Confused on amplifier and pre-amplifier / DAC

[Nagaraj S]

Perfect Nagaraj, as I understood, is the below picture correct?

View attachment 57710View attachment 57710

Perfect! That’s exactly how my setup is.

 

[ajeetk]

use the AVR at all for music and

Few questions here, where do you feel you are facing the shortcoming with the Dynaudio M20 ? For movies or music ? While the Dynaudio M20 are certainly being under driven with the 1609 , its very important to understand how you want to go forward with your setup.

A preamp's main functionality is to provide the necessary signal level and to the power amp. The power amplifier has speaker cable posts where you connect your speaker and then speakers demand the requisite power based on your desired output volume chosen.

Now you are using just the AVR , connecting the speakers directly to your AVR via speaker outs. So you are using the DAC/Pre/Power amp section of your AVR to drive your speaker. The pre-out you see at the back are to relieve your AVR of the Power Amplifier duties and connect an external power amplifier directly to the AVR. If your use case is to get best out of your speakers and only for playback via AVR this option suits you the best. Get a nice power amplifier based on your budget (under 50k - Crown XLS1502/2502/Gold Saptak (under Group buy) , under 90k - Indiq Platinum Saptak )

Lot of us prefer to not use the AVR at all for music and form a different chain using the same set of speakers , this is where a preamp comes into a picture. We have a preamp which sits between the AVR & the Power Amp , this allows to connect multiple input sources (like AVR/CD Player/Turntables etc) and choose which one we want to use the speakers for. This chain involves lot of components and can be built as one wishes to use. I would recommend to not think on this lines for now, get a power amplifier and forget about DAC/Preamp and other sources for playback.

Recommend you to start with AVR with Preouts -> Power Amplifier -> Speaker . Decide on your budget and get a power amp, when I owned a M20 even a Crown XLS2502 opened up the lows by a good amount. Would suggest to try Gold Saptak/Platinum Saptak though

P.S - Please note that you will not be able to use the poweramp without a pre-out in your AVR, I see you have put in a line about wanting to use the power amp with any AVR. So do keep this in mind

Thanks a lot fLUX for your detailed response, it has a lot of meaningful information for me to understand what is popular setup.

I am mainly looking for HT, where I can use same setup for music also when needed. So with the input I received and you explained. getting a power amp looks my best bet.

I will be replacing Marantz NR 1609 when I go for any trip. Even with a better AVR, a good power amp will add noticeable difference I think.
Please do let me know if you see any good used power amp for sale anywhere.

If I understood, you are suggesting to skip the blue circled setup for now, if I am not much into stereo and can be added later

Thanks again fLUX!!

 

[ajeetk]

Perfect! That’s exactly how my setup is.

Got it brother, thanks for your time

 

[fLUX]

Thanks a lot fLUX for your detailed response, it has a lot of meaningful information for me to understand what is popular setup.

I am mainly looking for HT, where I can use same setup for music also when needed. So with the input I received and you explained. getting a power amp looks my best bet.

I will be replacing Marantz NR 1609 when I go for any trip. Even with a better AVR, a good power amp will add noticeable difference I think.
Please do let me know if you see any good used power amp for sale anywhere.

If I understood, you are suggesting to skip the blue circled setup for now, if I am not much into stereo and can be added later
View attachment 57711
Thanks again fLUX!!

Yup , that's correct I am suggesting to delay the blue part till you feel the need for the same. For Dynaudio M20 the moment you add a PA I am certain there will be a very noticeable difference over using just the AVR, they feed on clean power and amplification and throw bass like none other at your face with improvements across other spectrum too. Do try some bass heavy tracks which go deep now and post adding a PA

 

[ajeetk]

Yup , that's correct I am suggesting to delay the blue part till you feel the need for the same. For Dynaudio M20 the moment you add a PA I am certain there will be a very noticeable difference over using just the AVR, they feed on clean power and amplification and throw bass like none other at your face with improvements across other spectrum too. Do try some bass heavy tracks which go deep now and post adding a PA

Sure fLUX, on hunt for power amplifier in forum and on olx..

Received very valuable input Thanks!!