Is it worth buying a new dac

[ImcLoud]

i'm not sure if i want to keep the sub.At this moment i turned it off.
It is a JBL sub (E150-P)like 10 years old.
For me there is enough bass in the B&W 804s.

Not sure what the budget is.
I have the arcam now for 4 months.Maybe i will sell it and buy preamp and amp for stereo.
One more question what has been said about the interconnects is this the same for the speaker cable?

Oh yeah, its is worse for speaker cable, lol.....

If you are not going to use subs, I would want at least 200w per channel if you listen loud, if you don't then I would go with something like the outlaw rr2150 http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/rr2150.html you can get bstock for $650 and its a nice unit, well made, nice looking and great for stereo sound...

Now if you don't mind spending the money, then go with the parasound p5 and a pair of mono blocks or a decent 2 ch amplifier...

I like strong bass so I use bookshelf speakers and a pair of dual sealed subs, if you crossed your towers at say 70hz, and put a set of sealed sb1000 subs {$1000} it would free up your bw's to make the mids and highs better... let the subs handle the tough stuff that 6"ish drivers don't like to reproduce and leave them to concentrate on the mids where they are strongest...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

i'm not sure if i want to keep the sub.At this moment i turned it off.
It is a JBL sub (E150-P)like 10 years old.
For me there is enough bass in the B&W 804s.

Not sure what the budget is.
I have the arcam now for 4 months.Maybe i will sell it and buy preamp and amp for stereo.
One more question what has been said about the interconnects is this the same for the speaker cable?

The problem is your sub should compliment the mains, instead of fighting with it like small cat could fight huge bear - it's not going to be happy ending for the little sub
B&W 804 do have a lot of bass so I understand you lack of desire to add sub, especially yours

First thing what I would do is try to EQ the peaks in B&W 804 response (which is far from ruler flat = not very accurate - or also could said it's "coloring" the sound)
Bowers & Wilkins 804 Diamond loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Room Measuring/EQ gets you nowhere - time to change the mains

Most likely - You don't need new AMP, you need to fix what you have (with DSP) or change speakers - that simple

See AH article - http://www.audioholics.com/home-theater-connection/connecting-an-external-amp-to-a-receiver

 

[ImcLoud]

The problem is your sub should compliment the mains, instead of fighting with it like small cat could fight huge bear - it's not going to be happy ending for the little sub
B&W 804 do have a lot of bass so I understand you lack of desire to add sub, especially yours

First thing what I would do is try to EQ the peaks in B&W 804 response (which is far from ruler flat = not very accurate - or also could said it's "coloring" the sound)
Bowers & Wilkins 804 Diamond loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Room Measuring/EQ gets you nowhere - time to change the mains

Most likely - You don't need new AMP, you need to fix what you have (with DSP) or change speakers - that simple

See AH article - When to Add a Power Amplifiier to an A/V Receiver | Audioholics

If he likes how them sound I don't think he should change them, I personally am not a BW fan although I admit them fat little diamond 802's tempt me, I don't know why {maybe because they remind me of danny devito}, I have heard so many better sounding speakers for much much less money...

If you like your speakers and just want something different there is room in your current setup for improvement, I have heard the difference between avrs and more direct paths, even with everything shut off they change the sound... and like I always said not always for the worse, room correction works great {for movies} but for music I want it as is, I want my electrons to add and take away NOTHING if possible, no eq, no room correction, ect, start with zero as if the band was there in the room, their gear wouldn't have room eq... I have seen many live performances, and I am searching for that sound, not talking about concerts {unless I am listening to a LIVE track}, Im taking about when we seen Bruce play in a 30x30 room sitting on a marshall amp that was turned off, or when we go to the small concerts to see artists like Amber rubarth, dave egg, jay mraz all unplugged 10 feet from us...

I spend a lot of time listening to a few artists I like to go see when ever they are within driving distance, one that never lets me down in Amber, I have flown to a few performances too... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrk93DSMZRw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X53DogA6JM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FpvpyXgJrw {amy is good too, when she remembers the words} buy their music support the struggling musicians and more will come, and more will struggle, its a fun cycle to watch and listen to....

 

[Behabib]

Hi everybody, I just joined the forum finding answers to the same question asked a while ago on this topic.

I am re-vamping the discussion because I have a similar set-up (less geared up in terms of DAC equipment) and asking myself the same question:

Equipment:
- ARCAM AVR450 (just found one at half of the retail price !);
- FOCAL Chorus 714V as main (owned since a while ago);
- FOCAL Central and rear - but my question mainly related to stereo music listening;
- Little Yamaha sub that does not deserve any interest.

Question:
I have a very basic CD player (SONY CDP-XE22) without even a coaxial output but an optical output though. I also hear a difference between the analog output and if I connect the optical output to my minidisk player (yes I still have that) that allow to use its DAC indepently (a Pioneer MJ-D508).

What would be the best option to improve the quality of this?

- Buy a little CD player and connect it via RCA to the digital input of the AV (cheaper option);
- Buy a proper CD player (with a $500 budget or so); or
- Forget everything, the DAC of your Minidisk is good enough (I doubt it, also because it is connected via the optical output, which I read limit the sampling quality).

Thanks for your insight !

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Coax and optical are same signal. Just connect your cd player optical to acram avr. End of the conversation.
Again Optical connection is exactly same as digital rca - both carry same signal

 

[Behabib]

Ok thanks, this would indeed be my preferred option for the time being and before investing in a higher grade CD player.
I will try again, I tried to connect it to the "STB" optical entry but it did not seem to recognise the signal because no sound was reproduced. I'll check the set-up again in the settings menu to declare the optical input.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Ok thanks, this would indeed be my preferred option for the time being and before investing in a higher grade CD player.
I will try again, I tried to connect it to the "STB" optical entry but it did not seem to recognise the signal because no sound was reproduced. I'll check the set-up again in the settings menu to declare the optical input.

Sorry, I have no familiarity with your specific equipment, Acram is known, but not very common around here. It should work. Make you you're using right cable and connectors

 

[Behabib]

Well guessed, I am based in continental Europe, where ARCAM is not (very) common either.
Thanks for your swift reply anyway, I'll do some tests, with different cables if need be, and go in the detailed settings manually. I think it was mentioning "Digital Stereo" on the screen when I tried (making me think it detected the optical signal) but no sound. Connecting an STB or CD player should both work, they can both reproduce stereo digital signal... To be continued (on my side), Cheers.

 

[Behabib]

FYI - I managed to connect my CD player in optical on the AVR, but to my taste the DAC of my minisdisk sound better still (more warm and room filling), although ARCAM DAC seems more precise but metallic and flat. I'll probably need to go for an external DAC or a higher grade CD player to get the best of both worlds. Thanks anyway !

 

[lovinthehd]

FYI - I managed to connect my CD player in optical on the AVR, but to my taste the DAC of my minisdisk sound better still (more warm and room filling), although ARCAM DAC seems more precise but metallic and flat. I'll probably need to go for an external DAC or a higher grade CD player to get the best of both worlds. Thanks anyway !

Or use eq instead of electronics shopping....if you're using the DAC outside the cd player a "higher grade" one isn't likely to give you any more benefit than putting a "higher grade" hard drive in your computer will make the graphics on your screen look any better....