Modern receiver recommendation

[railthe]

Hey guys. First let me say I am sorry that I havent read properly through the forums before asking. The answer might be there somewhere, but there is too much information and I am unable to absorb it all. I started crawling in audio recently, so Im a semi-noob.

I dont have any gear except some old HT speakers. Im moving to a small apartment and I want to make it somewhat smart. I was thinking about getting Klipsch the Fives because of all these bells and whistles it offers but on the other hand I dont want all in one solution, cause one failure could render whole system useless. Since they are kinda expensive, I could get eg. Kef Q350 which have gone on sale in here (many shops offering them at <400€, so 50% of Klipsch price). I thought about getting these but I cant find a suitable amp/dac that would offer functions like Klipsch. Namely I need it to:

- have USB/Wi-Fi/RJ-45 so I can feed it with my Raspberry Pi/NAS
- have bluetooth (AirPlay) so my wife can easily use it with her iPhone
- have some kind of sleep mode so it wont drain shitload of power while not playing anything (lazy to keep turning it on/off)

Things like SMSL AD18 or Topping MX3 seem to be exactly what I want. Except I dont want my house to burn nor I want to buy a new amp in a year. There were a lot of reviews of AD18 having some power issues and MX3 losing functionality. Obviously, things like PS Sprout 100 are out of budget.

I am open to DIY solutions with my Raspberry Pi 4. I thought about getting Volt + Boss. Could anyone tell me how much power it drains while powered on but not playing audio? Ive read about the newer TPA3255 being superior. Are there any good stuff yet? Should I wait for Allo to release something new?

Thanks!

 

[Webninja]

Do you want home theater or stereo or maybe both? I think giving a budget range would be helpful.

For home theater, the Denon AVRs get good reviews and meet your requirements. For stereo, depends on your budget. Purifi or Hypex (various manufacturers), Benchmark are all top notch. Then get a dac and network steamer. Check out the speaker, amp and dac charts.

 

[Willem]

The Yamaha AS801 has an auto off function to conserve energy. It is very good and dirt cheap for what it does. It has a range of digital inputs and enough power for a medium sized room. You can add a BT adapter. Given the kind of speakers you mention, it is about the right budget category. If you want something cheaper, you may want to investigate the AS501 (no usb input) with a Chromecast Audio's optical output as a streamer. My wife loves the Chromecast Audio (and so do I).

 

[railthe]

Do you want home theater or stereo or maybe both? I think giving a budget range would be helpful.

For home theater, the Denon AVRs get good reviews and meet your requirements. For stereo, depends on your budget. Purifi or Hypex (various manufacturers), Benchmark are all top notch. Then get a dac and network steamer. Check out the speaker, amp and dac charts.

Ah, sorry, I thought it is obvious. I will use it for both, but only as 2.0 setup without a woofer. I dont care about movie audio quality as much, I want speakers for music. My budget is up to those Klipsch cost, means like 800€. Since I am spending 400€ for speakers, I consider it wise to stay under 400€ with amp too.

The Yamaha AS801 has an auto off function to conserve energy. It is very good and dirt cheap for what it does. It has a range of digital inputs and enough power for a medium sized room. You can add a BT adapter. Given the kind of speakers you mention, it is about the right budget category. If you want something cheaper, you may want to investigate the AS501 (no usb input) with a Chromecast Audio's optical output as a streamer. My wife loves the Chromecast Audio (and so do I).

Ive heard good things about AS series, AS501 is a bit over budget but I would still consider it. I dont want to buy an amp that is more expensive than my speakers so 400€ would be the limit, preferably even less, like 200€.

Google, Amazon and Apple are all banned when it comes to smart home appliance, I dont want any "being" to share my household. Im already working on Home Assistant setup. Adding a BT adapter sounds OK though.

 

[Willem]

I sense that you are in Europe. The AS501 sells for about 350 euros and I honestly think it is a best buy. Anything cheaper will either not have enough power or lacks digital inputs.
It does not have a usb input so you need a digital source with an optical output like the CCA (you can turn off sharing data with Google and I guess many people do).

 

[railthe]

Yes, EU, sadly. I would get Vanatoo T1e without hesitation. But they dont sell them in EU, or they want 1.000€. Well...my source will be Raspberry Pi which doesnt have optical out. I would have to buy a DAC hat or something. And if I went this way, I could get Allo Volt + Boss and there wont be a need for a dedicated amp. It is an option, but I am not sure If I would be able to set up the sleep mode. And that RPi would be on 24/7, cause it will run other tasks as well, so sleep mode for amp is a need.

I believe there will be new class D FDA amps soon, there already are a few based on something like this TPA3255. But I havent seen anything good enough so far...ASR discussion here.

 

[Wes]

receiver means it has AM/FM
do you want an integrated amp? with a DAC?

 

[Webninja]

At that budget, why not powered speakers? JBL or maybe Adam? Then just get a dac with the Bluetooth and network requirements you need. A Pi could handle the network duties and then usb into the dac. All the boxes could be close to your speakers and hidden(ish).

Then later you can add room correction via PC or minidsp.

 

[railthe]

receiver means it has AM/FM
do you want an integrated amp? with a DAC?

Yes, if possible. I suppose only "all in one box solution" can handle the sleep mode like this. I thought "receiver" is now the name for the device that can work on its own and has wireless capability (bluetooth).

At that budget, why not powered speakers? JBL or maybe Adam? Then just get a dac with the Bluetooth and network requirements you need. A Pi could handle the network duties and then usb into the dac. All the boxes could be close to your speakers and hidden(ish).

Then later you can add room correction via PC or minidsp.

Yes I looked at many powered speakers, namely Presonus Eris e.5 XT, Kali LP-6, Adam T5V, Kanto YU6, Audioengine A5+, Klipsch Fives. I thought that getting amp/dac similar to those integrated in powered speakers is possible on a small budget. And there is no doubt that Kef Q350 will outperform any of these. I hoped there might be something like Topping MX3 in 200-400€ price range that wont be rubbish.

 

[Willem]

These days having a radio tuner is no longer important in my view. Internet radio is often better than FM, with a far greater number of stations, and with increasing bit rates it will only get better. Of course unless it is 320 kbs or better the sound quality is marginally impaired, but FM is not perfect either. The imperfections are different, but on balance internet radio is now mostly at least as good or better. So forget about FM , let alone AM.

 

[railthe]

Yea I dont want radio at all, I just named the device wrong. Integrated amp with dac is what I need (is FDA correct name for that?).

 

[teched58]

These days having a radio tuner is no longer important in my view. Internet radio is often better than FM, with a far greater number of stations, and with increasing bit rates it will only get better. Of course unless it is 320 kbs or better the sound quality is marginally impaired, but FM is not perfect either. The imperfections are different, but on balance internet radio is now mostly at least as good or better. So forget about FM , let alone AM.

I respectfully disagree. FM was for many years the highest quality audio you could get in the home (e.g., live symphony orchestra broadcasts in the 1950s and 60s, better than any LP of the day) and it's still high quality. Frequency response of 30 - 15,000 Hz.

Also, most internet radio stations are horrendous sounding, with very low bit-rate streams (trying comparing the stream vs OTA broadcast of an FM station and see if this isn't true. It is true, however, that over the air/broadcast radio is dying, due to streaming.

 

[Wes]

if you want it all, see about the Creek units - they have a DAC module and an FM module - dunno if both will fit at once tho

otherwise, you might need to get a tuner separately or a vintage unit and a DAC

I am in a small 'town' or city with a university and have a selection of 3-4 xlnt FM stations.

 

[Zek]

Integrated amp with dac is what I need (is FDA correct name for that?).

I don't think so. FDA, as far as I know, means full digital amplifier.

 

[railthe]

SMSL SA300 looks decent, but it lacks that silly NFC tag functionality and optical input. I might be able to live without that, so thanks, its probably the n°1 choice for me now. I found this Nobsound NS-19G, looks like Topping MX3, a bit more expensive and a bit shady thing (one photo with "doukaudio").

if you want it all, see about the Creek units - they have a DAC module and an FM module - dunno if both will fit at once tho

otherwise, you might need to get a tuner separately or a vintage unit and a DAC

I am in a small 'town' or city with a university and have a selection of 3-4 xlnt FM stations.

Looked it up...No, Im not willing to spend 5000€ to drive 400€ speakers lol.

I don't think so. FDA, as far as I know, means full digital amplifier.

Yea I know, but hell, every thing in a world has its name, why doesnt: "Integrated amplifier with digital/analog converter and bluetooth" have its own? lol. Anyways, since I will use bluetooth/USB input, it could be it, FDA. Maybe I would use TV as a source, but thats an optional function to me.

 

[Wes]

every thing in a world has its name, why doesnt: "Integrated amplifier with digital/analog converter and bluetooth" have its own? lol. Anyways, since I will use bluetooth/USB input, it could be it, FDA. Maybe I would use TV as a source, but thats an optional function to me.

How about Daceiver?

or daikon?

 

[railthe]

How about Daceiver?

or daikon?

You know how much confusion the lack of the name makes? I crawled through chinese manufacturers pages and I had to open every single thing and check its rear. They too dont know how to describe these devices. Now imagine me (who barely understands things) searching for “daceiver” there...