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Streaming AMP purchase advice

H

hejon

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Jul 20, 2022
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Hello,

I am looking for some guidance in replacing my current old school setup containing vinyl, cd, stereo amp, floorstanding speakers and a separate dac. I want to be able to power a pair of decent speakers, for example: KEF R3 Meta or similar while playing music from both vinyl and streaming. The idea is to start by buying a combined streamer AMP to remove CD, AMP and DAC. Later i will also replace speakers but that is not in such a hurry. My current speakers are a pair of Audiovector S3 Signature, so i would love for the amp to be able to power at least that.

It is important that the Streaming AMP is small and looks decent enough, another option could be that it is non streaming but has a good built in dac(Although there seems to be few of these that are small and well designed). This could work with for example a WiiM Mini. Having looked at the new Denon and Marantz streaming amps i got hopeful since they seem to deliver very good power and looks decent enough but can they be controlled with a remote? I am a bit worried that they will be dead weight if one day the app is no longer updated and major phone OS'es no longer supports it. I want to at least be able to change volume and input even without app.

Does anyone have any good tips or ideas of how to navigate this space?

I made a small table of the options so far:

View attachment 392416
 
He did not ask for room correction.
And maybe he does not want to lose a good part of his life to learn Dirac.
 
See if the wiim amp is good enough power and the right features .
 
You still need your laptop online.

Compare to Wiim or Ypao one push of a button.
 
pogo said:
NAD C700 V2
NAD M10 V3
Both with Dirac Live option.
Click to expand...
While the NAD M10 V3 costs a bit more than i want to pay, i could stretch to the NAD C700 V2, but it seems a bit less powerful than the Denon/Marantz alternatives. Assuming that is the case, then i have to ask myself if the other features + the Dirac Live support is really worth a little less power and the extra cost.

What is the cost of the license + any equipment necessary to do the dirac live calibration for the NAD(excluding anything most would already have: computer, smartphone etc)?

I gotta say though: i do love NAD amplifiers. My first one that i got when i was a kiddo was a NAD.
 
WiiM Ultra + external amp maybe?
 
Matias said:
WiiM Ultra + external amp maybe?
Click to expand...

This is actually something i have been thinking about as a good alternative But that would require the AMP to be quite compact and have a good DAC or the streamer to have a really good DAC.
 
hejon said:
This is actually something i have been thinking about as a good alternative But that would require the AMP to be quite compact and have a good DAC or the streamer to have a really good DAC.
Click to expand...
Here is a nice small ultra clean and powerful amp for the WiiM Ultra:

www.audiosciencereview.com

Apollon NCx500ST Stereo Amplifier Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Apollon NCx500ST stereo class D amplifier based on Hypex NCOREx NCx500 modules. It was kindly drop shipped from the member and costs 1,090.00€ (US $1,168) with standard opamp. While the case is stamped aluminum, it is a heavily customized one...
www.audiosciencereview.com www.audiosciencereview.com
 
Some classical design (not very slim), but with phono in (would need additional streamer, though) : Technics SU-R1000
 
I am trying to find equivalents to the suggestions here that are available on my local market. Do you know if NAD D3045 would be suitable for say KEF R3 Meta or equivalent speakers?
 
Overseas said:
You still need your laptop online.
Click to expand...
I connect to my miniDSP with a USB cable.

Even if it is going online to verify the license (it may or may not be, I haven't checked), I don't think most people will find that to be an issue in the 21st century.

Overseas said:
Compare to Wiim or Ypao one push of a button.
Click to expand...
I have a Yamaha receiver with Ypao and a miniDSP with Dirac Live. My Yamaha receiver is almost 10 years old, so perhaps Ypao has improved since then. But, comparing Ypao on my Yamaha to Dirac Live is like comparing a Yugo to a Porsche - not even in the same league.

WiiM's room correction is fairly new and going through some growing pains according to some of the posts I have read in this forum. I don't think it even includes calibration files for the microphone at this point in time - I looked through my WiiM Ultra's UI and cannot find any reference to a calibration file. The WiiM is setup to use your phone's microphone. How accurate is your phone's microphone is anybody's guess, but probably not very accurate. Some people are using it with an external microphone, but now you are looking at a more complicated setup and an additional audio interface. Still, inexpensive microphones (e.g., UMIK) need to be used with a calibration file to achieve high accuracy.
 
Last edited:
hejon said:
I am trying to find equivalents to the suggestions here that are available on my local market. Do you know if NAD D3045 would be suitable for say KEF R3 Meta or equivalent speakers?
Click to expand...
NAD is honest with their power ratings, so when they say 60W both channels driven, they mean it. However, whether it's enough for you is going to depend on how far you sit from the speakers. That NAD is not going to allow the R3 Metas to get loud, particularly if you are sitting 3+ meters away. If you want something from Lenbrook, maybe get the Bluesound Powernode (https://www.bluesound.com/products/powernode/) -- the extra 20WPC may not seem like much, but it could well be the difference between "not loud enough" and "just right."
 
ban25 said:
NAD is honest with their power ratings, so when they say 60W both channels driven, they mean it. However, whether it's enough for you is going to depend on how far you sit from the speakers. That NAD is not going to allow the R3 Metas to get loud, particularly if you are sitting 3+ meters away. If you want something from Lenbrook, maybe get the Bluesound Powernode (https://www.bluesound.com/products/powernode/) -- the extra 20WPC may not seem like much, but it could well be the difference between "not loud enough" and "just right."
Click to expand...
I thought a bit more about it and started thinking that maybe any good amplifier with a good DAC would be a decent choice. And drop my requirement that the amplifier should be small, instead accept a normal sized amp with built in DAC and add the Wiim Mini to that. The footprint would still be very reasonable.

Right now i am considering the NAD C379 or something in that ballpark. Might go listen some later this week and compare a few options.
 
hejon said:
I thought a bit more about it and started thinking that maybe any good amplifier with a good DAC would be a decent choice. And drop my requirement that the amplifier should be small, instead accept a normal sized amp with built in DAC and add the Wiim Mini to that. The footprint would still be very reasonable.

Right now i am considering the NAD C379 or something in that ballpark. Might go listen some later this week and compare a few options.
Click to expand...
That's a good option -- it will let you add BluOS and Dirac down the line if you decide you want it.
 
In terms of automated, push of a button RC, I doubt very much that Dirac is a Porsche vs YPAO. If we are talking about options for geeks, then Dirac is your thing.
 
Overseas said:
In terms of automated, push of a button RC, I doubt very much that Dirac is a Porsche vs YPAO.
Click to expand...
As I stated, my Yamaha is nearly 10 years old. Tuning YPAO takes a bit more than merely a single button push on a remote, and it lacks many features I use in Dirac Live (e.g., selection of tuning curves, user defined tuning curves, tune for tightly focused, focused or wide imaging, store multiple tunings as presets, etc.). Perhaps YPAO has significantly improved since I bought my receiver. If not, the analogy is appropriate, at least to me.

Overseas said:
If we are talking about options for geeks, then Dirac is your thing.
Click to expand...
If better optimization of your audio system's in-room response only is for geeks, so be it.
 
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