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Make sure you have the speaker configuration set to "full band" inside the Onkyo.

What? Really. What? An analog signal? Sorry, but that's plain wrong. It's just ones and zeros. What really? Is there a magic one and zero sender and receiver on a USB cable? What I'm referring to is there are no zeros and ones marching down the cable in-order. Ones and zeros are converted to voltage differences relative to ground, and these are converted at each end by the USB controllers to ones and zeros.

I'm also more in the "bits is bits" camp too, but I do think it is important to get a good quality USB cable. USB transports digital bits using an analog signal, and that analog signal is converted to zeros and ones at each end by the USB controller. The cleaner the analog signal, the less work those USB controllers have to do, and the less noise they generate. All that said, don't go crazy - just get a decent cable one or two steps above what you would find in an office supply store IMHO. PS - I don't use USB so I can't make a recommendation.

Assuming you are running them along the carpet and not inside a wall, then I would go with 14 gauge speaker wire to fit your budget from somebody like Monoprice, and then Amazon Basics banana plugs. enjoy.

congrats! they look great. put a throw-rug down on that floor.

You have to read the fine print with AVR power marketing numbers. Look at reviews too. Most of the time, a 9 or 11 channel AVR rated at 110WPC is only for "2 channels driven" at very high distortion. There's only so much power you can pack into a single chassis that also contains every home theater feature and connection available.

Be careful with that preamp - first of all, it's an integrated amp without home-theater bypass - this means you will have to set the volume knob to a set position and calibrate it with your Yamaha (i.e. it does not pass the L/R signal thru directly to the amp, bypassing its preamp section.) Second, it has no other analog inputs other than the L/R pair coming from your AVR which limits any future two-channel listening that you might want to do without going thru your AVR (what if you want to hook up a turntable or a nice DAC for example.). Finally, it looks like a really cheap Chinese made POS. I would pass. Your RX-V685 is probably better - stick with that for now and add a real amp or integrated amp down the road.

I think the RX-V685 would be a good option.

It depends on how many channels you listen to, how big your room is, and how loud you listen. Google search "SPL calculator." I suspect that any AVR with pre-outs would be plenty unless you listen to multi-channel at rock-concert levels.

How do you play FLAC flies through your Oppo today? Here's a some info for you: http://help.nativedsd.com/en/articles/94445-playing-dsd-on-oppo-machines-explained

You should try both DSD and PCM to see if your Oppo handles one or the other better, or if you can even hear a difference.

I would suggest starting out with an AVR that has multi-channel pre-outs because it keeps your options open and puts you into a decent class of AVR. Manufacturers do not put multi-channel pre-outs on their lower quality AVRs. Your speakers are super efficient so I don't think you need a ton of power to drive them - you might be very happy with just the AVR. I would recommend looking at accessories4less for a used Yamaha RX-A1080 or something similar. Then maybe in the future you could invest in a 2-channel integrated amp with HT-bypass to drive the L/R speakers, removing the bulk the of the load from the AVR.

AVR technology changes faster than my underwear. Buy an AVR that has the features and channels and room correction DSP that meets your needs. One feature I would recommend is pre-outs for all channels. This usually means you get a better quality AVR and it keeps open the option to add an external amp down the road. I've had good luck with Yamaha AVRs over the years - very good quality - but any of the major Japanese brands are fine.

I'm referring to the H4's in that sentence. H4's are rear ported. H3's are not.

Sorry - meant a rear firing port - the manual recommends 12" away from the front wall.

@rvnye I have La Scala 2's and they are awesome. However, 1) they need a sub, and 2) with only 9.5' to work with, by the time you place them in the corners and toe them in a bit, you would have about 4.5' of space between them in a room that's 20' deep - a little tight IMHO. I also have Heresy 3's and they are also awesome, surprisingly close to the La Scala 2's. I'm sure the H4's are a step up from the H3's, however, 1) they need a sub, and 2) they will fit much better in the corners of a 9.5' front wall - just know you have to have them 12" off the front wall because of the rear passive radiator. They would be a better fit than the LS2's IMHO. If you want a Klipsch heritage speaker that doesn't need a sub and fits in your space, you might want to consider the Forte 3. The Cornwall 4 would also do the job but it's wider than a La Scala 2.

Can you run the AccuEQ routine using Onkyo's microphone and let it pick the speaker settings and crossover frequency for you? (I'm not familiar with it - apologies if it is a dumb question.) Then you can tweak from there.

I'd leave them alone.

If your X1300w sounded good and had enough power for your Jamo's, they will certainly have plenty for your new Klipsch which are much more efficient and easier to drive. The only reason I would consider the X3600h is, as mentioned above, it has pre-outs that would allow you to add a really nice, clean, external amp down the road. In that case, offer them 600 euro 🙂. I don't know if you would hear much of a difference going from one Denon AVR to another unless they really improved the internals, DACs, DSP, or microphone on the X3600h.

What would the X3600h do that your current X1300w doesn't?

If you are mostly into multi-channel home theater at moderate volume levels, then your current Denon is probably great. If you like to crank it up, or you are going to use this system for 2-channel listening with other sources (DACs, TT's, streaming), then you may want to consider an AVR with pre-outs for each channel and an external amp. In general, an AVR with pre-outs keeps your options open.

Mine are 6.5ft apart, from inside edge to inside edge, and I also sit about 12 feet away. Try pointing them slightly behind you, then directly at you, then slightly in front of you to see which you prefer. One of these positions should get you a couple feet of head movement at your listening position while holding a good phantom center image. I've tried every listening position my room will allow - up to about 10 feet apart (edge to edge) crossed well in front of me (to the point where they looked silly), but was never able to get a really good rock-steady phantom center image across the width of my sofa. And at those extremes, I felt the sound suffered in my room.

have fun!

QNAP

Darko has some info on Roon. I run Roon core on a 2013 iMAC that acts as our family computer, but in reality, sleeps most of the day. Roon needs a local SSD for disk IO because it is basically a mini database - then the music files themselves can be hosted on NAS. RAM and CPU requirements are reasonable but higher than what you would get inside your average NAS server. CPU can get high when doing DSP functions, especially on DSF files. I believe the Nucleus devices are prepackaged turn-key NUCs. You could also look at QNAP NAS - configure your own with enough horsepower, and download the Roon app that runs on the QNAS - similar to what you can do with Plex. Or you could run the Roon Core on your MacBook as mentioned above. The Roon core has to be running someplace when you are listening to music - whether the Roon core is hosted on the same device as your music file storage doesn't really matter. If you understand NAS and are somewhat tech savvy, then you don't need one of these white-glove "audiophile" Roon core solutions. Keep it simple.