Alternative HT Setup

[Primare Knob]

Hi,

I am a long time fan of home cinema and “recently” took a different take on things. Finding HT never to sound really good compared to stereo and the high depreciation of the gear, and lack of money for the top end products I decided to go down a different route.

I decided to use a PC for all things digital, use a Lynx Aurora N AD/DA converter and skip the analogue volume control by running the DAC straight into a couple of power amps. Sounds wise, things have never been so good before, but that is my subjective opinion of course.

There are a few caveats with this setup, and one is that it won’t do any Atmos, DTS-X or Aurora, as there aren’t any available decoders for PC, and using a PC as a source can be a bit fiddly from time to time. I also have to power on gear in a certain sequence, basically meaning, power on the DAC first, turn it off last as it will give aloud pop when the amps are powered on. Also check your volume setting before turning the system on, as things can get pretty loud.

The other major thing is that not all DAC-power amp combos work. I believe this has to do with the ratio between output and input impedance and need to be somewhere around 1/100.

I am using JRiver as media player and DSP for room correction, as well as my default audio device, so that external programs and game audio runs through JRivers DSP engine. It has been an interesting journey and still learning in the proper ways to correctly use room correction.

Next thing I like to dive into is replacing the power amps with class D amps. But that is going to have some challenges as well.

 

[ichonderoga]

Have you thought about combining the setup with a cheap HT receiver? And then using the line pre-outs to power the amps. I’m currently running my smsl dac through a cheap marantz surround receiver and only using the pre-outs to power my class d amp. That way I get good surround and great stereo. I have also considered bypassing the marantz during listening sessions with speaker/phono switches.

 

[Primare Knob]

Have you thought about combining the setup with a cheap HT receiver? And then using the line pre-outs to power the amps. I’m currently running my smsl dac through a cheap marantz surround receiver and only using the pre-outs to power my class d amp. That way I get good surround and great stereo. I have also considered bypassing the marantz during listening sessions with speaker/phono switches.

No I haven't. As my whole reason for going down this path was to get rid of the Pre Pro. AV gear isn't particular good in the analoque domain either. I found that a good Pre Amps is as good as No Pre Amp. So I ditched the Pre altogether.