Audio newbie, is an amp a necessity for new speakers?

steinooo

steinooo

steinooo

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Hi all,

I want to upgrade my stereo speakers which output my PVR, Xbox, PS3 and Media Computer.

I have been lightly researching and it seems a second hand pair of Wharfedale 9.1 Diamond speakers will be a nice upgrade for me, but I have no AV receiver.

Is it essential to have an AV receiver in order to have a pair of stereo speakers such as the ones I mention?
 
You don't necessarily need a AV receiver, but you will need an amp of some sort. be it stereo or multi channel.
 
If you have all the devices connected to your TV, then a stereo amp will be what you want. You would only need a AV receiver if you want to connect the devices straight to the AV receiver, then that to the TV.

Unless you are planning to add speakers at a later date and go 5.1, then I'd go for a stereo amp. You will get a better sounding stereo amp for your money than with a AV receiver.

A AV receiver would be the way to go if you have more devices than your TV can take.
 
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thanks for the replies!

I didn't even know there was such thing as a stereo amp, so i'll look into those, thanks very much!
 
Had a look into stereo amps, and I can't seem to find the exact product I need, which I think would be either HDMI or Optical in, to some RCA outputs, can anyone advise if this is the correct product?
 
TBH with all that kit you have you're better off with a AV Receiver, almost all of them have a digital output, so you will need digital inputs which are difficult to find on a stereo amplifier these days (especially HDMI)

I'd look out for a second hand Arcam AVR 100/200/280/300/350. (AFAIK the 280 & 350 have HDMI, but it passes the signal through the unit with no processing so no sound)
 
steinooo said:
Had a look into stereo amps, and I can't seem to find the exact product I need, which I think would be either HDMI or Optical in, to some RCA outputs, can anyone advise if this is the correct product?
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In that case, get an AV receiver. I assumed you had all those devices connected to your TV, then have the audio go from the TV to an amp. Stereo amps do not have digital connections, only analogue.
 
I've got one of these and it's great... it'll take 3x HDMI inputs, two optical and a load of other analogue connections too. It powers my Diamond 10.1s nicely. Sound isn't quite as good as my music amp, but it does a good job for the price.
 
Marsman said:
In that case, get an AV receiver. I assumed you had all those devices connected to your TV, then have the audio go from the TV to an amp. Stereo amps do not have digital connections, only analogue.
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That is the case, I have all those devices connected to my TV, and I want the sound from all of the pieces of kit going to some nice speakers, and I presumed going out through the TV would be the most efficient, seeing as they're already all connected to the TV.

Problem is I can't have RCA out on my TV, only optical.
 
In that case you'll need a digital to analogue converter if you want a pure stereo amp. If you don't want to spend a fortune something like the fiio d3 should do it.
 
Thanks gitbags.

1) do you reckon a DAC + Stereo amp would cost more or less than a low end AV receiver?

2) Are stereo amps and DACs any smaller than AV receivers in terms of height? I could do with as small a unit as possible for my TV Stand.
 
1) definately 2nd hand. I havn't got a budget but don't want to spend much at all. The way I'm looking at it that even the cheapest possible 2nd hand is likely to be a huge upgrade on my TV sound.

2) Interesting, I will start looking harder for stereo amps and DACs then, I don't think I have seen any suitable yet though.
 
The nad c320bee I've got kicking around used to sound very good with my 9.1's when I had them. Others worth looking at would be cambridge audio azure range (if a remote isn't important to you the old a5 isn't a bad amp), arcam Alpha and pretty much any thing from marantz.

With a bit of luck you should be able to get going for around £200ish depending on how much you get the speakers for.
 
gitbags said:
The nad c320bee I've got kicking around used to sound very good with my 9.1's when I had them. Others worth looking at would be cambridge audio azure range (if a remote isn't important to you the old a5 isn't a bad amp), arcam Alpha and pretty much any thing from marantz.

With a bit of luck you should be able to get going for around £200ish depending on how much you get the speakers for.
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would this do the DAC job? or will it sound terrible? It looks like it's mass made in China from the look of the advert.
 
So my TV has a DAC? Does that mean the red white and yellow RCA jacks on the side of the screen could output straight to the amp? I assumed that that wouldn't work.
 
steinooo said:
So my TV has a DAC? Does that mean the red white and yellow RCA jacks on the side of the screen could output straight to the amp? I assumed that that wouldn't work.
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It does in order to convert the input received from a hdmi signal into an analogue signal for the built in speaker amp. Some manufacturers will offer an rca out but most nowadays assume those who want an audio pass through will be using some form of home cinema equipment with its own dac. This is preferable overall as it means the quality of the audio isn't determined by the quality of the tv's dac.
 
gitbags said:
It would do the job, as for sound I couldn't say. But I doubt its much better than the dac in your tv, if at all.

If you don't want to import this seems to have a few decent reviews.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-Coaxia...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1347200733&sr=1-1
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thanks for the link.

So do you reckon this plan would work - to have a lead going from my TV to a DAC, then two rca cables going from the DAC to a stereo amp, then cables of unknown quantity from the amp to 2 speakers e.g. Wharfedale diamond 9.1?
 
There's no reason why it shouldn't. It's almost the same as I'm running: tv (rca out) > diy rca's (rega ic clones) > Preamp.

Just make sure you buy a decent spdif optical cable. Not because it'll necessarily sound better, cheap ones are prone to failing.
 
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