I have a Roon-based stereo setup combined with a surround setup that I want to improve. The sketch below illustrates what I am thinking of. The main speakers and the power amp should be shared between the stereo- and the surround-setup. I am looking for a combined Roon Endpoint with ethernet + pre-amp (volume control) with one input that bypasses the volumecontrol (HT bypass, for the signal from the AV receiver to the main speakers). I do not need other analogue inputs.
So far I have found Lyngdorf TDAI-3400. It will replace the power amp as well, and has room correction as a bonus. The preamp NAD M12 with Bluesound upgrade also satisfies the criteria.
Do you know of other suitable products, with or without power amp? I prefer one device, like TDAI-3400 or M12.
I’m happy with my NAD T777v3.
It does well for stereo and for 5.1.
Works with Roon and with BluOS app.
I’m using Dali Rubicon LCR front speakers with a SVS SB-4000 sub for 2.1.
Dali Fazon LCR center and Dali Fazon SAT’s for rear speakers for 5.1.
Thanks for the tip seagull. That’s a little similar to the setup I have today, except my AV receiver is not (yet) a Roon Endpoint. The reason I want to change this setup into what I show in the illustration is that I want to be able to optimize the two setups more independent of each other, and the stereo setup really is my main concern.
Why not use a Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra (or a Raspberry Pi with RoPieee) and Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digitial to feed Tidal to your AV receiver?
That will make your AV Receiver Roon Ready and MQA capable.
Thanks again, very interesting products!
But I need one input on the pre-amp without volume control (HT bypass) for the AV receiver, ref my illustration. And with the AV receiver I have now, this input has to be analogue as well (my plan is not to replace the AV receiver before HDMI 2.1 is available)
I have also been looking at possibly switching to the diagram you show above. I’ve currently to an AV processor doing all the pre-amp’y stuff. I’ve not found any great solution at this point or, more accurately, anything that has caused me to rush and grab a credit card. I will, however, share a few notes which I’ve collected and has made this decision a bit harder.
PrimaLuna has HT bypass which would allow you to go tubes on your L/R channels.
Schiit has an “interesting” response to HT bypass and I’ll quote it here…
" Home Theater Integration, $0. Okay, all you “home theater bypass” guys. All of our preamps offer true home theater bypass. Just plug in your processor’s front channels to any input, select Passive mode, and turn the volume all the way up. Presto! 1:1 home theater bypass, with only a relay in the signal path." - https://www.schiit.com/guides/choosing-amps-preamps
So… now I’m not so excited about finding a pre with a HT switch and it’s opened my options a bit. Anyway, will follow and interested in others responses. Thanks in advance.
Hi,
FYI you might find other ways to do this using a digital route with HQplayer, that is very well coupled with Roon: https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html
Here is an extract of the manual that you can find (HQplayer-manual.pdf) on this site. I did not experience with it but it may open a full route for processing multichannel audio in a flexible yet consistent, modern way - it already does extremely well with two channels, using Roon as front end.
Good luck in your investigation. In a previous system I was using a modified Pioneer DVD reader with digital 5.1 outputs, on three Tact 2150 amps (similar to Lyngdorf). It saved me from needing an expensive multichannel preamplifier and had all required flexibility. Your goal is different, like “augmented stereo” as it seems. Maybe HQplayer can perform this, in a RAAT-compliant way.
HQplayer manual extract: Number of output channels can be chosen from “Channels” selection, possible choices are “2” for stereo, “5.1” for normal multichannel, “7.1” for extended multichannel and “16”/”32” primarily for complex matrix processing cases. DSD content can be transferred to the audio device by packing it into suitable PCM container, select “DoP” to use the DoP v1.1 standard. The “2wire” setting enables dual-wire channel bonding to achieve 2x higher sampling rates for both PCM and DoP-based DSD on those DACs that support this feature. For ASIO on Windows, “AltDSD” changes units of the DSD sample from bit to a byte, use this only when experiencing incorrect DSD playback, incorrectly enabling this will make the application crash (currently known devices to need this setting are Playback Designs and Merging). Channel mapping is following (regardless of driver type):
0. Front Left 1. Front Right 2. Front Center 3. Low Frequency (LFE) 4. Back Left 5. Back Right 6. Side Left 7. Side Right
