Building a Stereo SYstem Step By Step when you have a Home Theatre set up

navarannan

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I have a home theatre set up which is Samsung HT-J7750W. Im planning to build a decent Hi-FI setup step by step by leveraging the components of the Home Theatre as far as possible. I have a huge collection of audio cds(many are 24 bit) and basically I'm a cd freak. In that direction what should be my buying priority(What to buy first and then second)? Plus I have a few questions as well

1. What to buy first? Is it DAC? Reason I can use my Blu ray player as transport to play cds, the AVR as amp and the speakers of Home Theatre for the time being.

2.Should I buy a dedicated CD player like Marantz CD6005 as transport? Or can I live with the blu ray player as I have a seperate DAC. Or if I have a dedicated DAC having a dedicated CD player will add any value to the sound quality.

3.Does the buiyin order as below make any sense
1.. DAC
2. CD Player
3. Stereo AMP
4. Speakers
 
First, CDs are not 24-bit. You may have high resolution downloaded files which are 24-bit, but CDs will be 16-bit only.

Anyway, looking at the HT system you have mentioned, it only has HDMI out, there is no other digital out (Coax or Optical). It has an Optical In but that's all. I don't really see a way of leveraging this for a decent Hi-Fi Stereo setup. I mean, you could use an HDMI splitter and get the digital audio out to a DAC and then DAC analog out back into the HT, but... I don't think it will be much of an improvement.

Technically, you can also add a dedicated CDP to the Analog In of your HT, but honestly I don't see it sounding any better either. The HT system Amp & speakers look like a very weak link here. If I were you, I would think about buying a stereo integrated + speakers together. If you select an integrated which has digital inputs (many are coming out with one now), you could use a laptop or computer to get started till you can buy a dedicated CD transport in the next round.

If not, then I guess, this is the order:
1) CDP (and use it with the HT analog in with a risk of negligible audible improvement)
2) Stereo AMP + Speakers (there is no point otherwise in your setup)
3) DAC
 
First, CDs are not 24-bit. You may have high resolution downloaded files which are 24-bit, but CDs will be 16-bit only.

Anyway, looking at the HT system you have mentioned, it only has HDMI out, there is no other digital out (Coax or Optical). It has an Optical In but that's all. I don't really see a way of leveraging this for a decent Hi-Fi Stereo setup. I mean, you could use an HDMI splitter and get the digital audio out to a DAC and then DAC analog out back into the HT, but... I don't think it will be much of an improvement.

Technically, you can also add a dedicated CDP to the Analog In of your HT, but honestly I don't see it sounding any better either. The HT system Amp & speakers look like a very weak link here. If I were you, I would think about buying a stereo integrated + speakers together. If you select an integrated which has digital inputs (many are coming out with one now), you could use a laptop or computer to get started till you can buy a dedicated CD transport in the next round.

If not, then I guess, this is the order:
1) CDP (and use it with the HT analog in with a risk of negligible audible improvement)
2) Stereo AMP + Speakers (there is no point otherwise in your setup)
3) DAC

So this means I have to buy a cd player(transport) and DAC and the DAC can be fed into the AUX IN of the home theatre set up isnt it?

Will there be any advantage of having a dedicated DAC in this set up?

Why did you say The HT system Amp & speakers look like a very weak link here?
 
So this means I have to buy a cd player(transport) and DAC and the DAC can be fed into the AUX IN of the home theatre set up isnt it?

Will there be any advantage of having a dedicated DAC in this set up?

Why did you say The HT system Amp & speakers look like a very weak link here?

Yes.

No.

HTiB systems have very limited feature set and generally not capable of achieving very good stereo sound quality. Subjectively, it is possible that this particular HTiB has amazing sound quality and matches a decent integrated amp and speakers! And, can sound even better than right now with a dedicated CD player and DAC. But... It is highly unlikely. Hence, it's a weak link in your quest to achieve better sound quality
 
I would recommend the following:

1. Speakers (most important)
2. CD Player
3. Integrated Amp (with HT bypass functionality for integration with HT)
4. DAC for digital music playback and also you can use it with CD player if the DAC is superior.
 
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