@tcutter. You read my mind. If the room is not treated, this is the way to start. Do some research. Try different things.
Advice for audio upgrade.
I recently moved into a new house with a dedicated game room. The room is 20ft x 40ft with 8 foot ceilings. I set up my system, level matching everything, and it sounds good, but now I’m looking for that next level.
My current setup is a 12 year old Denon AVR-x2000 running Kef IQ-90’s and two Emotiva 12s powered subwoofers. I use a Roku connected to a projector for occasional movie watching and a Nintendo switch. It’s mostly used for listening to music through Tidal and is where I’m looking to achieve better sound. I run it through a Wimm Amp Pro Plus.
I don’t want to add any more speakers. The options I’m looking at are:
1. Keep the existing Denon AVR and add a separate amp such as the Marantz mm7025.
2. Swap my existing receiver for the Marantz stereo 70s.
My budget is around $1500, but may be willing go a little more. My receiver just seems like it lacks a bit of depth and what I would describe as in your face loud. I want to explore what people say when they describe warm and immersive. My music preference is along the lines of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton, Toto, the rat pack.
Are either of those options a worthwhile upgrade? Any other suggestions?
- ...
- 28 posts total
No, you do not need two separate systems, and just adding an amp only addresses half the problem because you’ll still have the AVR’s awful preamp in the signal path for 2 channel that will remain as a huge bottleneck to performance because preamps matter a lot and preamps in budget, mass market AVRs suck, period full stop. Your best option is to add a good stereo integrated amp (preferably with a HT bypass although not absolutely necessary) using the AVR’s pre outs as then the Denon will be completely out of the signal path for critical 2-channel listening, which is definitely what you want. Given the size of your room and quality of your speakers I’d shoot to more the $2500 range (used) because both quality and power go up significantly for the added $$$. Here are a few good examples just as ideas and any of which would be a huge upgrade from your Denon… https://www.ebay.com/itm/227103034626 https://www.ebay.com/itm/336323413500 https://www.ebay.com/itm/116732580914 Hope this helps, and best of luck. |
The new dark side of the moon is in atmos and I like it. The newer avr are very good as in the high end dennon ,marantz they have like 10 separate dac chips so as to reduce crosstalk. but they are 8k. I do have 2 separate systems. Enjoy the homework. 15 channels and 4 subs are better than the theater. The new dsp in these are like having a sound engineere. |
So as @soix mentioned, let me see if I understand this correctly. I can use a stereo integrated amp and connect it to my AVR using the pre outs. So essentially my AVR will be doing the video for my projector/nintendo, and everything else will be done by the stereo integrated amp, thus the preamp on my AVR won’t be used. Which is were I’ll notice the sound quality upgrade |
- 28 posts total