System Design Recommendations: Roon to Buchardt S400 Mk2's

Audio Gear Talk
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Hello good people! After a successful trial, I’m a new Roon subscriber - very happy so far with my lossless desktop/headphone listening experience (Roon Core community docker container running on a TrueNAS Scale home server > Windows Roon app > JDS Element 3 > Audeze LCD-X/old Audioengine A5’s). I’m also loving the functionality of pushing tracks to some Sonos gear I have in other rooms over my network. Now I’m looking to build up my living room 2 channel system around Roon and could use some help!

I got a little excited and ordered a pair of Buchardt S400 Mk2’s to start replacing the Sonos Arc/Sub combo in the living room with something a little nicer for 2 channel listening. Now I’m trying to determine what makes the most sense for the rest of the chain (streamer/DAC/Amp) to achieve the following:

  • Ethernet input to streamer for connectivity to Roon Core
  • Quality digital room correction, sounds like Dirac is well-reviewed
  • Adequate amplification to the S400’s (4ohm/88db)
  • Ability to push audio from my TV to the S400’s (eARC, toslink)
  • Option to add a sub later

Bonus, but not make or break:

  • Ability to build into a 5.x multichannel system later for home theater with minimal replacement of components
  • Ability to play with DSP

The miniDSP SHD looks to check the box for Roon Ready streamer, Dirac, and a DAC with positive reviews on this forum. Any recommendations on a power amp to pair with this, or any alternatives? Buchardt has their I150 integrated amp as well, but I would still need a streamer. Seems to make more sense to have a “dumb” power amplifier that I could reuse in other applications - but I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about. I was looking at the AVR route as well (Marantz Cinema 50, Anthem MRX540), but having all functionality wrapped up in one box scares me a bit. Any clear alternatives I should consider?

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Any thoughts would be appreciated as I select a DAC and amp for these speakers! I think I’m going to try to use an old Microsoft Surface Pro as the streamer for now as the rest of the chain materializes.

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I’ll share some thoughts, the thread caught my eye as a fellow S400 owner.

On the AVR route, if you’re going 2-channel you don’t need an AVR. This is only when you have more than 2 speakers, usually a center speaker and/or rear speakers. The S400 image really well, I have no need for a center speaker to lock speech in the middle. If you want to future proof your setup, get an integrated amplifier with a direct in (this skips the integrated pre-amp and goes directly to the power amp) so you can put an AVR in front of it when you want to go multi-channel some day. Good multi-channel is, in my opinion, even harder (and more expensive to do right) than 2-
channel, better get a decent 2-channel setup than some mediocre multi-channel.

On the room correction, it all sounds nice on paper, the solution for all your room issues. In reality it only works well to control room modes in the bass, if you mess with the middle or upper frequencies, things start to sounds wonky sometimes. There is already a nice toolset in Roon for adjusting frequency response and even upload convolution filters. If you want to adress the room and you’re using Roon, convolution filters are the answer, not Dirac or whatever. My DAC is on the lean side in bass so in my setup I’ve added +3DB bass shelf with Q0.8 starting from 85Mhz to fill things out a bit.

On connecting a TV, if you have AVR, HDMI eARC is the way to go but for regular 2-channel I get best results with RCA out from TV to RCA in on amplifier. I’ve tried SPDIF into a DAC but to my ears its better directly from the TV. My 2 cents on this is that the internal DAC from TV is focussed on keeping the audio true and aligned with what you see visually while a regular music DAC is more focussed on technicalities like detail retrieval and transients and such, less on the combined experience with video.

On a more general note, the S400 MK2 are pretty transparent so they will show you what you feed it, good or bad. I would put my money in a good quality amplifier and then a quality source. Whether that source is an integrated amp with a streamer or maybe a poweramp with a streamer/DAC with volume control, that doesn’t matter, as long as they give a quality signal. I would avoid class D or hybrid designs, the S400 respond well to a class A/B amplifier that is organic, slightly on the warm side of neutral with some detail on top. I’m thinking Rega, Naim or maybe Atoll if you’re in EU. I would avoid NAD, Cambridge Audio & Marantz, for me they are not a good fit with S400 but taste is personal off course.

There are many streamers coming out this year so it might we worth to wait it out a little and see what the market will bring. On the cheaper side, the Zen Stream might be the source with hightest quality, other good option for Roon endpoint is building a Pï streamer. If you’re looking for a DAC, the cheapest DACS that really add something and sound different than the rest are Denafrips Ares, Schiit Bifrost, Chord Qutest, Merason Frerot of which Schiit Bifrost has the most natural presentation. Cheaper DACs all sound the same to me, the differences there are filters and features, not so much on sound quality. If you want to take the next step you’ll need to spend +2.5k on a DAC. What you’ll get when moving up in DAC’s is better detail retrieval and better spatial presentation, noticeable but no night and day stuff and your whole chain needs to be of adequate quality to show the differences.

There are some good deals on Rega and Naim amps at the moment because they released some new revisions… maybe worth checking out.
Also keep in mind to use decent cables, buy mogami or belden pro cables if you’re on a budget. I would avoid the cheaper lines of the audiophile brands, makes you wonder what you’re buying when they have +10 product lines that are supposedly “better”. Important when driving 4 Ohm speakers is that you use thick speaker cable, at least 4mm² (12 AWG), or it can sound lean and thin.

In case you’re wondering, my digital chain is EtherRegen → Sotm SMS200 Ultra Neo → Mutec MC3+ → Aqua La Voce S3 → Rega Aethos → S400 MK2

Hope this is food for thought, enjoy the music.

1 Like
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@esmse Thank you so much for your detailed and thoughtful reply! I thought this thread was dead after not seeing a response in a few weeks.

Fully agree on your comments regarding 2-channel/multichannel - I came to a similar stance after some additional reading and have decided to focus on 2 channel for now.

I went ahead and bought Buchardt’s I150 integrated. It seems to be well reviewed, comes with a decent DAC and power supply, has the option for bass room correction, and has most of the features I’m looking for - save network streaming and eARC input. I figure This thing will always be a solid power amp and I can upgrade DAC’s and other components down the road if necessary.

For network streaming, I’m setting up an old Microsoft Surface 3 running Roon and connected via USB to the I150. When Raspberry Pis become more available, I’ll probably build one of those to replace the Surface. For TV audio, I’m going to test your suggestion with RCA and optical, see how they sound.

My gear is slated to be delivered tomorrow, can’t wait to get everything setup and listen to some of my favorite tracks. Thanks again for your reply, I’ll be coming back to this as I think about other steps to take down the line!

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Congrats on the purchase, i’m sure it will work out nicely. The guys at Buchardt would be idiots to sell an amp that doesn’t match well. Enjoy what you have, take your time to get to know your system and take it step by step.

They took me a long time to finetune for placement, what worked well for me:
-get them wide if you can (3m’ish) but leave some space to breathe from the sides
-aim them at the tip of your shoulders or even a bit wider, not your ears,
-try to pull them away from the front wall, at least 60 cm
-they need to be on some proper stand with isolation or something like isoaccoustics desktop stands to come alive

There are many theories/approaches around speaker (and listening position!!) placement, if you google you’ll find, cardas and audio physic for example have some interesting approaches that gave me insight when playing with the theories. Necessary tools for the job are a laser meter and a spectrum analyser app on your phone to scan the frequencies when playing test tones (and tape if the wife allows, lol). You’ll likely have some room modes in the bass and limitations on where you can sit practically in a real life situation so those tools aid to get the position with the best/least compromises. For me, getting to know my room was key in getting the best out of my system.

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Well, I mean, who doesn’t want to have an excuse to buy a laser meter?

But what is it, and what would you use it for in this situation?

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I use it to measure distances, the kids use it for more lethal stuff

Maybe you call it a laser measure

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Cool! I’ve ordered it.