Guenselmann
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- Nov 23, 2020
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Hi all,
just got a good deal on a pair of Focal Aria 926 speakers for my living room, and now I am looking into how to actually feed the things. I have almost no experience with home cinema, having spent most of my time in front of a PC with headphones before I finally moved into a bigger appartment.
I do not plan to expand to a multi-channel setup anytime soon. I think a dedicated subwoofer might get me in trouble with the neighbours, and I do not really have the space for surround speakers.
For pricing and availability: I live in Germany.
To get to the point, my sources are:
Movies/Shows: Panasonic TX40FSW504 Smart TV with awfully laggy UI. Probably going to be replaced eventually as it is also too small. My viewing distance is ~4m. I use only video streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube.
Music: Deezer Hifi via the TV app (terrible!). I am open to changing to another streaming service.
I have basically nothing else in terms of hardware. After a lot of searching on these forums I think I have two options now:
1.
Get an AVR, probably Denon AVC-X3700H, and call it a day. I think this would give me a very comfortable solution with decent performance and in-built room EQ. Power should be sufficient as I can't push very high volumes (again, neighbours). However, the Denon is very hard to get at the moment and the price has increased to 1100€ or higher. Isn't that quite expensive considering the speakers were 1600€ for the pair? Alternatively, I could go with a lower-priced AVR, but would probably lose room EQ, if not more (fidelity, power).
2.
Power amp such as this one: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/powe...reo-amplifier-ncore-2x250w-4-ohm-p-14185.html
Plus a DAC, e.g. Gustard X16, SMSL SU-9 or Topping D30 Pro.
This setup would have more power and higher (measured) fidelity, but pretty much no other features and less convenience. Combined price ~969€, so almost the same as the AVR. Could be brought down a fair bit by going unbalanced. No room EQ is a miss. Of course it could be added, but then the cost is probably higher than the AVR route.
One thing I am worried about here is volume control. As I understand the SU-9 and D30 Pro have pre-amp mode and a remote. Is this safe to rely on? What if the unit changes back to DAC mode for some reason (e.g. less tech savvy visitor)? Is that a realistic scenario or am I too paranoid? I read that an anlog pre-amp could be added for attenuation to set a "maximum level". How much would that cost and does it degrade performance?
Overall, option 1 seems to be the better choice for me, even though I really like playing around with hardware and software. I am sure going with dedicated components is the way to go for a high-end setup, but I feel that is not what I have. What do you think?
Thanks for any input!
PS: Wasn't sure where to post this thread because it covers at least two different forum categories.
just got a good deal on a pair of Focal Aria 926 speakers for my living room, and now I am looking into how to actually feed the things. I have almost no experience with home cinema, having spent most of my time in front of a PC with headphones before I finally moved into a bigger appartment.
I do not plan to expand to a multi-channel setup anytime soon. I think a dedicated subwoofer might get me in trouble with the neighbours, and I do not really have the space for surround speakers.
For pricing and availability: I live in Germany.
To get to the point, my sources are:
Movies/Shows: Panasonic TX40FSW504 Smart TV with awfully laggy UI. Probably going to be replaced eventually as it is also too small. My viewing distance is ~4m. I use only video streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube.
Music: Deezer Hifi via the TV app (terrible!). I am open to changing to another streaming service.
I have basically nothing else in terms of hardware. After a lot of searching on these forums I think I have two options now:
1.
Get an AVR, probably Denon AVC-X3700H, and call it a day. I think this would give me a very comfortable solution with decent performance and in-built room EQ. Power should be sufficient as I can't push very high volumes (again, neighbours). However, the Denon is very hard to get at the moment and the price has increased to 1100€ or higher. Isn't that quite expensive considering the speakers were 1600€ for the pair? Alternatively, I could go with a lower-priced AVR, but would probably lose room EQ, if not more (fidelity, power).
2.
Power amp such as this one: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/powe...reo-amplifier-ncore-2x250w-4-ohm-p-14185.html
Plus a DAC, e.g. Gustard X16, SMSL SU-9 or Topping D30 Pro.
This setup would have more power and higher (measured) fidelity, but pretty much no other features and less convenience. Combined price ~969€, so almost the same as the AVR. Could be brought down a fair bit by going unbalanced. No room EQ is a miss. Of course it could be added, but then the cost is probably higher than the AVR route.
One thing I am worried about here is volume control. As I understand the SU-9 and D30 Pro have pre-amp mode and a remote. Is this safe to rely on? What if the unit changes back to DAC mode for some reason (e.g. less tech savvy visitor)? Is that a realistic scenario or am I too paranoid? I read that an anlog pre-amp could be added for attenuation to set a "maximum level". How much would that cost and does it degrade performance?
Overall, option 1 seems to be the better choice for me, even though I really like playing around with hardware and software. I am sure going with dedicated components is the way to go for a high-end setup, but I feel that is not what I have. What do you think?
Thanks for any input!
PS: Wasn't sure where to post this thread because it covers at least two different forum categories.