After reading over and over the thread called, "What Surround Receiver also has Amazing Stereo"...

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by hman, Aug 23, 2019.

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  1. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    I bought a preamp, so that I could take the surround receiver out of the chain and see if the NAYSAYERS were wrong. They were not wrong. They were 100% right.

    Now, my power amp left and right channels connect directly to a preamp, which has all of my 2 channel sources connected to it. Holy Friggin **** for vinyl. Nice improvement for flac and streaming. That improvement is over using an Anthem AVR as a pre. Those Anthem AVRS are the best I have ever heard or owned. The separate preamp makes the music clearer, more realistic and more live sounding. The imaging is remarkable and the vocals are higher and more properly placed within the soundstage.

    It is as if a curtain stood between me and the speakers. Now, the curtain has been lifted and the speakers are gone.
     
  2. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    Bass is more refined...maybe a little tighter.

    Notes decay much more slowly.

    Vocals higher in the soundstage, and broader...more forward, too

    Background instruments a bit more noticeable.
     
    Doctor Fine likes this.
  3. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    Uncolored
     
  4. robseyes

    robseyes Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Puyallup, WA
    Nice! What kind of preamp did you get and what kind of power amp do you have?
     
  5. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    I have an Anthem MCA 30 amplifier and I bought a Schiit Saga + preamplifier. My speakers are KEF R500s.
     
    robseyes likes this.
  6. robseyes

    robseyes Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Puyallup, WA
    It’s cool that it made that big a difference. I’ve been wanting to do something similar. I have a Marantz 7005 as a preamp and an Emotiva mps-1 as a power amp. (7x200). When I bought the Schiit Mani as an upgrade for a phono preamp, I was floored by how big that difference was. I’ve been eyeballing the Saga for awhile now.
     
    hman likes this.
  7. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    IMO, a simple circuit (Saga) beats a complex circuit every time. However... that thread you reference was a very specific use case. And for the needs of that person, an Anthem AVR meets all the criteria as best as possible within the budget and use constraints offered.

    I've had both a 710 and a Statement D2 in my listening room. I now have an original Saga. The Saga is absolutely better but I'm also not bound by the same restraints as the person in the other thread. Many paths to a great solution in this hobby.

    And I think it's awesome that a Saga +, at such a modest price, gives you such joy and immersion. Can't really ask for more. I will say - I almost sold my Saga not long ago. That would have been a huge mistake. This thing is nothing short of amazing. Not even just considering the price - it's just flat out a seriously great piece of gear.
     
    33na3rd and hman like this.
  8. Wasabi

    Wasabi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lutz, FL
    On your Saga, are you just connecting your AVR to one of the inputs as an HT bypass?
     
  9. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    Yes. That way, I'm all analog for music, but can still watch movies, etc. using my external amp and the amps on the receiver for the two rears.
     
    Wasabi likes this.
  10. Wasabi

    Wasabi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lutz, FL
    What are you setting your Saga volume at? Do you have any issues with volume for HT?
     
  11. Doctor Fine

    Doctor Fine "So Hip It Would Blister Your Brain"

    I find my 9 (or is it 11?) channel AV setup sounds way more life like when I turn off all speaker processing and leave speakers full range.
    I would suggest that before you guys totally give up on the quality of multi channel you try playing it with less processing.
    If all I had was home theater and no stereo I would be OK with some of the good stuff set up properly.
    Bryston makes a pretty nice sounding two channel/multi channel processor with a BP26 preamp built in to it for two channel.
    Just sayin...
     
    muskrat likes this.
  12. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    I've been doing it that way since the very early 90s.
    After I read that thread, I decided to try an analog preamp and take advantage of Schiit's 15 day return policy.
    The difference in my den, to my ears, on my equipment is glaring; especially so on vinyl.
     
    Doctor Fine likes this.
  13. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    The guy at Schiit told me to use two RCAs for Left and Right and when watching a movie, turn the volume all of the way up. I have not tested it yet. I will let you know.
     
    Wasabi likes this.
  14. Achn2b

    Achn2b Forum Resident

    Location:
    N. Conway, NH
    Same results I found. Bought an Anthem AVR mainly cause I'm a fan, but also based on the reviews about how great it sounded with 2 channel audio. But added a Parasound P5, and later a JC2BP, that just blew the Anthem away.
     
    hman likes this.
  15. BayouTiger

    BayouTiger Forum Resident

    Curious how many of these results were vs the Anthem running ARC correctly set up? Not saying its better, but i don't think i ever compared when I had my MRX-510
     
  16. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    Good! I don't think I've posted on that thread but there are certain things that are hard to ignore which is a multi channel receiver or pre is dealing with a lot of things than a dedicated 2 channel pre therefore the money you pay gets spread among several things you don't need leaving a lot less spend on the main point which is the two channels. That's without even considering the interference unnecessary features and components are causing within the same unit.
     
    hman likes this.
  17. Claude Benshaul

    Claude Benshaul Forum Resident

    My integrated amplifier has two separate connections to my HTPC. The first is through the front L/R Preamp outputs of Denon AVR and the other is through a TEAC NT-503 which is connected with a USB to the HTPC. With this setup it's relatively easy for me to experiment and switch outputs and by far I prefer the HTPC->USB->NT-503->RCA->Integrated amplifier.

    The integrated was bought because I was never really happy or satisfied with the sound I got from my AVR when playing music I always felt that it lacked presence because it was never able to re-create the staging depth that I liked. The addition of the integrated made it better but I still prefer to bypass the AVR altogether when listening to 2CH music. It may be due to the better DAC in the NT-503 or to the HDMI connection to the AVR.
     
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  18. hman

    hman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Northport, NY
    My left and right speakers buzz when I pass the signal through for movies and music. I tried everything I can think of and even the Schiit techs are scratching their heads.
     
  19. wspohn

    wspohn Forum Resident

    I had the same issue - I use my main speakers for AV use but my Marantz AV preamp and Roland power amp weren't up to my audio front end. so I just swap the speaker leads from amp to amp, and have completely different front eds for audio and AV. The AV gear on its own was pretty decent, but the audio only stuff easily exceeded it.
     
  20. Fahzz

    Fahzz Forum Resident

    Location:
    Outside Providence
    Which output from the AVR is used to connect to the the Schitt preamp? The pre out? The signal doesn't pass through the AVR pre amp section before passing through the pre out? Thanks.
     
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