Power Amp To Pair With Denon AVR-X3700H (Class AB or D?) (150-200WPC)

[amper42]

I'm streaming Qobuz and ripped CDs from a MacBook Pro using the Audirvana app via the wireless UPnP/DLNA connection on the Denon 4700. Audirvana caches the music before playback which allows it to work really well no matter how crazy the internet connection gets. One time my internet went out and the Qobuz music kept playing for 6 more minutes until my internet came back on line. That really surprised me. lol

 

[kejar31]

I didn't really notice the difference until I started playing music in Multi-Channel stereo mode which requires a lower volume level to have a level match with Stereo mode. The Sierra Towers volume was 3 db lower with the Purifi amp than when connected to the Monolith 7x200. It was easy to tell the difference even by ear. I didn't think to check this before as I took it for granted that Audyssey would take care of the volume differences between amps (at all volumes). Boy was I wrong. lol

Once I moved the Sierra Towers back to the Monolith 7x200 and ran Audyssey again it was easy to hear they were once again equal participants in the multi-channel stereo sound stage.

I have been playing "Wating for Dawn" by Sinne Eeg off Qobuz on my system lately and it's one of the best jazz CD's I have heard. Track 5 "Sudden Change of Weather" is playing now. It's jamming!

I went ahead a tracked two of my speakers one on the outlaw audio (center) and one on the Monolith (right)

Each measurement was taken at my seated location and the graphs have heavy smoothing on them to help track volume changes, not for measurement purposes. Anyways as you can see there are no deviations at all as I change the volume from 50 to 60 to 70 to 75

 

[CoolHandDuke]

I'm streaming Qobuz and ripped CDs from a MacBook Pro using the Audirvana app via the wireless UPnP/DLNA connection on the Denon 4700. Audirvana caches the music before playback which allows it to work really well no matter how crazy the internet connection gets. One time my internet went out and the Qobuz music kept playing for 6 more minutes until my internet came back on line. That really surprised me. lol

Thanks. I need to figure out how to set that up at home. I tried creating a shared folder, but Heos wouldn't connect. Maybe I'll give Audirvana a shot.

 

[amper42]

I went ahead a tracked two of my speakers one on the outlaw audio (center) and one on the Monolith (right)

Each measurement was taken at my seated location and the graphs have heavy smoothing on them to help track volume changes, not for measurement purposes. Anyways as you can see there are no deviations at all as I change the volume from 50 to 60 to 70 to 75

In my setup, I'm using preamp mode on the Denon 4700 with a 7.2.4 setup. I can get the Sierra Towers to sound great with the P452 with a volume level of 52 in stereo mode but when I change to Multi-Channel stereo and reduce the volume to 35 on the Denon the P452 output on the Sierra Towers is much less than if the Sierra Towers are attached to the Monolith 7x200.

It looks like your amps don't have the same issue as I see with the Monolith 7x200 and Purifi P452 combination.

 

[kejar31]

In my setup, I'm using preamp mode on the Denon 4700 with a 7.2.4 setup. I can get the Sierra Towers to sound great with the P452 with a volume level of 52 in stereo mode but when I change to Multi-Channel stereo and reduce the volume to 35 on the Denon the P452 output on the Sierra Towers is much less than if the Sierra Towers are attached to the Monolith 7x200.

It looks like your amps don't have the same issue as I see with the Monolith 7x200 and Purifi P452 combination.

it is strange and I don't think it has anything to to with the input gain on the amps as the output on the preamp (receiver in this case) should be able to make up for the discrepancy.. It might have something to do with the output impedance of the P452 and how its interacting with the your speakers but that is just a wild guess.

 

[amper42]

Thanks. I need to figure out how to set that up at home. I tried creating a shared folder, but Heos wouldn't connect. Maybe I'll give Audirvana a shot.

HEOS is garbage compared to Audirvana. I tried HEOS for awhile and got tired of the limitations. The only way I got a great sound out of it was by connecting a USB thumb drive to the Denon 4700 and controlling it with HEOS. But the menu for that interface is poor. AND HEOS still does not support Qobuz after all these years! What's up with that?

With Audirvana it automatically finds my ripped CDs and gives me a one page interface to select between CD's, Qobuz or Tidal music along with search capability and playlist building. For me, this is way more intuitive to use and offers a nice display of the music playing on the TV screen. It's the best accessory I have for streaming high quality music to the Denon 4700.

 

[CoolHandDuke]

HEOS is garbage compared to Audirvana. I tried HEOS for awhile and got tired of the limitations. The only way I got a great sound out of it was by connecting a USB thumb drive to the Denon 4700 and controlling it with HEOS. But the menu for that interface is poor. AND HEOS still does not support Qobuz after all these years! What's up with that?

With Audirvana it automatically finds my ripped CDs and gives me a one page interface to select between CD's, Qobuz or Tidal music along with search capability and playlist building. For me, this is way more intuitive to use and offers a nice display of the music playing on the TV screen. It's the best accessory I have for streaming high quality music to the Denon 4700.

I will try it. Is there a tech-dummy guide to setting it up for someone like me?

 

[amper42]

I will try it. Is there a tech-dummy guide to setting it up for someone like me?

https://audirvana.com/support/
It's amazingly easy to setup and use.

 

[kejar31]

HEOS is garbage compared to Audirvana. I tried HEOS for awhile and got tired of the limitations. The only way I got a great sound out of it was by connecting a USB thumb drive to the Denon 4700 and controlling it with HEOS. But the menu for that interface is poor. AND HEOS still does not support Qobuz after all these years! What's up with that?

With Audirvana it automatically finds my ripped CDs and gives me a one page interface to select between CD's, Qobuz or Tidal music along with search capability and playlist building. For me, this is way more intuitive to use and offers a nice display of the music playing on the TV screen. It's the best accessory I have for streaming high quality music to the Denon 4700.

I have to agree the HEOS interface is garbage but I have had good luck with using it along with Amazon UltraHD music streaming and Emby server for local content.. With this I can play High res music and DSD.

Really for me its either that or Roon + Raspberry Pie digital out as a streamer (with coax out into Denon) but its friggin 120 dollars a year for Roon and then the cost of Tidal or Qobuz are another 180 a year...

I think I will save my money and put up with the crappy interface of HEOS for no cost and use Amazon at 156 a year

 

[amper42]

I like Audirvana as it's a one time purchase and they continually upgrade it. When I rip CDs on my Mac in AIFF they automatically show up in Audirvana. In addition, HEOS would not support playing AIFF rips on the Denon while Audirvana does. It's like every time HEOS said "NO", Audirvana said no problem. lol

 

[kejar31]

I like Audirvana as it's a one time purchase and they continually upgrade it. When I rip CDs on my Mac in AIFF they automatically show up in Audirvana. In addition, HEOS would not support playing AIFF rips on the Denon while Audirvana does. It's like every time HEOS said "NO", Audirvana said no problem. lol

IDK I have not ripped a CD in so long as I just either buy albums in flac, dsd or stream lol.. Eitherway I would just rip it to FLAC and put it on my Emby server (which i already have a lifetime membership to) Which support DLNA (I am sure Plex would work too).. With this I can play my local music anywhere on PC's, Phones etc using Emby but in my theater when listening to music I can use HEOS and stream the file directly to the DAC on the Receiver which supports high res flac, DSD etc.

 

[Rottmannash]

What are you guys using to steam Qobuz? I'm thinking of breaking away from Tidal. BubbleUPNP?

Node 2i >via RCA> Topping D70 via xlr to Schitt Freya+>Purifi Eval1>Revel F208's. Sublime.
And Audirvana>E30>THX789 desktop.

 

[MrGoodbits]

What are you guys using to steam Qobuz? I'm thinking of breaking away from Tidal. BubbleUPNP?

Qobuz in Audirvana works pretty good on my Mac. Tried Tidal and others but Qobuz has good classical and jazz libraries. I turn off Audirvana's upsampling and sysoptimizer and any of its other special audio stuff; I just want a good way to get the source bits to the headphone audio processing I want and then on to the DAC.

 

[CoolHandDuke]

Qobuz in Audirvana works pretty good on my Mac. Tried Tidal and others but Qobuz has good classical and jazz libraries. I turn off Audirvana's upsampling and sysoptimizer and any of its other special audio stuff; I just want a good way to get the source bits to the headphone audio processing I want and then on to the DAC.

Can you use Audirvana with just app after you've set it up on a PC? Or does the PC need to be running the program at all times for it to work?

 

[MrGoodbits]

It might have features and capabilities that I don't know about, but if the PC version is like the Mac version, it's just a regular application, basically a music file and streaming player that can use audio processing plugins. Audirvana sees the audio destination devices on my network (like the Denon AVR) but does not present itself as a destination to other devices on network or on the Mac. Hope that helps.

 

[Rottmannash]

Can you use Audirvana with just app after you've set it up on a PC? Or does the PC need to be running the program at all times for it to work?

I would imagine the PC would have to be running. How would the program work with the PC turned off? Perhaps I'm not understanding your question.

 

[CoolHandDuke]

I would imagine the PC would have to be running. How would the program work with the PC turned off? Perhaps I'm not understanding your question.

I'm assuming the mobile app works more like a remote rather than a controller itself. So if I was streaming from Qobuz, I could not do it independently from the PC software via the app alone. The app is just a remote to use the computer software. I hope I'm making more sense.

 

[Rottmannash]

I'm assuming the mobile app works more like a remote rather than a controller itself. So if I was streaming from Qobuz, I could not do it independently from the PC software via the app alone. The app is just a remote to use the computer software. I hope I'm making more sense.

Yes. As far as I can tell. I never use it as I'm right at the laptop when listening but I opened the app, it found my laptop and I could choose what I wanted to hear via the app. You could put an old, unused PC behind your system and just use that for Audirvana but I don't think the app works w/o wifi.

 

[CoolHandDuke]

Yes. As far as I can tell. I never use it as I'm right at the laptop when listening but I opened the app, it found my laptop and I could choose what I wanted to hear via the app. You could put an old, unused PC behind your system and just use that for Audirvana but I don't think the app works w/o wifi.

Appreciate the info. My listening area is the living room so to spare my wife any more Electronics in the room, it would be nice to leave laptop in office and do all the controlling thru the app on my phone.

 

[Rottmannash]

Appreciate the info. My listening area is the living room so to spare my wife any more Electronics in the room, it would be nice to leave laptop in office and do all the controlling thru the app on my phone.

Then you would have to somehow transmit the audio from the laptop to your LR. Not sure how you would do that.