Hi-Fi/Home Theater System set-up

[Peupeut]

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to apologize if my English is not perfect, this is not my language. I just hope you will be able to understand my questions.

I am reading Audio Science Review since more than 1 year now and I really enjoy all the work performed here. My background is chemistry, not physics, but I recognize myself in the mindset expressed here. However I have several question to raise to the community...

I will perform a lot of upgrades in my house, and this will includes installation of a Home Theater system (7.2.4) with integration in the ceiling/wall of some components. My intend is also to listen music, and I would like to be able to read Hi-Res music (and switch from Deezer to Qobuz). Before discovering ASR, I visited a lot of forum and read a lot of so call review (in fact subjective comments), all going in the same direction if you take a step back: more expensive it is, the better it is, but no technical assesment so far... so thank you @amirm for creating this site!!

I have seen last reviews of DAC, reaching high level value of SINAD, but I have the following question:

1) Whatever the quality of a DAC you could have, in your living room, where you cannot do (or on a very limited way) accoustic treatment, according to Amir, the first step to improve quality of the sound is room EQ. But if we plug a wonderfull DAC and link it to an AVR, anyhow, to have room EQ, you will need to go into the digital pipe of the amplifier to get your correction, no? So what is the value to put a desktop DAC with high level SINAD as an input to your AVR? Except in Pure mode (where you don't have Room EQ), this is a waste of money, no?
And if I understand properly, among all the Home Theater devices tested so far, no one get better than 105 dB SINAD, correct?

2) Streaming music has changed the way I listen music, we are able to spend hours testing and listening music, navigating in so huge database we can loose ourselves. Doing this with a tablet in your sofa is so great... but I have a question concerning this: most of the time, the tablet is "reading" the music and send it to the amplifier with limitation (I know Airplay is limited to 16 bits). But some manufacturers propose (Arcam for example) solutions where the amplifier is reading the music in Hi-Res with a connexion to your streaming account, and the tablet is only "controling" the amplifier. Have some of you tested this way of working? Can we get full benefits of the Hi-Res or is it "snake oil"? (if I use an expression I have discovered here

3) As a lot of people on this forum have decided to get a Denon 3700 and to use it a pre-pro. I am considering this solution also, but this AVR is only proposing RCA outputs. On the amplifiers I am considering (based on Purifi modules or Hypex Ncore modules), they propose mostly XLR inputs. Is there a problem (other than the power issue to send only between 1 to 1,5V to the amplifier) or a degradation in the the signal to use a RCA/XLR cable converter?

4) As explained I am considering to deploy a 7.2.4 system. I currently have an 400W amplified sub (B&W PV1D) and I am considering to add a 1000W amplified sub (I did not made my choice on the model yet). Did some of you had issue with Audissey XT 32 associating two subs with a large difference of power? Do Audissey know how to manage 2 sub separatly?

5) I have understood all the measurements performed by Amir on electronic with the help of tutorials explaining all the graphs, how to read it, what is the idea behind the test etc... Is there a post explaining the same for the speakers tests? I failed to find it and I have difficulties to assess if the results are good or not and why....

Thanks a lot for your time and thank you @amirm for your work!

I hope I will have answers!
I wish you all the best!

 

[abdo123]

1) there is no point, the analog input will be digitized, processed and then amplified as if it was a digital input.

2) Spotify connect works this way, the tracks are streamed from the Spotify servers directly to the Spotify connect device. and yes minimizing the number of steps the track is being processed, compressed .etc is generally a good thing.

I find Airplay to be a bit ‘bright’ subjectively, I haven’t done any measurements (yet) but it always felt off to me. I still use it nonetheless out of convenience.

3) I would use the amplifiers in the Denon first and only upgrade if you need more power. You can buy these amplifiers with RCA inputs (or both) and no there is no loss of signal. I would not lose sleep over the lack of balanced connections unless you’re planing on running very long runs of cables or you run into issues with ground loops.

5) this is a nice series to understand better Speaker reviews

 

[Peupeut]

@abdo123 thank you for your response!! Cheers!

I will have a look on the video tonight!!

 

[ririt]

Peupeut, I recently followed the same path as the one you envisaged. I set up the following 5.1 system which is also used as 2.a for hifi listneing. I am very happy of it.
sources: cambridge CXC (CD transport), Node 2i (streamer) connected throuh coxial to the digital input of my AVR, a panasonic blu-ray player via hdmi for DVD and Blu-ray, a Orange TV box to get access to TV channels, Netlfix or Canal+. I was also able to properly use eARC between my LG Oled TV and my AVR to get TNT channels (yes I am french!)
avr: denon 4700h used in full pre-amp mode
power amps: 1 stereo purifi amp + 1 mono purifi amp from March audio for left/right/center channel and 1 stereo Hyper NC252 amp for the surrounds. I chose March Audio for its built quality and its top-notch customer support. March audio also provided me with the RCA/XLR cables and the trigger cables.
subwoofer: REL T9i
Loudspeakers: 3 Dali Rubicon LCR for the front and 2 in-ceiling Dali phantom E60 for the surrounds. since the system is in my living room, good-looking on-wall and in-ceiling speakers were mandatory to get the green light form my wife!
Everything works flawlessly, no hum, no issues. After spending a bit of time to calibrate the system using the Audyssey App (mandatory!) I ended with a pleasant sound both in hifi and HC. I used a calibrated UMIK1 microphone and Room EQ Wizard on a PC to check what Audyssey did in my room, it was pretty efficient!
If you need more info, you can contact me via a private message (in english or in french). I would be more than happy to help you!

 

[Peupeut]

Thanks @ririt !!

I will may send you a MP after this summer when my house project will (fingers crossed!!) start!

Have your heard of the brand Audiophonics? French brand proposing amplifiers based on Hypex Ncore or Purifi and they looks affordable compared to the Spec!! They even quote Amir tests!!

 

[ririt]

Of course I have heard about Audiophonics. I already oredered from them, mainly cables and connectors. Regarding Hypex and Purifi amps I chose March Audio over their offer because of what I read about the respective features of the 2 brands. March Audio is more expensive but the quality is clearly much better than the one of Audiophonics. Nowadays, there is other manufacturers to consider especially Boxem Audio or Apollon in Europe.
when you will start your house project, do not hesitate to contact me. I was in the same situation a year from now!

 

[Peupeut]

@abdo123 thank you, I've watched the 5 videos, they were very nice to understand what is producing Amir!!!

Do you have by ant chance the same kind of explanation for the 2 remaining points I don't understand on the reviews:

1) The Driver component Near Field graph?
2) Impedance & Phase graph?

 

[abdo123]

@abdo123 thank you, I've watched the 5 videos, they were very nice to understand what is producing Amir!!!

Do you have by ant chance the same kind of explanation for the 2 remaining points I don't understand on the reviews:

1) The Driver component Near Field graph?
2) Impedance & Phase graph?

The Driver component Near Field is basically Amir placing the microphone of the Klippel close to a particular component of the Speaker and measuring the output, and as a result the contribution to the overall response, of that particular component.

Impedance & Phase is not something i would give a lot of thought, It's like the finger print of the speaker. forexample if you were to build a speaker yourself off of someone else's plans you want to have the same impedance and phase, otherwise it's not really the same speaker.


also when impedance exhibits crazy slopes over the frequency range (approaching 2 Ohm) then that speaker could be difficult to drive and may require beefy amplifiers.