Greetings from Berlin,
in my current ongoing journey to a more modular setup for my living room system I am looking for a preamp or processor with XLR since I believed that XLR is the best to avoid noise and I get a little more gain when plugging into my nc400 monoblocks. But when I saw the Marantz AV7705 review and those terrible values compared against the price this thought crumbled. As I currently see it, I would go way better - and cheaper - with a Denon X3700H and RCA/XLR plugs.
Currently I have a Denon X6400H, two NC400 monoblocks and a 4.0 speaker setup. The monoblocks are for the fronts and I am considering getting a Hypex UCD400 stereo kit for the surrounds to have all power amps separately so I can get a processor without amp. But like I've written above, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to just stick with an X3700H, use the internal amps for the surrounds and just use the preouts with RCA/XLR cable to the two NC400.
One solution would be about 1000 €, the other one about 3.500 €. The intermediary solution with the X3700H amps turned off and using an UCD400 would be about 1600 €.
Considering HDMI 2.1 I think there won't be any upgrade itch anymore since 4k/120fps is the end of the line when it comes to video resolution and framerate - at least for me.
Can someone who made a similar journey share if and how a "real" processor is worth it?
in my current ongoing journey to a more modular setup for my living room system I am looking for a preamp or processor with XLR since I believed that XLR is the best to avoid noise and I get a little more gain when plugging into my nc400 monoblocks. But when I saw the Marantz AV7705 review and those terrible values compared against the price this thought crumbled. As I currently see it, I would go way better - and cheaper - with a Denon X3700H and RCA/XLR plugs.
Currently I have a Denon X6400H, two NC400 monoblocks and a 4.0 speaker setup. The monoblocks are for the fronts and I am considering getting a Hypex UCD400 stereo kit for the surrounds to have all power amps separately so I can get a processor without amp. But like I've written above, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to just stick with an X3700H, use the internal amps for the surrounds and just use the preouts with RCA/XLR cable to the two NC400.
One solution would be about 1000 €, the other one about 3.500 €. The intermediary solution with the X3700H amps turned off and using an UCD400 would be about 1600 €.
Considering HDMI 2.1 I think there won't be any upgrade itch anymore since 4k/120fps is the end of the line when it comes to video resolution and framerate - at least for me.
Can someone who made a similar journey share if and how a "real" processor is worth it?