Tonewinner at-300 av pre pro + buckeye amp Hypex NC252MP Amplifier am I crazy?

[rccarguy]

I should see if a Harmony integrates with my phone.

Since the Chromecast was invented, the experience of using a remote is busted for me. Feels like a legacy way of interacting with things.

What input do I want? The one that is playing.

What volume button should I press? How about the one always near the users hand.

How will they find content and what about our TV interface? It will never be as good as the phone most people have on hand to type on.

What about all the other buttons on a remote? How about just turn on the TV when I say to play something, and never make me type in a channel because I should be able to find what I want on my phone.

I have an automatic optical input switcher made by some dude in Australia. Hoping to find something that is at least as capable as that $100 device.

No way would I want it to switch inputs automatically. Not unless I press the macro for the remote.

Not if the device turns on or off then sends a CEC, as sometimes I may be doing something on that input then I switch another source on, but I don't want to switch over to it yet.

Touchscreen remotes? Nah
CEC ? Nah
Universal LCD/hard buttoned remote with macros etc Yup

 

[Urvile]

Well I just put deposit on a Buckeye Purifi 1ET400A Amplifier, 3-channel, and am crossing fingers that the Denon AVR-x3800H will be be a good preamp.
Wish me luck !

 

[stevenswall]

Well I just put deposit on a Buckeye Purifi 1ET400A Amplifier, 3-channel, and am crossing fingers that the Denon AVR-x3800H will be be a good preamp.
Wish me luck !

Curious if that Denon will support Dirac Live Bass Control or just the regular version... and if it does dynamic volume well I'll really be interested as that is a huge feature for people listening at lower levels.

 

[Sam Ash]

Just got an at-300 to run my genelecs, 7.0
Very impressed, but my previous processor was an ADA cinema rhapsody m4 balanced so little experience of others. I sent an emotiva back and stuck with Ada a few years back.

All the hdmi stuff works, earc functions etc. Only probs I encountered were with my TV settings. Shield pro worked like a charm.

I've run the room eq and hate the sound. Incredibly harsh and bright once applied.
Could be due to having no subs, but I told it this and set cross over to none.
So I've turned it off.

I do love being able to adjust the volume of the centre chanel and surrounds with buttons on the remote. See that as handy for films where one or other are too quite or loud.

Finally I've kept my Topping EX5 in play for music. I feed that into the analogue in and play it as Pure (not direct) so bypass any Tonewinner interference (not yet A/Bd that to be sure). Shame there's not a pure button on the remote as if someone presses surround, you need the menu up to get back to Pure.

It's a keeper.

Could you kindly give us more information about the AT-300 and how it performs in terms of movies.

Any other users who've had the privilege of comparing between known brands and Tone Winner?

 

[Nattage]

If I were to return to analogue, I'd return to the at300, but I've sold it and got an Audiopraise VanityPro.
So can't really say much more about it, other than it was a winner in terms of being a traditional processor with all its convenience, but if you can clean up HDMI audio and use posh DACs that no tested processor under $20k has, then you won't want to go back.

 

[Sam Ash]

If I were to return to analogue, I'd return to the at300, but I've sold it and got an Audiopraise VanityPro.
So can't really say much more about it, other than it was a winner in terms of being a traditional processor with all its convenience, but if you can clean up HDMI audio and use posh DACs that no tested processor under $20k has, then you won't want to go back.

Overall for movie surround sound, was it good?

 

[Nattage]

Yes!
I'd buy it again if I didn't have speakers with DACs built in that were going unused.

 

[techsamurai]

If the tonewinner supports it, I would have bi-amped all 3 channels with a 5 or higher Buckeye amplifier. I might be wrong but I think it takes very expensive equipment to get the clarity that you can get with bi-amping with a midrange or premium system because of the diminishing returns associated with more expensive equipment.

I was watching a video yesterday of the AV10 and AMP10 and apparently people are buying multiple AMP10s and using them to bi-amp their cinema speakers. And that thing costs $7,000 - but if a set of speakers cost $10,000, bi-amping at $700 a speaker is a no-brainer especially the LCR - If I had those systems and it were possible, I'd have tri-amped the LCR and single-amped my height speakers.

 

[rccarguy]

Overall for movie surround sound, was it good?

I'm happy with the AT-300, for the price.

A few quibbles here and there, and very basic operation but it does the job for sensible money. Doesn't have all the extra features I wouldn't use, and paying for it. Bluetooth is enough for me as a additional feature.

I've made a review on summit hifi. Firmware has improved since then, no more loud pops/clicks, also they've added crossovers for side, wide, surrounds- before they were all shared.

 

[rccarguy]

Just got an at-300 to run my genelecs, 7.0
Very impressed, but my previous processor was an ADA cinema rhapsody m4 balanced so little experience of others. I sent an emotiva back and stuck with Ada a few years back.

All the hdmi stuff works, earc functions etc. Only probs I encountered were with my TV settings. Shield pro worked like a charm.

I've run the room eq and hate the sound. Incredibly harsh and bright once applied.
Could be due to having no subs, but I told it this and set cross over to none.
So I've turned it off.

I do love being able to adjust the volume of the centre chanel and surrounds with buttons on the remote. See that as handy for films where one or other are too quite or loud.

Finally I've kept my Topping EX5 in play for music. I feed that into the analogue in and play it as Pure (not direct) so bypass any Tonewinner interference (not yet A/Bd that to be sure). Shame there's not a pure button on the remote as if someone presses surround, you need the menu up to get back to Pure.

It's a keeper.

Since this AV pre digitises all inputs it's not worth using analogue inputs. Use digital input.

 

[Nattage]

you may be right, but I was sure the tonewinner could do a true bypass of at least the stereo analogue in.
Had to be set to "Pure" in the screen menu, not toggled with the remote, which gets you only the spuriously titled "Direct" mode, which actually digitises like the other modes.

 

[rccarguy]

you may be right, but I was sure the tonewinner could do a true bypass of at least the stereo analogue in.
Had to be set to "Pure" in the screen menu, not toggled with the remote, which gets you only the spuriously titled "Direct" mode, which actually digitises like the other modes.

Read the emotiva mc-1 review. Anyway to test pure analogue or digitises it?

 

[Sam Ash]

I'm happy with the AT-300, for the price.

A few quibbles here and there, and very basic operation but it does the job for sensible money. Doesn't have all the extra features I wouldn't use, and paying for it. Bluetooth is enough for me as a additional feature.

I've made a review on summit hifi. Firmware has improved since then, no more loud pops/clicks, also they've added crossovers for side, wide, surrounds- before they were all shared.

Can you kindly provide a link that goes to your review.

I'd like to have your opinion in regards to sound fidelity, separation and steering. I suppose it has a decent DAC.

 

[rccarguy]

Can you kindly provide a link that goes to your review.

I'd like to have your opinion in regards to sound fidelity, separation and steering. I suppose it has a decent DAC.

AT-300 - 16 CHANNEL PRE-PRO

Tone Winner AT-300 - 16 Channel Processor Introducing the Tonewinner AT-300, a pinnacle of audio processing innovation that redefines your perception of sound. Crafted with precision and designed for the discerning audiophile, the AT-300 16-channel processor delivers an unparalleled level of...

summithifiusa.com

 

[TonyJZX]

a part of me think this thing is strangely anachronistic... with everything going IOT a unit of this complexity without wifi and ethernet is truly strange

and yet at the same time the price is quite ok for what you get

 

[rccarguy]

a part of me think this thing is strangely anachronistic... with everything going IOT a unit of this complexity without wifi and ethernet is truly strange

and yet at the same time the price is quite ok for what you get

It's gone up in the UK £500 since I purchased it.

At the price I paid I'm happy with it. Sure would be good if it had world class room correction but at £1000 there is no other AV pre in this price range .

Gripes are limited adjustability with per DSP user controls, bad auto room correction.

 

[rccarguy]

a part of me think this thing is strangely anachronistic... with everything going IOT a unit of this complexity without wifi and ethernet is truly strange

and yet at the same time the price is quite ok for what you get

I don't care about wifi/ethernet/streaming. My Squeezeboxes do that, they're better, and all centralised system. The app control on the Tonewinner isn't great either.

Wifi and ethernet would add more to the cost- network card and wifi card, that's probably at least £200 on top, and what function really would it add? Minimum would be streaming from UPNP (but the Tonewinner doesn't have that function so they'd need to add that also) At best IP setup/control. Also network firmware updates. Again not really a importance to me.

 

[Sam Ash]

Gripes are limited adjustability with per DSP user controls, bad auto room correction.

Can you kindly explain the above two points in detail, I'll appreciate it.

Does the PEQ facility work well?

Is it REW compatible?

 

[himey]

@Kal Rubinson
Have you listened to/reviewed this pre/pro?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

@Kal Rubinson
Have you listened to/reviewed this pre/pro?

Nope.