For a few years I have had a bunch of stereo systems based around a Lepai (or Lepy) amplifiers and thrift-shop speakers, except for the living room where I upgraded to Tannoy Mercury M3 floor-standers (which were apparently good entry level speakers in the mid 1990s; I hear rumours that things may have moved on by 2022, but that's what I have now).
For a while, the living room Lepai was fed from either a no-name Chinese Bluetooth receiver or from the television's headphone outputs, after a while I started using the Chromecast as a Spotify endpoint and using the TV output for that too, just because it was easier. (The TV doesn't have RCA outputs, to its lasting shame.) You will already have concluded that I am not very high up the audiophile foodchain, and you will be quite correct.
But recently I bought an Allo Boss2 streamer/DAC -- as glowingly reviewed here -- and that started a process of reconsidering things. The Boss2 sounds great, even through the Lepai it is streets ahead of the TV route, so I bought a passive three-way RCA switch (for 20EUR) as the simplest possible source-selector to switch between the TV and the Boss2. But excellence of the Boss2 made me think that the Lepai is surely now the weakest link in the chain, and I should replace that with Something Nice.
The sensible thing to do would be to get a Yamaha AS-801 (or 701 or 501) to act as a source-selector, pre-amp, power amp and just sit there and do everything at once and then the speakers would be the weakest link anyway. But sadly I am not remotely sensible and after reading the "why are preamps so expensive?" thread I decided to join the faction that says if your sources have volume controls, a pre-amp is arguably superfluous (if you have other solutions for source selection and you don't care about phono stages, EQ or any of the other of the benefits they can offer.)
So I bought a Topping DX3+ Pro DAC just for the TV side of the chain (using the TVs optical out and rejoicing in improved sound and a remote control for volume) and I could now replace the Lepai with a power amp by audiophonics with a Hypex module.
And that's where the wisdom of the forum comes in! I can either:
* still back down, get a Yamaha A-801 to integrate everything in one clearly sensible place, plug the TV and the Boss into it and use the Topping DAC in one of my many offices; or
* steam on regardless and have a passive source selector to switch between the Allo Boss2 and the TV->Topping routes, both running into an Audiophonics power amp.
I really want to do the second of these, obviously, and my wife is OK with a slightly deranged pile of small weird boxes (god bless her), but is it so obviously stupid that anyone here feels like trying to dissuade me?
For a while, the living room Lepai was fed from either a no-name Chinese Bluetooth receiver or from the television's headphone outputs, after a while I started using the Chromecast as a Spotify endpoint and using the TV output for that too, just because it was easier. (The TV doesn't have RCA outputs, to its lasting shame.) You will already have concluded that I am not very high up the audiophile foodchain, and you will be quite correct.
But recently I bought an Allo Boss2 streamer/DAC -- as glowingly reviewed here -- and that started a process of reconsidering things. The Boss2 sounds great, even through the Lepai it is streets ahead of the TV route, so I bought a passive three-way RCA switch (for 20EUR) as the simplest possible source-selector to switch between the TV and the Boss2. But excellence of the Boss2 made me think that the Lepai is surely now the weakest link in the chain, and I should replace that with Something Nice.
The sensible thing to do would be to get a Yamaha AS-801 (or 701 or 501) to act as a source-selector, pre-amp, power amp and just sit there and do everything at once and then the speakers would be the weakest link anyway. But sadly I am not remotely sensible and after reading the "why are preamps so expensive?" thread I decided to join the faction that says if your sources have volume controls, a pre-amp is arguably superfluous (if you have other solutions for source selection and you don't care about phono stages, EQ or any of the other of the benefits they can offer.)
So I bought a Topping DX3+ Pro DAC just for the TV side of the chain (using the TVs optical out and rejoicing in improved sound and a remote control for volume) and I could now replace the Lepai with a power amp by audiophonics with a Hypex module.
And that's where the wisdom of the forum comes in! I can either:
* still back down, get a Yamaha A-801 to integrate everything in one clearly sensible place, plug the TV and the Boss into it and use the Topping DAC in one of my many offices; or
* steam on regardless and have a passive source selector to switch between the Allo Boss2 and the TV->Topping routes, both running into an Audiophonics power amp.
I really want to do the second of these, obviously, and my wife is OK with a slightly deranged pile of small weird boxes (god bless her), but is it so obviously stupid that anyone here feels like trying to dissuade me?