Stereo Amplifier With Optical In?

[audionewb]

hi,

recently bought some Tannoy Revolution R3's as described here,

£150 for Tannoy Revolution R3's a good buy?

Now i have another problem. I would like to buy a stereo amplifier which could be connected to my computer through an optical connection. all my music is stored on my comp and so my reason for wanting this connectivity is obvious.

I am tryong to keep costs moderate and so looked at some of Cambridge Audio's offering but they don't seem to have optical in connections nor it would seem do any other manufacturers.

Am i going to have to get a AV receiver? would one of these be more suited to my needs or does a stereo amp with optical in exist?

thanks in advance for any responses.

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by audionewb

hi,

recently bought some Tannoy Revolution R3's as described here,

£150 for Tannoy Revolution R3's a good buy?

Now i have another problem. I would like to buy a stereo amplifier which could be connected to my computer through an optical connection. all my music is stored on my comp and so my reason for wanting this connectivity is obvious.

I am tryong to keep costs moderate and so looked at some of Cambridge Audio's offering but they don't seem to have optical in connections nor it would seem do any other manufacturers.

Am i going to have to get a AV receiver? would one of these be more suited to my needs or does a stereo amp with optical in exist?

thanks in advance for any responses.

Hi audionewb,

How does your pc output it's digital signal? If it's via toslink or coaxial you could send your pc's output to an external dac and then send this to a normal stereo amp. Failing this you would probably require an avamp to do your processing work in stereo for you, although this would not sound anywhere as good as an external dac and dedicated stereo amp.

[audionewb]

i can output optical through my laptops audigy 2 notbook soundcard or either optical/coaxial through my comps x-fi front panel.

hmm, how much does an external DAC cost, say paired with one of these

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summar...20budget%20amp!

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by audionewb

i can output optical through my laptops audigy 2 notbook soundcard or either optical/coaxial through my comps x-fi front panel.

hmm, how much does an external DAC cost, say paired with one of these

http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summar...20budget%20amp!

Coaxial would be your preferred output I'd say. In what format are your files ripped to? Thatcould be a limiting factor as to what level of sound you expect from this potential setup. I will assume for the moment that they are wav's or at leastsome sort of lossless file. The amp you have chosen is a very good amp indeed for the money, and a great starter amp. It will play stereo considerably better than a similar priced av amp, imho

Mmmm, dacs. This is a whole debate in itself and it depends on how much you want to spend on one of these beasts. There are many available but assuming you have a budget of say £150 you can get a very nice NOS dac off of a guy called Derek Shek on ebay. Apparantly they are ver nice sounding and execptional value for money. I'm sure there are more clued up folk out there that could advise on dacs. I've got a musical fidelity xdacv3, which is very nice.

[kbfern]

You can get a Beresford 7510 Mk II dac for around £80 off fleabay or direct from www.homehifi.co.uk.

[deaf cat]

From a different angle....

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html?

?

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by deaf cat

From a different angle....

http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html?

?

Good call deaf cat, the burr brown dac in the squeezebox 3 is apparantly not bad at all. After all it is the same dac that is in my cd72t It is another option to consider.

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by kbfern

You can get a Beresford 7510 Mk II dac for around £80 off fleabay or direct from www.homehifi.co.uk.

Hi kbfern, never heard of that dac before, how does it sound?

[kbfern]

I haven't heard it myself but there was quite a bit of buzz about it a few months ago on a few websites saying what good value it was for the money.

I think at around £80 its a no brainer.

Below is one of the threads I read regarding the Beresford.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...=209849&page=3

[Arfa]

Originally Posted by mcguiganp

Hi audionewb,

How does your pc output it's digital signal? If it's via toslink or coaxial you could send your pc's output to an external dac and then send this to a normal stereo amp. Failing this you would probably require an avamp to do your processing work in stereo for you, although this would not sound anywhere as good as an external dac and dedicated stereo amp.

The only stereo 'music' amps you tend to get with digital inputs are the odd digital amps, which are quite rare and still quite newish (seee http://www.nuforce.com). Otherwise you need a DAC of some sort, be it standalong in between you computer and amp or built into an AV receiver. If your primarily listening to music, go for a standalone stereo one.

I used to have the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic 2i. Great DAC, bargin for its price (about £60-100 on ebay). Has 3 inputs (2 coax and one optical), even has balanced analogue outputs for hooking upto a very posh amp (got normal RCA's as well though) and built like a tank.

[Knyght_byte]

assuming they are lossless files then yes an offboard DAC would be a good idea....

if they are lossy in any way, then surely your laptop and PC have conventional 3.5mm stereo output? as in a headphone socket.....in which case just get a 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable and connect in analogue to a conventional stereo amplifier....

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by Knyght_byte

assuming they are lossless files then yes an offboard DAC would be a good idea....

if they are lossy in any way, then surely your laptop and PC have conventional 3.5mm stereo output? as in a headphone socket.....in which case just get a 3.5mm to stereo RCA cable and connect in analogue to a conventional stereo amplifier....

I agree with knyght byte on this one. I was maybe wrongly assuming you had lossless files and didn't give you an option if this was not the case. If your files are of say lower quality then knyght byte is spot on that a 3.5mm to rca phonos would be a better bet and let your soundcard do the digital to analogue conversion. Mind you, an old analogy springs to mind, and please excuse my French on this one, but crap in=crap out If this is the case then you would either have to re-rip your cd collection to a higher quality or simply lower your expectations a little.

[audionewb]

thanks for all the replies.

all my files are WMAlossless so they should be ok.

i wil look into the suggestions made and what other external DAC's are available and prices. i am not too keen on ebay and would prefer an actual store.

still, i would prefer optical as my laptop's soundcard as far as i can tell doesn't have co-axial and i would like the flexability of running these speakers either downstairs on upstairs.

on the amp side, unless anyone has anything against the cambridge amp i will probably get it.

money is not too tight but i do want some sort of price/performance ratio leaning towards price if you know what i mean.

still again thanks for trying to help as my search for an all in one wasn't too succesful which is a shame really. i am not in too much of a rush but it seems a shame to have these speakers as furniture only regardless of how nice they are to look at.

[mcguiganp]

Originally Posted by audionewb

thanks for all the replies.

all my files are WMAlossless so they should be ok.

i wil look into the suggestions made and what other external DAC's are available and prices. i am not too keen on ebay and would prefer an actual store.

still, i would prefer optical as my laptop's soundcard as far as i can tell doesn't have co-axial and i would like the flexability of running these speakers either downstairs on upstairs.

on the amp side, unless anyone has anything against the cambridge amp i will probably get it.

money is not too tight but i do want some sort of price/performance ratio leaning towards price if you know what i mean.

still again thanks for trying to help as my search for an all in one wasn't too succesful which is a shame really. i am not in too much of a rush but it seems a shame to have these speakers as furniture only regardless of how nice they are to look at.

Your amp suggestion is a good one, and I would stick with it. Get the v2 version, gives you the option of multiroom, if you feel the need

With regard to dacs I can only comment on the one I recently got from 7oaks at a very good price new, £350. I use this with a CD72 feeding it through the co-ax output, although it also has an optical input. This is then amlified by an Arcam FMJ32. The resulting sound to my humble ears is very pleasing. I'm sure this dac through the CA will sound very good and as time and funds progress you can upgrade the amp and speakers to take full advantage of your front end (if you pardon the pun )

[audionewb]

it aint so much lack of funds as much as i don't want to go overboard. i know what i am like, it is always "only £50 more"

whilst i am spending this cash, would the 540A's bigger brother http://www.cambridgeaudio.com/summar...2)%20Amplifier be worth the extra cost or not?

are sevenoaks a good place to buy from as i have one near where i live. i usually stick with the net for better range and price.