Newbee Next Steps w Oppo and Paradigms in place

[Nal]

Hi

 

I got a bit crazy at the dealer's and bought some Paradigm Studio 10s for my living room to go with an Oppo 93 and an old,low end AVR (technics sa dx 1050). I also bought a single paradigm powered speaker for my office to hook up to my iMac (will get second speaker when new desk comes).

 

The oppo is connected to the technics via optical out. It also offers analog out.

 

The sound of the Paradigms is, of course, much less full and rich than at the dealer's. But now I am hooked and wondering what the next steps are.

 

My questions:

Will switching to analog out make a big difference w/ Oppo's sound?

 

What is a reasonable DAC for iMac/office--or is the answer "none" until I have two speakers?

 

Would a DAC improve Oppo's sound?

 

 

Or should my next step be a new AVR (or affordable amp/preamp)?

 

 

I listen to 1980s/ 1990s classical CDs, pandora, and streamed music via airport express. Mostly classical (string concertos, opera), acoustic guitar, folk and rock

 

Thanks and happy holidays!

 

 

[bzr]

Hi Nal, what you are asking is such a diverse & loaded question. The advice I will volunteer is this. In our hobby you generally get what you pay for unless you come across a little gem that pops up every now & then, you'll know which ones they are because lots of people have them & for every disappointment that is posted here or there you will find 20-30 saying it's a great thing. Nowadays there is so much choice in the analog/digital etc. realm so keep researching until your head stops spinning & you have a shortlist, then I'd try to audition the s/list or even better try them in your system in your environment. Remember, your ears are the most important source/transport you have, trust them & not opinions!

 

[bikemig]

Nal: did you buy the new paradigm A2 powered speakers? I'm curious what you think of them. You can do better than the dac built into your mac; check out the emotiva xda-1 since it is on a blow out for $250.

 

[darascal]

Hi Nal,

 

I would definitely try the Oppo's analog output to your receiver. (I assume you're currently using digital optical?) The Oppo is known for having a good Dac, so this could make a significant difference.

 

Do you have your Paradigms up on some proper stands? For almost all monitor speakers, stands are essential for the best sound quality.

 

A properly matched amp for the speakers is important, but some speakers are less picky than others. These Paradigms are very sensitive, so your AVR probably has enough power, but power doesn't guarantee good sound. You can address this issue if the above two steps don't get you to where you want to be. Also, if you decide to get a separate amp for audio, go with an integrated amp instead of a preamp/amp, it's much cheaper.

 

As far as a "reasonable Dac" for you iMac - depends what you mean by "reasonable". What's your price range? With the gear you have, $350 could get you something very good, like an HRT Music Streamer or a used Cambridge Dac Magic. And until you have two speakers, you'll only be getting one channel of sound.

 

Hope that helps,

Rascal

 

[Nal]

Thanks to all for your responses.

 

Bikemig: Yes, I got one paradigm A2 to sit on my desk. I bought in b/c it sounded better than the sonos and I can bring it to different rooms in my house, or outside, and use my airport express easily. The sound is good to my naive ear, and it has a decent, but not excessive amount of bass for near field listening. Since I mostly do fairly intense mental work in my office, and don't try to listen critically, it is fine. How do you like your audioengines?

 

Rascal: I have the paradigms on stands at ear level, around 7 feet from my ears (small room). I'll try switching from digital out to analog out to take advantage of the Oppo's DAC. Now I have to learn about "integrated amps"! Why isn't there an "Audiophilia for Dummies" yet? : )

 

[darascal]

Hey Nal,

 

Not really that much to learn about integrated amps - they just combine the functions of a pre-amp and power amp into one box. The advantage is that they are significantly cheaper and the pre & power amp sections are designed to work together. Integrated amps are the most common choice for low-to-moderately priced systems. There are a good number of very high-quality integrated amps on the market.

 

One the other hand, I wonder if you can work something out with your AVR. In general, high-quality music playback is not the priority of these units. This is outside my area of knowledge, but I have read that it is possible integrate multichannel film soundtrack playback with quality 2-channel music playback. E.g., on some amps there is an option called "Home Theater Bypass". Something to look into.

 

Hope that helped,

Rascal

 

[darascal]

A link that might be of use to you:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/which-pre-amp-advice-needed-plus-how-integrate-HT

 

Rascal

 

[Nal]

Hooked up oppo to technics via RCA (L and R front on 7.1 ports on both). Sound is much nicer (is that in my head?). However, I still have to push hard to hear dialogue on movies--anthem analog volume out at 90-100% of max, and Techinics volume at very high setting. Music requires less push from Technics.

 

I wonder if there is some kind of mismatch between them, or if Technics is too wimpy (but it's rated 100 W per channel). Settings are all correct--Oppo set to stereo and LPCM out, all other speakers set to "off", Technics set to stereo...)

 

Now old CDs sound really boring and muted. Newer CDs, such as the amazing Onqoto by Grupo Corpo (Brazilian), sound fantastic. Too bad they stopped recording opera in the last few years.

 

So questions for you experts: what's going on with the super soft dialogue on movies? Does the fact that I need to set volume so high on both units to get decent sound levels (music and movies) mean I'm causing distortion, or worse yet, damage to my speakers?

 

 

 

[darascal]

Nal,

 

For what I know about surround sound:

-The center channel is used for dialogue.

-The two front surround speakers are for sounds occurring close to the screen action.

-The four side and rear surround speakers are for sound occurring away from the screen action

 

So for movies, you may need to buy a center-channel speaker to hear dialogue properly. I believe these AVR's are designed for a 5.1-speaker (or 7.1) setup, and generally are not optimized for 2-channel audio playback.

 

And I doubt if you are doing your speakers harm just because the volume knobs are turned way up. Because the sound is quiet is evidence they are not receiving much power.

 

Sorry I can't be of much help, maybe there are some AV people here who can take a crack at it.

 

Rascal

 

[fireone]

Sometimes in the movie start up screen there is a menu . One of the menus is an options menu that can have various sub options like which language to play the movie, subtitles displayed and there is quite often an audio setup option too .

 

So you can choose to playback in stereo , 5.1 etc according to your setup. When that option is available the times I've chosen 5.1 when I've only had standard stereo setup, the voices have been muddled. But I don't recall having to crank the volume up too high to be able to hear the voices.

 

Do you have access to something like a Playstation 3 . If that plays movie sounds correctly then the solution lies somewhere in the Oppo. If it does the same thing with PS3, more likely to be the Technics.