Thanks guys, I guess I knew few things about the low cost of using the same old DAC model in a million units, power amp inside the unit and so on.
I know that many audiofiles are moaning about the sound quality of the avrs and lousy DACs they have, so one could think that someone like the Denon might give a higher end DACs in a high end avrs. Many guys buy separate DACs because of this and say there are huge differences in the sound quality on their system.
Audiophiles make all sorts of claims about sound quality, but they rarely prove their claims with
properly conducted listening tests or with measurements. The DACs in AVRs are usually audibly transparent (ie, they don't distort or alter the sound in any audible way). Audiophiles have very active audio imaginations based on the price tag they see on things or what they read in "reviews" (ie, industry propaganda). Buying a separate DAC is usually a waste of money but is satisfying to an audiophile's imagination (costs more = must sound better, which triggers psychological bias known as
expectation bias, which tells their brain that it will and does sound better).
I started to pay attention to the DAC section since I don't have the money for a separates now, and I loooove music and I'm sick in the head about the sound quality. I watch movies too and like the surround sound and all, but if I buy an AVR and it sounds like poop I'd kill myself.
The vast majority of a system's sound quality is determined by the speakers and the room in which they are placed - and that includes their location in that room.
Audiophiles often spend endless amounts of money on things that don't matter - like DACs - while failing to focus on things that do matter - speakers and the room. Moving a pillow on your couch will have a bigger effect than changing a DAC, but it doesn't appeal to the psychological needs of many audiophiles. Moving the entire couch will definitely have a bigger impact on sound.
For a start I plan to go with a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 500, and later add other speakers. These are pretty efficient and any avr should be able to drive them over 100dB and make your ears bleed.
@beaver now when you mentioned the power, I remembered the Techno Dads clip where he compared the Denon 6300 avrs output (140w) on the speakers with the output when used external amp. He sad "there's no way in hell this avr outputs a 140w". So these ratings are not that accurate too.
The Monitor Audio Silver 500s are pretty good. But you'd probably be better off buying the 300s, then using the savings to buy either the center channel or a good subwoofer or two. The only advantage of the 500s over the 300s is in the bass. A decent subwoofer (or, better yet, a pair of decent subwoofers) would beat the bass in the 500s easily.
As for the comparison, I haven't seen it, but I can guess it wasn't done properly.
That AVR will easily output 140W and more, depending on how many channels are driven at the same time. It only struggles to deliver its rated output when powering several speakers at once. And 140W is enough to drive the Monitor Audio speakers to their breaking point.
Take any Youtube video reviews with a grain of salt - there's a ton of misinformation in them, just as there is so much bad information from What Hi-Fi, The Absolute Sound, etc. They're industry shills, not educated reviewers with proper tech backgrounds.
