Just Purchased an Arcam! AVR 250

[spongeweed]

I'm currently using a HK AVR 135. Purchased the Arcam because of the praise on this forum. I'm a big 2 channel stereo fan, Will I notice a big increase in the sound quality while playing stereo music?, I use a mac mini with a an external hardrive with 3000 wav files and an external m-audio sound card connected via toslink. Speakers are Anthony Gallo Due's (which means I won't be able to use stereo direct mode, as these are 'small speakers') any help/advice would be appreciated..

[Dom996]

You will be utterly delighted, a massive upgrade. Good move.

[spongeweed]

Thanks for the reply. Not being able to use the 'stereo direct' analog inputs won't matter that much in terms of stereo sound quality?

[Ian_S]

Originally Posted by spongeweed

Thanks for the reply. Not being able to use the 'stereo direct' analog inputs won't matter that much in terms of stereo sound quality?

In your scenario probably not... You've already performed one conversion in software when ripping to WAV from your source, and the player software will convert again to generate a PCM stream for the digital toslink output. The AVR250 will then handle D to A conversion, which given the lack of good quality analogue outs on most computers is probably the best way to listen to such files through a hifi system.

And ultimately the quality of your 'rips' is down to software which constantly changes and sometimes even improves Hence all the 'remastered' CDs out there

Ian.