Some technical questions and a call for suggestions!

[Dr_Hotpants]

Hello!

New to the forum, but not new to the philosophy ya'll have built the site around. The number of arguments I've leaned into against the 'golden ear' nonsense over the years has been high. After much lurking/reading I'm happy to have found this community! I'm about to move, and taking the opportunity to swap things up from my current set-up: Monitor Audio Bronze 1 (older version without front port) + custom built cabinet down-firing Rythmik 15" sealed powered subwoofer (DS1501) + Sprout100 connected via USB to Windows 10 PC. Not been entirely happy with the Sprout (review already done on ASR makes clear most of the reasons). I'd like to try the separate DAC/Power amp for flexibility (and, let's face it, just for the fun of doing something new!). My intent is to get a DAC that can run from USB (bluetooth 5.0 vs Aptx hd would be a bonus but not strictly necessary) that I'll be outputting from the USB port of an android tablet running amazon music / spotify. I've already settled on the speakers being the ELAC DBR62 due to measurements published here on ASR, their aesthetics, and their reasonable price point. My rythmik sub is by far the nicest part of my setup and I'd like to keep that running as well. That leaves the DAC (pre-built in), the power amp, and the setup/connections! For that, I'd appreciate some advice on a few issues:

1) should I preference a DAC with balanced outputs to the Amp & thus an Amp with balanced inputs? My gut says it would be good to try it since I haven't messed with this before, but open to hearing other opinions.
2) What is the most sensible way of connecting the sub in this setup? For things like the UMC204HD, could/should I output the sub from the headphone jack and the L/R to the amp from the balanced outputs? Or should I use a splitter from the balanced outputs along with conversions to get the output back into Coax for the sub.
3) Perhaps a silly question, but for the purposes of what I'm doing (listening in moderate sized room), my sense is that I do *not* need a power amp for each speaker, and that one will get by pushing into 2 channels. Do you think that is a reasonable approach? Or would I get more bang/buck for going two separate monos?

4) DAC considerations:
Behringer UMC204HD
Topping D50
Swissonic UA-2x2
??? - any others you think should be on this list? Especially given what I'm trying to do by incorporating a subwoofer?

5) Stereo Speaker Power Amp Considerations:
Audiophonics NCore MPA-S250NC
IOM NCore Pro
March P122 (or something larger by March)
??? - what else makes sense to be considering?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

[Dr_Hotpants]

So many views! So few opinions. I didn't know crickets had such a high SINAD ratio.

Should I have posted this in a different section? I'm still learning my way around the different subject topics here.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Your initial post is not well-structured making it hard to read, your problem isn't that easy to solve either (the sub being the problem), and your preliminary DAC/interface selection is just weird (the D50 is like twice the price of the others).

Reconciling the unbalanced sub input and the balanced amplifiers could be a challenge. It may be better to use some sort of multichannel USB soundcard and then adapt its outputs to XLR (maybe using the Monoprice RCA to XLR cables if you can get those). Something has to do bass management in that case though.

Maybe check whether you couldn't get along with an AV receiver. Would solve several problems at least. Yeah I know, they don't tend to measure that well.

 

[Dr_Hotpants]

Your initial post is not well-structured making it hard to read, your problem isn't that easy to solve either (the sub being the problem), and your preliminary DAC/interface selection is just weird (the D50 is like twice the price of the others).

Reconciling the unbalanced sub input and the balanced amplifiers could be a challenge. It may be better to use some sort of multichannel USB soundcard and then adapt its outputs to XLR (maybe using the Monoprice RCA to XLR cables if you can get those). Something has to do bass management in that case though.

Maybe check whether you couldn't get along with an AV receiver. Would solve several problems at least. Yeah I know, they don't tend to measure that well.

Not entirely sure what was structured poorly about the post () but I appreciate you responding nonetheless!

Does it actually matter re: pricing? I'm just interested in pieces that measure well and look appealing (re: DAC/amp) - don't see much point in spending thousands when hundreds will do, but I'm not adverse to spending a bit more for an option (D50) than others.

Regarding the balanced output, one option would be switching out my subwoofer amp (http://www.rythmikaudio.com/amplifiers.html - I'm currently running the A370PEQ3, but the company makes ones with balanced inputs as well). Since I built it, I could swap out the amp for one with balanced inputs - but would that actually be any better than running unbalanced to the sub-amp through the headphone jack of the Behringer UMC204HD whilst running balanced to the speakers? Either way, the DAC/preamp is doing the bass management (if I understand this correctly), and then the subwoofer amp is doing the filters, etc.

As for AVR, sure, they'd work, but they're ugly as sin, not as much fun to figure out, and as you said don't measure well. ‍

-DrH-