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DAC / Amp Recommendation please


FriscoDesi

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Complete newbie here and my very first post on this forum. I have been reading some of the posts and amazed at the wealth of information here!

 

My current setup is 2.1 (Klipsch RF-82II with SVS PB-1000) powered by Yamaha RX-V567 receiver. I have been reading that Yamaha and Klipsch are not best together (sounding bright etc) and thinking of moving to pure stereo setup. I do feel that they are bright and can't listen more than an hour. So I am leaning towards warm yet detailed sound.

 

All my input will be digital and have no plans to add Phono in the future. Some of the setup combinations I have been looking are

 

1. DAC paired with Amp (Niles SI-2150 refurbished or Emotiva BasX A300 - both are 150wpc around $300+)

a) NAD D1050

b) TEAC UD-503

c) Schiit Bifrost 

d) Peachtree DAC ITx

 

Only TEAC had volume control and I would have to get passive preamp (Emotiva Control Freak or Schiit SYS) to control volume otherwise.

 

2. Integrated Amp

NAD C368 (80 wpc) or C388 (over budget, will have to wait for refurbished)

 

3. AV Receiver

Refurbished Marantz SR-5010 with Amp mentioned above.

 

Since this is my first stereo setup, I want to stay under $1000 :) Please help me setup!!!

 

 

Edited by FriscoDesi
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17 hours ago, pbphoto said:

Does the Yamaha sound bright in pure-direct mode when you are feeding it an analog source?  Pure-direct will shut off your subwoofer but it will/should bypass all internal DAC processing and be a good test to see where you should go next.

For music, I am always on Pure Direct mode while for movies, I put on the Straight mode (treble reduced a notch). I enjoy listening to Pure Direct but is still bright sometimes. I don't know if the room design is adding to that (hardwood floor with rug)

 

17 hours ago, pbphoto said:

PS - welcome to the forum!

 

Thank you phphoto!

 

16 hours ago, Quiet_Hollow said:

Denon PMA-50

 

You will not be disappointed. :wink:

I did look at this stereo amp but didn't give serious consideration since the rating is only 25wpc. Isn't this too low for RF-82II?

 

12 hours ago, ATLAudio said:

There is nothing from scientific measurement to suggest a Yamaha is bright on Klipsch. 

 

With most of those integrates you lose bass management. 

 

understand. I could add a Y cable to split the signal for sub if I am going with DAC+amp isn't it?

 

1 hour ago, Schu said:

^

BS

 

Schu, can you please elaborate?

 

 

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I like old Yamaha with Klipsch Heritage.  I think their term "Natural Sound" is very appropriate but they are not quite as strong on the low end which I could see bringing someone to call them "bright."    Also, remember it is about synergy and you have to think about what is feeding them.

 

This doesn't really address the OP but when I was using the Yamaha with Sonicaps in my Heritage crossovers I found that my ears were getting tired.  Jupiter caps made me happy with every amplifier I've tried!

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8 hours ago, FriscoDesi said:

For music, I am always on Pure Direct mode while for movies, I put on the Straight mode (treble reduced a notch). I enjoy listening to Pure Direct but is still bright sometimes. I don't know if the room design is adding to that (hardwood floor with rug)

The room and hardwood floors could be a factor, however I would double check a couple things on the receiver first.  Make sure your analog source is connected to the audio1 or audio2 inputs on the receiver.  According to the manual, direct mode disables the tone controls and DSP, along with "display and operation of the option and setup menus".  I'm not sure if that last part means speaker setup is bypassed or they just shut off the display to reduce noise.  I'm also not sure if YPAO is considered part of DSP but make sure your speakers are not set to "small" and/or YPAO has the EQ adjusted funky.  Even in direct mode, it appears like an analog signal gets converted to digital to pick up some bass management and then goes through the DAC - i.e. ADA conversion.  This is typical.  If your subwoofer-out is working in direct mode with a 2-channel analog source, then some ADA is going on.  If so, then make sure your speakers are not set to small and consider turning on the "extra bass" option.  

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On 11/29/2016 at 7:47 PM, pbphoto said:

The room and hardwood floors could be a factor, however I would double check a couple things on the receiver first.  Make sure your analog source is connected to the audio1 or audio2 inputs on the receiver.  According to the manual, direct mode disables the tone controls and DSP, along with "display and operation of the option and setup menus".  I'm not sure if that last part means speaker setup is bypassed or they just shut off the display to reduce noise.  I'm also not sure if YPAO is considered part of DSP but make sure your speakers are not set to "small" and/or YPAO has the EQ adjusted funky.  Even in direct mode, it appears like an analog signal gets converted to digital to pick up some bass management and then goes through the DAC - i.e. ADA conversion.  This is typical.  If your subwoofer-out is working in direct mode with a 2-channel analog source, then some ADA is going on.  If so, then make sure your speakers are not set to small and consider turning on the "extra bass" option.  

 

Pure Direct did turn off Subwoofer and only 2 channel. I don't have analog inputs and I stream music from my phone to Yamaha Bluetooth receiver connected by digital coax to AV receiver. Will adding an external DAC (connected to Audio 1 or 2) improve sound quality?

 

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35 minutes ago, FriscoDesi said:

 

Pure Direct did turn off Subwoofer and only 2 channel. I don't have analog inputs and I stream music from my phone to Yamaha Bluetooth receiver connected by digital coax to AV receiver. Will adding an external DAC (connected to Audio 1 or 2) improve sound quality?

 

IMHO, your receiver is fine with those Klipsch speakers and it contains very nice DACS.  However, I think your weak link is the Bluetooth connection from your phone to your receiver.  That YBA-10 dock uses BT 2.0 which probably isn't very good for sound quality because it can't feed the DACS inside the receiver a clean digital stream.  The first test I would try is to get a headphone-to-RCA cable and directly connect your phone to the audio1 input on the receiver.  See if it makes a difference.  The downside is you will be using the DAC inside the phone, but on the plus side, you eliminate the BT connection.  

 

If this does make a difference, then I would look for ways to stream a non-lossy digital stream over WIFI directly to your receiver.  If your phone is an iPhone, you can use Airplay to stream to an Airport, which will relay the digital stream over optical Toslink to the DACs in your receiver.

 

The next step up would be to have the Airport relay the digital stream over optical Toslink to an external DAC, like a Schit BiFrost, then send the analog signal to the receiver.  This is the setup I have with a BiFrost 4490.  The BiFrost Multibit is the current model.

 

First step is to eliminate BT and see if it makes a difference.
 

 

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I had an older Yamaha that didn't have an internet connection. It had Bluetooth and I had a phone that supported APT-X (a samsung). I upgraded to a RXA1050 which allowed me to connect my iPad thru AirPlay. There was a difference vs. streaming via Bluetooth. I also didn't like the pure direct due to it not providing a signal to my subwoofer, even though I had speaker size set to small.I've had a Maverick DAC MAGIC, trying to get the sound I wanted.

 

i have since got a Denon AVR-4200 , last years model discounted,which I like better than the Yamaha. It has more of the options I wanted. By a slim margin I preferred the Denon. Might be the Audyssey 

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