How do small desktop amplifiers compare to bigger home theater receivers? obviously there are more connections on the bigger ones, but what about the quality of the sound? are there other benefits or drawbacks to either?
How do you power your speakers?
I just bought some KEF Q100's for my desk set up, and im trying to decide how to power them. Both the desktop and home theater receiver are about the same price, so im not sure which is a better choice. i have space for either, so thats not really an issue. I probably wont ever have more than a 2.1 setup, but id still have the option of expanding if i did get a home theater receiver.
I can't really help you on that particular model (smsl) but I have bought a cheap lepy amp for my pc (with salvaged speakers) amazon.com/Lepy-Stereo-Amplifier-Subwoofer-Adjustment/dp/B00OGZW54E/ The sound is ok but there is a lot of "wind" when you don't play anything. I don't know Integra but if a Denon is 150 coins and a smsl 145, I don't really know how it can be a question.
Jason Sullivan
when I clicked those links it said something about "hot deal" for the denon and the price is totally right. of those three I'd absolutely pick that one.
but I honestly can't give you much advice because I've never tried that desktop receiver or any other so I don't know how much the internals differ. It does look big enough to potentially be alright compared to which really is trash. Well, perhaps not trash but those "mini amplifier" things like the Lepy don't stand up to bigger receivers and amplifiers and you hear it clearly with a good pair of speakers.
anyways, the denon's I've heard has always had good sound.
as for myself, I use a 5.1 surround setup with a onkyo tx-nr757 in the livingroom and a jbl go in the bathroom.
I have pretty good audio systems (one marantz elements hifi, the other one denon elements) but I wanted some cheap "speaker system" to play mame on a second pc, i.e. not paying a lot. The sound on the lepy 808 is good enough to play arcade games and listen to music, really. I agree with you it's a shitty build though. Had to insulate everything to remove a persistent scratch and there is the white noise. But it's 12 bucks and it still outperforms for the 12 bucks.
William Butler
If I were you, and don't need the am/fm aspect of a receiver or source switching, I'd just hit up ebay or a local pawn shop and cop an old Alesis RA100 and be done with it.
is a bluetooth soundbar ok if I'm just a casual? I just want it to sound good but I don't care about audiophile stuff, but I don't want to settle for overpriced consumershit if there are better options at a similar price point
Eli Garcia
good recommendation
fine, for convenience, but there are better options otherwise
Colton Morales
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Alexander Ward
>fine, for convenience, but there are better options otherwise can you make any recommendations? and convenience aside, won't they cost more? e.g. I'd need an HDMI receiver etc
Julian Perez
I've bought an SMSL M3 for my Sennheiser headphones.
I bought it to replace an old Kenwood stereo amp I bought at a garage sale.
Full disclosure the Kenwood had a little more bass and could go a bit louder but at that power range it distorted the headphones.
The SMSL M3 however has a much *much* clearer sound.
These differences would be obvious though as the Kenwood was entirely analogue and ran off 240VAC whereas the M3 is run off a USB cord.
SMSL are actually pretty decent quality for the price.... key word being "for the price".
Make of that what you will.
I love my M3. But if I suddenly come across a shitload of dollars to upgrade my audio I would.
Lincoln Johnson
The Dayton APA-150 is good clean (cheap) power. Only one input though. Based on the old Emitiva monoblocks, which cost 5x more.
Ethan Gray
sorry to hijack a thread, but how economical would an old alesis like this be, kW/h-wise? Would anyone know of something similarly simple and decent but with an added optical input?
Evan Lee
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Chase Hill
Most of those mini amps you see and a decent set of bookshelf speakers will ultimately provide slightly better sound for less money.
On the other hand, after a decade-long relatively amicable disagreement with my wife about the sound setup in our living room, I switched to a soundbar with atmos, and while it isn't as good as a traditional 5.1 or 7.1 setup, it's better than I thought it was going to be, and now we have a cleaner setup and don't have wires running anywhere.
Brandon Sanders
In your view, what are the best options? Am I understanding you correctly that my choices are mainly 1) some kind of surround setup with bookshelf speakers and a small amp and 2) a decent soundbar? Or are you suggesting that a stereo bookshelf setup will be superior to the soundbar?
Hunter Cooper
Really depends on your use.
First, is surround sound really important to you? If so, you do need a full 5.1 setup.
If surround would be nice to have but isn't critical, a sound bar would work fine.
And if you don't really care about surround sound, and/or are more concerned about audio quality than surround sound, it's much less expensive to just do a stereo (2.0 or 2.1) setup. You can get good monitors or bookshelf speakers for under $200 (significantly under if you're willing to buy used and haunt your local goodwill until some turn up).
Thomas Powell
>haunt your local goodwill What should I be looking for at goodwill? All I ever see there are old, crusty, giant faux-wooden speakers of really dubious quality. Have you found anything good there?
more space means your can space out components and have less static etc you might not notice it on headphones but the components used to silence the static ruin the sound quality
Hunter Lee
bump
Caleb Bailey
well isnt 7.1 or 5.1 mostly for just movies while stereo or 2.1 mostly for listening to music?
its not like you lose quality with a 5.1 system vs a 2.1 system.
Ian Ward
so youre saying the big receivers offer better quality sound?
