Do I benefit by upgrading to external DAC from a/v receiver Yamaha RX-V375 ?

[longham]

For stereo music purpose.
My AV Receiver is Yamaha RX-V375. According to someone Amazon, it has DAC board:

PCM 1681 (TI 105dB SNR 8-Channel Audio DAC with TDM Mode) ~ 192 kHz / 24-bit Burr-Brown

My fronts are Q Acoustics 3020. I intend to upgrade to an external DAC for a better match with Q Acoustic 3020. Budget is low so my plan is:

Rapsberry Pi / Hifiberry DAC+- Pro ===> RCA ===> Audio In of RX-V375

According to specs: Hifiberry DAC+- Pro is newer than my receiver, it has the board:

PCM5122 (SNR 112db)

I don't know that upgrade is worth it. Could anyone please help me out?

- Is the sound quality of Hifiberry better than built-in DAC of RX-V375?
- Is the price $53 of Hifiberry ok or should I get a dedicated one (not raspberry Pi plug-in)? My budget is around $70.
- Do I need a high quality RCA cable?
- Is external DAC necessary or should I save money for other components upgrade like integrated amplifier, power amp?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

- Is the sound quality of Hifiberry better than built-in DAC of RX-V375?
No. Even if it measures better (not necessary, DAC IC is only small part, the rest of analog stage much be as good or it's pointless)

- Is the price $53 of Hifiberry ok or should I get a dedicated one (not raspberry Pi plug-in)? My budget is around $70.
Don't bother.

- Do I need a high quality RCA cable?
I like to use shielded coax RCA cables of good quality, but this is has nothing to do with their price. On the right side of the atlantic ocean we have Monoprice which sells very good quality cables for practically nothing. Just to be clear - good cables are nice to have, but paying anything over $10 per cable is a waste.

- Is external DAC necessary or should I save money for other components upgrade like integrated amplifier, power amp?
No need for external dac. Save money towards Sub. BKElec is one to have if you live in or near UK.

 

[longham]

- Is external DAC necessary or should I save money for other components upgrade like integrated amplifier, power amp?
No need for external dac. Save money towards Sub. BKElec is one to have if you live in or near UK.

I'm using polk psw 111. Because my space is very small, I put it the opposite of the screen/fronts speakers under my armchair which is like this one:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/sofas-armchairs/armchairs/poäng-rocking-chair-birch-veneer-hillared-anthracite-spr-19201027/

I think the sub is kind of movie oriented than music oriented. Do you think the avr configuration of 100hz crossover is too high on Q3020s? That's what auto calibrated function of my avr caculated. My Q3020s are placed kind of close to the wall (around 15cm/6inch/0.5ft)

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I think for your smaller speakers, 100hz xover point is expected. You could play with it a bit if you'd like.
Since now I know your sub model, you should definitely upgrade it. TBH it's utter crap.
I'd recommend XLS200 (DF model could help to better protect subwoofer driver from careless pets/kids)
Or at minimum Gemini2
both sealed 10" subs, but XLS200 has better driver and almost twice the power as result it much better sub for it.

As for Movies vs Musical subs - If the sub is "Movies" or effects only sub, means it's not accurate aka One-note sub. It's not a good design. Good accurate sub will play movie effects just as well if not better.