exponential
Prominent Member
Hi all.
I hope this question is posted in the correct section.
Hope you are all well.
I've posted a couple of threads regarding this idea and am at the final stages of planning how it's going to work so some final constructive criticism/suggestions are needed if you have the time.
I own an Arcam SR250 and have enjoyed using it immensely over the last 12 months but I'm getting more and more into my music and I think it's time to change things up a bit and set up a more dedicated music listening experience.
I want the music to come first with movie watching being a totally separate aspect.
I want to go to a separates system and, before you say it, the irony is not lost on me in that I'm considering selling an item that does both movies and music in one box to two separate boxes that achieve the same result.
Here is my plan......
1: Musical Fidelity M6si dual mono integrated with HT bypass using Spendor A7 speakers.
2: Marantz NR1606/7/8/9.
3: MINIDSP NanoAVR with DIRAC built in.
All of my music listening is done via an Innuos Mini Mk3. This acts as my cd ripper, music storage (FLAC & WAV files) and ROON core using TIDAL HiFi as a source.
The Innuos is connected to my RME ADI-2 DAC via asynchronous USB.
The Innuos will be connected to the MuFi M6 via balanced XLR.
That completes the music side of things.
For movie watching:
Marantz NR**** connected to the MuFi M6 via the HT bypass.
This essentially turns the M6 in a power amp.
All my digital (HDMI) sources will be connected to the Marantz and it will do all my decoding and HDMI switching.
DIRAC: Having DIRAC in my life for the last 12 months has left its mark and I can't go back to audyssey or anything else as I feel it is inferior (my personal, subjective opinion).
This is where the NANOAVR comes in.
I have two items that output DD+/DTS MA/TRUEHD etc etc. A now tv box and an nvidia shield.
The nvidia shield is running a plex server and has two HDD's attached to it containing all my MKV files.
The NANOAVR has two HDMI inputs, I will plug the above two devices into it which will allow me to use DIRAC for my movie watching.
This in turn will be input into the Marantz to do all the decoding as the nano will only process LPCM.
I can also set up different profiles for music if I decide to play music through the nvidia shield as that also acts as a ROON endpoint.
I use a PS4 too which will be connected via optical to the RME DAC as this DAC is far far superior to the DAC in the Marantz.
Using optical also negates any ground loop issues that may have occurred otherwise as it won't pass an electrical current.
This is probably unnecessary though.
Here is a picture of how I see it being set up...
That's the plan.
Does anyone see a flaw with this idea? I feel it will be an upgrade as far as music listening is concerned and, although the Arcam is a good amp, it's still an AVR so has its issues/compromises as all AVR's do.
I know that the box count will go up but the quality and enjoyment will go up with it.
Plus, I'm a serial tweaker so playing with the miniDSP will please me greatly as I use REW quite competently so can copy any EQ settings I create and pass them onto the EQ of the miniDSP at will from my phone/laptop.
As always, questions are more than welcome aswel as constructive criticism.
Thanks for taking the time to read this...
Mike.
I hope this question is posted in the correct section.
Hope you are all well.
I've posted a couple of threads regarding this idea and am at the final stages of planning how it's going to work so some final constructive criticism/suggestions are needed if you have the time.
I own an Arcam SR250 and have enjoyed using it immensely over the last 12 months but I'm getting more and more into my music and I think it's time to change things up a bit and set up a more dedicated music listening experience.
I want the music to come first with movie watching being a totally separate aspect.
I want to go to a separates system and, before you say it, the irony is not lost on me in that I'm considering selling an item that does both movies and music in one box to two separate boxes that achieve the same result.
Here is my plan......
1: Musical Fidelity M6si dual mono integrated with HT bypass using Spendor A7 speakers.
2: Marantz NR1606/7/8/9.
3: MINIDSP NanoAVR with DIRAC built in.
All of my music listening is done via an Innuos Mini Mk3. This acts as my cd ripper, music storage (FLAC & WAV files) and ROON core using TIDAL HiFi as a source.
The Innuos is connected to my RME ADI-2 DAC via asynchronous USB.
The Innuos will be connected to the MuFi M6 via balanced XLR.
That completes the music side of things.
For movie watching:
Marantz NR**** connected to the MuFi M6 via the HT bypass.
This essentially turns the M6 in a power amp.
All my digital (HDMI) sources will be connected to the Marantz and it will do all my decoding and HDMI switching.
DIRAC: Having DIRAC in my life for the last 12 months has left its mark and I can't go back to audyssey or anything else as I feel it is inferior (my personal, subjective opinion).
This is where the NANOAVR comes in.
I have two items that output DD+/DTS MA/TRUEHD etc etc. A now tv box and an nvidia shield.
The nvidia shield is running a plex server and has two HDD's attached to it containing all my MKV files.
The NANOAVR has two HDMI inputs, I will plug the above two devices into it which will allow me to use DIRAC for my movie watching.
This in turn will be input into the Marantz to do all the decoding as the nano will only process LPCM.
I can also set up different profiles for music if I decide to play music through the nvidia shield as that also acts as a ROON endpoint.
I use a PS4 too which will be connected via optical to the RME DAC as this DAC is far far superior to the DAC in the Marantz.
Using optical also negates any ground loop issues that may have occurred otherwise as it won't pass an electrical current.
This is probably unnecessary though.
Here is a picture of how I see it being set up...
That's the plan.
Does anyone see a flaw with this idea? I feel it will be an upgrade as far as music listening is concerned and, although the Arcam is a good amp, it's still an AVR so has its issues/compromises as all AVR's do.
I know that the box count will go up but the quality and enjoyment will go up with it.
Plus, I'm a serial tweaker so playing with the miniDSP will please me greatly as I use REW quite competently so can copy any EQ settings I create and pass them onto the EQ of the miniDSP at will from my phone/laptop.
As always, questions are more than welcome aswel as constructive criticism.
Thanks for taking the time to read this...
Mike.