Marantz AV10 + NAD Masters M66

J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
hi all! so i have a 5.2 setup:

Marantz AV10
McIntosh MC303 (connected to center and rears)
McIntosh MC462 (connected to L+R)
Sonus Faber Amati G5 (L+R)
Sonus Faber Vox G3 Center
Sonus Faber Olympica Nova 1 (Rears)

right now i am using a bluesound node as my streamer connected via coax digital to my av10 so the av10 is the DAC.

debating about buying an "upgrade" external DAC like the NAD master 66 to use when i am listening to two channel.

Two questions:

1. what external DAC would actually be an upgrade over the AV10? would the NAD m66 actually be an upgrade over the bluesound+av10?

2. if i use the m66 for instance, how would the connections actually work?

i assume: balanced output L+R from Marantz into the balanced inputs of the NAD. Balanced outputs from the NAD to my MC462. when i am listening to two channel, the marantz isn't involved at all, that seems simple enough.

but when im watching tv/movies, how do i bypass the nad dac so the av10 is doing all the processing? maybe i am thinking about it incorrectly....

and any marantz pros advise on how i should set this up on the software side?

thank you for any advice! I'm also open to any other dac/streamer recommendations...
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
With the AV10, you likely have the best measuring DAC implementation money can buy, especially when considering the exhaustive feature set and channel count that processor has. I don't know that the NAD M66 has been measured, but the company's reputation in terms of SINAD is not stellar and your Node measures particularly poorly. Now, that's not to say that this is remotely audible and those who have done blind A/B against a Node X have reported no discernible difference.

It's important to note that the M66, nor any other of the NAD integrateds supported a Home Theatre Bypass option for integration with a Home Theatre as you are asking for. This has been a pretty major sticking point with customers as most of their competition, be it Hegel, or Rotel, or what have you, all support HT Bypass. I suspect they don't implement it because BluOS adds quite a bit of processing delay into the signal chain (at least 50 ms).

My advice is to forget about an external DAC. It's a waste of time. It's certainly worthwhile investing in Dirac Live + DLBC if you haven't already. If you're using the Node for Roon, which it is great for, then carry on. There have been rumors of the AV10 getting Roon Ready support, but nothing has materialized as of yet.
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
Yep I just use the node as a roon streamer — I bypass the node dac and output digital to the AV10

Appreciate your advice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I'd just use the AV10, adding an external dac makes little sense.
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
And is the Node or Node X ok as a streamer? No benefit from getting a “better” streamer?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
Yep I just use the node as a roon streamer — I bypass the node dac and output digital to the AV10

Appreciate your advice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yeah you're getting great performance because the digital signal is going straight to the AV10 which measures 108 dB SINAD as confirmed here by Gene on his bench.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I just use a variety of phone/tablet/computer to stream via wifi to my gear. Perhaps some feature of an external/dedicated streamer is attractive, but none that I'm concerned with....
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
And the node can output highest source that Roon can provide right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
And is the Node or Node X ok as a streamer? No benefit from getting a “better” streamer?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No benefit. Honestly, the Node is probably one of the best Roon Ready streamers on the market. I use a variety of Node and Powernode boxes for whole home Roon streaming, as well as my Integra AVR, which is Roon Ready.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Didn't see any use for Roon myself let alone mythical bit depth/sample rates :)
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
And the node can output highest source that Roon can provide right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think the best you can do over coax/spdif digital is 24-bit/192 kHz. If you run the Roon Remote on a PC/Mac and use a USB DAC/amp, you can get up to 24-bit/384 kHz. The signal chain on Roon will tell you if it's downsampling. Using a Roon bridge with HDMI output into your AV10 will also let you stream multi-channel audio, though I haven't tried this yet.

1715562852091.png
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
Welp I guess I keep my current setup…

I suppose if you’re using Roon, you really aren’t using the “streamer” right? Roon is essentially your streamer and outputting it to your dac and in this case, my AV10


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
That’s a great question! Zero clue. I jumped into the “hi end” audio world real fast. I literally came from a soundbar and not my setup is 75k+

I just didn’t want to spend all this money on speakers and amps and “let it down” with dac or streamers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
That’s a great question! Zero clue. I jumped into the “hi end” audio world real fast. I literally came from a soundbar and not my setup is 75k+

I just didn’t want to spend all this money on speakers and amps and “let it down” with dac or streamers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think you're definitely over-worrying. Hi end is all too often about spending more than necessary or for nebulous aesthetics....
 
J

Jordan Friedman

Audioholic Intern
Please see above my first post…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
T

TankTop5

Audioholic Field Marshall
hi all! so i have a 5.2 setup:

Marantz AV10
McIntosh MC303 (connected to center and rears)
McIntosh MC462 (connected to L+R)
Sonus Faber Amati G5 (L+R)
Sonus Faber Vox G3 Center
Sonus Faber Olympica Nova 1 (Rears)

right now i am using a bluesound node as my streamer connected via coax digital to my av10 so the av10 is the DAC.

debating about buying an "upgrade" external DAC like the NAD master 66 to use when i am listening to two channel.

Two questions:

1. what external DAC would actually be an upgrade over the AV10? would the NAD m66 actually be an upgrade over the bluesound+av10?

2. if i use the m66 for instance, how would the connections actually work?

i assume: balanced output L+R from Marantz into the balanced inputs of the NAD. Balanced outputs from the NAD to my MC462. when i am listening to two channel, the marantz isn't involved at all, that seems simple enough.

but when im watching tv/movies, how do i bypass the nad dac so the av10 is doing all the processing? maybe i am thinking about it incorrectly....

and any marantz pros advise on how i should set this up on the software side?

thank you for any advice! I'm also open to any other dac/streamer recommendations...
I think others answered your streaming question and hopefully that’s put to bed.

You said you have a 5.2 system but your equipment list looks to be 7.0. What are you doing for subs? You have the AV10 (and mentioned NAD M66) capable of 4 independent subwoofer channels with Dirac DLBC capable, the most advanced subwoofer management available today. If you don’t have subs that’s the conversation we need to be having. Also if you don’t have subs you should return the McIntosh gear and get the matching Marantz amp as it’s probably one the best multi channel amplifiers ever made and use some of the extra money on subs
 
ban25

ban25

Audioholic
That’s a great question! Zero clue. I jumped into the “hi end” audio world real fast. I literally came from a soundbar and not my setup is 75k+

I just didn’t want to spend all this money on speakers and amps and “let it down” with dac or streamers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My system is somewhere in the mid 50s. It adds up fast! :D You have excellent speakers, amps, processor, and sources, so I'd say you have done a great job!
 
everettT

everettT

Audioholic Spartan
That’s a great question! Zero clue. I jumped into the “hi end” audio world real fast. I literally came from a soundbar and not my setup is 75k+

I just didn’t want to spend all this money on speakers and amps and “let it down” with dac or streamers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You're not leaving anything on the table with your setup as far as electronics. Adding a transparent streamer becomes a matter of features and looks with the current market.
 

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