Long time listener, first time caller….. I own the Costco version of this. Considering that the intended use was 90% movie/video content and I paid, delivered, less than $350 for it, I don’t regret my purchase. Others have commented that they don’t use volume levels anywhere near -10dB. I would say that the majority of time I am at -40dB to -26dB. When using it to listen to music, at most I turn it up to -20dB. Even before reading this review, I had made two observations. Firstly, the very few times I did listen at higher levels, depending on input, it seemed to sound noisier/harsher at ~-14 dB. I never took it past -10dB. The other observation I made was relative to the unit it replaces, an Aventage RX-A550. On both units I set the default volume when the power is turned on to -40dB. On the RX-A550 this was always too low. On the TSR-700 (RX-V6A), this is often sufficient for normal TV watching. Perhaps the extra power of the TSR-700 is allowing me to run it at significantly lower volume settings than the Aventage.
Reading the review, I took away, maybe erroneously, the unit has lackluster digital performance, both from the DAC aspect and the digital crossover involved with speaker size selection, and relatively poor amplification performance at reference level. The other thing I have taken away from the review, which others have also commented on, is that at volume settings in line with what appears to be common use cases from those of us that own the unit, the amplifier performance is perhaps a bit better than at reference volume. My question is, would this unit potentially benefit from the use of a decent, modestly priced external DAC like a Topping D10s, DX3 Pro, E30, Schiit Modi 3, or an Allo Boss/Mini Boss on a Pi? I am certain that the amp section at its best doesn’t warrant a DAC that costs as much as it does, but in my case, a DX3 Pro would find double duty for this use and as a headphone amp, so it would provide additional value.
Reading the review, I took away, maybe erroneously, the unit has lackluster digital performance, both from the DAC aspect and the digital crossover involved with speaker size selection, and relatively poor amplification performance at reference level. The other thing I have taken away from the review, which others have also commented on, is that at volume settings in line with what appears to be common use cases from those of us that own the unit, the amplifier performance is perhaps a bit better than at reference volume. My question is, would this unit potentially benefit from the use of a decent, modestly priced external DAC like a Topping D10s, DX3 Pro, E30, Schiit Modi 3, or an Allo Boss/Mini Boss on a Pi? I am certain that the amp section at its best doesn’t warrant a DAC that costs as much as it does, but in my case, a DX3 Pro would find double duty for this use and as a headphone amp, so it would provide additional value.
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