with pre-out even without perfect implementation. At the moment I don't even cross -15db on the DAC... The Denon receivers are out of stock until around...

Yes, who knows. I meant to say the difference was smaller than one might think but it removed the harshness in the treble which was quite audible and annoying.

That makes sense. I've auditioned a speaker once where we changed the amps because of some harshness and went from a 600$ amp to a 20k one. While the difference was significant and removed all harshness, the speaker still sounded similar but just cleaner. The Denon X3700h is rated at 105 W into...

That's similar to my experience and makes sense. The Denon X3700h absolutely looks like a sweet spot in terms of value without getting too high of a price. The main allure of the sound card would be to have a working but not perfect solution until I can afford a full 5.1 or 5.2 setup and a good...

Parasound z amp v 3. It's been reviewed here (ASR Review) and does have power noise problems which can partly be mitigated with mains filter. When I say lower distortion I mean the sound doesn't feel very loud/uncomfortable even at higher volumes and there is no sharpness or unpleasantness. The...

Hypex Ncore NC252MP is the module and it's an audiophonics assembly. My old amp was far from perfect. What I hear is much lower distortion and better bass performance. The difference is very noticeable but these surround receivers might very well be much better than what I had before.

My power requirements are on the low end with a smaller room and won't be listening to full cinema reference levels. I will start with a basic setup of 4 bookshelf smaller speakers and develop it to 5.2 over 1-2 years. I'm likely going to be using B&W 600 series peakers and then a sub from...

I looked more into the Dolby setups and found some discussions about the difference between speaker setups from Audioholics. They pretty much said the same as you (i.e. that a well setup 5.1 is going to give close to all the benefits), so I'll aim at 5.1 without atmos. The small Marantz...

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think it's an option for me as I live in Europe, and have just been converting prices by dividing the local currency price by FX and tax. The used market is pretty decent so should look into that though. Ok, cool. It's definitely only an option for a 5.1...

Thank you for the comment! So it's best to avoid slimline to avoid heating? The amplifier looks too weak for driving 5 channels but maybe fine for three? Maybe better to look for a more powerful amplifier and have the option for a 5.1.2 atmos setup down the line... No straightforward answers I...

Your setup is quite complex so it should be difficult to give straightforward answers. Good luck :-) I started reading the thread you mentioned from the start today and there is ton of good information in there. This forum is a gold mine and it could have saved me a bunch if I found it from the...

A DAC with 32-bit volume control shouldn't degrade the signal even at lower volumes and adding devices to the audio chain can't improve on the original signal. A good analog pre-amp should be good too but a bad one will degrade the signal. I think the unplug headphones are only relevant if you...

Hi, I'm looking to expand my stereo focused setup to surround and my initial idea was to use pre-out for front channels and internal amp for surround channels. Then later maybe look to add a center channel. One possible solution I found was Marantz SR1510 but when looking for reviews I found...

Yes, and probably way fewer out there. When I started to glance at receivers the cheapest I found with pre-out did cost 1150$, but I figured out that all Marantz receivers have pre-out for front channels so I am considering getting their 5.2 channel entry model, NR1510. I can get it for 455$ at...