Would a HiFi setup sound better than a home cinema setup for music?

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My system sounds way better being fed quality sources such as CDs instead and Blu-rays than it does through free streaming on Spotify for example. Then I don’t feel I am lacking anything in the music sound department. Thanks guys for your help in this thread.

It sounds as though your source could be an issue, especially if there's a noticeable difference by using CD's /Blu-rays.
Spotify is the lowest quality streaming provider, Tidal, Qobuz and Amazon Music all offer much higher resolution, some tracks will be high definition which is better than CD quality.
It's also unclear how you're getting the sound from your devive to your AV, if you're using Bluetooth which isn't the best quality or if you're plugging your device directly into the AV via a cable???.

If youre using Bluetooth, I'd pick up a streamer from Amazon, either a WiiM Mini or a Bluesound Nano and most of the other streaming providers will offer a month's free trial and see how that compares, you can return the streamer if you don't feel there's any benefit.
Out of the above, personally I'd go with the Bluesound Nano (I own both Wiim and Bluesound) and get a free trial with Tidal as the streaming provider.

You did mention you're a little green in which case you may not undertsand the difference between using bluetooth and a streamer, bluetooth plays the music on your phone and then relays it to the bluetooth receiver and isn't the highest quality .... with a streamer, your phone becomes a remote control for the streamer which then connects directly with the streaming provider and plays the music directly cutting out a weak link in the chain.

Try that as a 1st step and see if you notice a difference and unless I missed it you don't say what speakers you currently have, you can always upgrade just your main speakers with your current system after trying the above 1st.
You'd have to go through the setup process again to get the balance / mix right between the various speakers so it works for home cinema.
I would have thought your AV also has the option to play music as stereo as opposed to 5.1 and you could just select that setting for music.
 
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My system sounds way better being fed quality sources such as CDs instead and Blu-rays than it does through free streaming on Spotify for example.
You mention free Spotify. Is it definitely the free version (and not paid) that you use?

If so, the free version is capped at 160kbps so I am not surprised it sounds inferior.

It might be worth seeing if you can use a free-trial for the full version (or pay for it for 1 month) and see how this compares. Your receiver utilises Spotify Connect so you can use that and just ensure the quality is set to the highest level (320kbps).

I'm pretty sure you will find this to be better / more convenient than Bluetooth (if that's what you currently use).
 
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Depending on how feasible it is with your layout, you could also utilise the Zone 2/3 of your receiver to run a pair of floorstanders for stereo and leave the home cinema side as it is.
 
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@R2D2 , you’ve had plenty of good advice here. I’ll give you my story as I played music via an AVR for 22 years before discovering HT Bypass and how it allows you to combine a hi-fi system and home cinema into a single system.

Prior to my first home cinema system in 2000 I had a Meridian CD Player, Audiolab 8000 C/P pre/power amps and B&W CM4 floorstanding loudspeakers. Excellent sound.

I knew even with a Denon AVR costing £2K 25 years ago it wouldn’t match my Audiolabs but home cinema was the priority. Music took a leap back in quality but surround sound was brilliant.

Fast forward to 2022 and I discovered HT Bypass. Add a decent integrated amp to my system and it would feed L/R for two channel stereo. In home cinema mode it became a power amp for L/R with the AVR handling all other channels in a 5.1.2 system. Best of both worlds. 😁

Find yourself a good dealer and chat to them about your requirements, budget and photos of your room. That will help them recommend decent kit.

Your AVR is a good one but music will be SIGNIFICANTLY better via a simple integrated amp. My £2,200 Naim XS3 knocked spots off a £2K Yamaha RX-A3010. It’s not subtle. It’s one of the biggest sonic Improvements I’ve made in my 50 years of hi-fi interest.
 
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I came to this thread late, and have only skimmed over the answers.

I had the same dilemma as you a few years ago but coming from the opposite direction. I had a HiFi I was happy with, but wanted an AV system. I ultimately decided to keep the two separate and have two systems.

I see from your last post you are thinking of using an iPad as a source. There are two ways to do this one is by bluetooth which is lossy, or plug the tablet into your system. If you are going to do this you are best to use the USB or Lightening connector (whichever you have) into a DAC. However, you would be better investing in a streamer. A WiiM for between £80 and £220 will do the job and be better than using the iPad.
 
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I came to this thread late, and have only skimmed over the answers.

I had the same dilemma as you a few years ago but coming from the opposite direction. I had a HiFi I was happy with, but wanted an AV system. I ultimately decided to keep the two separate and have two systems.

I see from your last post you are thinking of using an iPad as a source. There are two ways to do this one is by bluetooth which is lossy, or plug the tablet into your system. If you are going to do this you are best to use the USB or Lightening connector (whichever you have) into a DAC. However, you would be better investing in a streamer. A WiiM for between £80 and £220 will do the job and be better than using the iPad.
Thanks for the advice. 👍
 
@R2D2 , you’ve had plenty of good advice here. I’ll give you my story as I played music via an AVR for 22 years before discovering HT Bypass and how it allows you to combine a hi-fi system and home cinema into a single system.

Prior to my first home cinema system in 2000 I had a Meridian CD Player, Audiolab 8000 C/P pre/power amps and B&W CM4 floorstanding loudspeakers. Excellent sound.

I knew even with a Denon AVR costing £2K 25 years ago it wouldn’t match my Audiolabs but home cinema was the priority. Music took a leap back in quality but surround sound was brilliant.

Fast forward to 2022 and I discovered HT Bypass. Add a decent integrated amp to my system and it would feed L/R for two channel stereo. In home cinema mode it became a power amp for L/R with the AVR handling all other channels in a 5.1.2 system. Best of both worlds. 😁

Find yourself a good dealer and chat to them about your requirements, budget and photos of your room. That will help them recommend decent kit.

Your AVR is a good one but music will be SIGNIFICANTLY better via a simple integrated amp. My £2,200 Naim XS3 knocked spots off a £2K Yamaha RX-A3010. It’s not subtle. It’s one of the biggest sonic Improvements I’ve made in my 50 years of hi-fi interest.
Thanks for the advice. 👍
 
I haven’t had chance to implement any of the above changes yet because I haven’t had much chance to listen to my setup. Still keeping them all in mind and I have to admit I like listening to CDs when given a chance over streaming on Apple Music and Spotify basic. Is Apple Music good quality too because my niece has me on her membership, so I have been listening to Apple more or less all of the time over basic Spotify.

It says things like lossless sound which I take to be good quality wrongly or rightly? So it sounds like lossless on Apple Music is CD quality:


Am I right in saying this? Because that’s problem solved then and I don’t have to pay for it either. Thanks

I know I should really download Dirac live but I am happy with the sound I have and think it’s an improvement over my last amp, so I am happy especially at the moment in the future if I ever think I am lacking in audio quality I will buy it then. When I bought the amp people on an American website AVSforum I think it is were complaining about it though too so that put me off it then. I am also very limited in my setup skills so am kinda scared of Dirac live.
 
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I haven’t had chance to implement any of the above changes yet because I haven’t had much chance to listen to my setup. Still keeping them all in mind and I have to admit I like listening to CDs when given a chance over streaming on Apple Music and Spotify basic. Is Apple Music good quality too because my niece has me on her membership, so I have been listening to Apple more or less all of the time over basic Spotify.

It says things like lossless sound which I take to be good quality wrongly or rightly? So it sounds like lossless on Apple Music is CD quality:


Am I right in saying this? Because that’s problem solved then and I don’t have to pay for it either. Thanks

I know I should really download Dirac live but I am happy with the sound I have and think it’s an improvement over my last amp, so I am happy especially at the moment in the future if I ever think I am lacking in audio quality I will buy it then. When I bought the amp people on an American website AVSforum I think it is were complaining about it though too so that put me off it then. I am also very limited in my setup skills so am kinda scared of Dirac live.
My recollection is that Spotify is always at the bottom of any league table about sound quality. But fans say it have a big library and is easy to use.

Personally, as a Qobuz user, I don’t find either appealing because Apple doesn’t work on my streamer ‘natively’, in fact I believe few platforms accommodate it. But if I just used AirPods it would be fine.
 
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My recollection is that Spotify is always at the bottom of any league table about sound quality. But fans say it have a big library and is easy to use.

Personally, as a Qobuz user, I don’t find either appealing because Apple doesn’t work on my streamer ‘natively’, in fact I believe few platforms accommodate it. But if I just used AirPods it would be fine.
I will definitely stop using Spotify then and go all out on Apple Music for now. Cheers. 👍

Then see what I think to the sound, I sense a big listening session tonight. 🙂

Just deleted my Spotify account.
 
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I have always listened to music through a home cinema setup and it’s my main way to listen to music but was thinking what’s the advantages and what to people prefer to listen to music to out of the two? For example would be the quality of this speaker setup against a home cinema setup:


Thanks
Wow, what an answer, me - I started with a Valve Radio that My Dad always had, up on a shelf near where the long-wire (it was about 30ft up and about 150 foot of 1/4 twisted multi-strand wire, on a couple of very high wooden towers such that it was "run" east / west - from near the back of the house, down to the chook shed & run, near the farm vehicle sheds and a small shearing shed).

was NEVER allowed to do anything except "listen to that - a very old AM radio that late at night, we could pick up DX stations as far away as Australia (with the loudness cranked way too high).
I leter dump dived for anything that looked similar, eventually dragging home a large cabinet musical (with a broken screen on it, for a 4 band AM radio that had a medium wave - normal local radio, and a long wave, plus twodifferent short wave bands) - but I wasn't interested in the radio feature, as behind a couple of hinged doors, (which) when one opened them - they had a couple of drag arms that pulled out a GARARD TURNTABLE with a four speed player, which had a normal stylus for the 16 rpm, 33+1/3rd rpm, & 45 rpm - as well as a dedicated 78 rpm with an iron needle for those old Gramaphone (hard-plate) records.
Italso had a lower section with some grill cloth over two very large speakers (from memory about 12" to 15" ?

Just the two huge general purpose speakers, but boy what a machine.
It also had an auxillaray input, for another stereo (being a tape recorder player - that I found a little later in the same local community roadside rubbish dump), that was a Philips "Made in Holland" portable 240v AC with a plugset, as a suitcase type with a couple of it's own speakers - as the split cover "lid" of the Stereo Reel-to-Reel multi-direction 3/8" magnetic tape machine, with a dinky green balance "valve", which glowed with two half green shapes, (they were the recording level VU type displays that Philip had devised, long before needle swinging VU meters were used elsewhere?

The glass valve was (I discovered) a level control view, as well as a balancing view finder, to allow recordings to be balanced or corrected, during recording with the two microphones..
The glass valve itself, was seen from above as a green twin winged butterfly effect, that "enlarged as the recording level was increased", and which I could balance correctly side to side, (to have the two halves equal in height) as I set the individual recording levels of it's two microphones that I found in a munted cardboard box, that was beside it, (that also held about seven or eight "spare" pre-recorded audio tapes inside).

But see, it had obviously BEEN in the roadside dump for several days, getting more and more dust accummulated into everything, as it had "rained" at some stage, meaning some of it was caked in mud?
Thus a local radio repairer told me, that if I wanted the valve amp to "run cooler" and with a better sound, all I had to do was CLEAN the dust and muck off them, which I started doing after chool one day until one slipped and smashed itself into oblivion on the shed's concrete floor (oops).

Over the next few months I had tried to find any valve that fit that socket, to no avail, so eventually thought (as kids do) that the new magazines that my Uncle bought from the USA, which had new types of electronics inside?I asked himto find me something to fix my amplifier with, so he got me a couple of kitsets when he went on holiday to Australia that year, and brought me back these wee kitsets to build, which I tried to do, even though they said hey were pre-amps, whatever the hell that was, run on 9vDC batteries?

Well I had fun after I ripped out some of the higher voltage valve wires, trying to get these we kits into the amp, hot soldering with a huge 1" plumbers petrol powered gas torch, (sort of like a paint stripper toorch that had the metal rack for holding the soldering bolt.

Well as I didn't have any wiring specs, and no idea what the F I was doing, I encountered MANY different "coloured lights" called Electric shocks, when accidentally touching circuits that had to stay "livened" while I attempted to ascertain what I was doing, and if it was working, to fix my music maker?

never got it finished as "during one such "zap" I relaised I had trhe solution for how to wire in, all the "other" salvaged speakers I had by then ripped out of anything else I could find a speaker inside of?

Somehow I eventually managed to get over 15 speakers "wired" in all sorts of ways, off the back of the Garard radio/turntable machine, which (thankfully still worked) until I had all the oddball speakers, some with transformers on them most with just funny upside down horseshoe charactes after all different numbers (I later was told it was the Omega symbol for Ohms..
Ah so I had 8 ohm, 16 ohm, 12 ohm and 100volt speakers?
Hmm well I sort of wired and rewred them all, until I had a ring circuit around the fenceline of the holding paddock beside the cow byre's cream separator room, which I later discovered to be a ring circuit for a simple NINE channel system with another that I had connected three transformer speaker into a star pattern, to somehow getthe very center of the paddock, a that was where all the wires seemed to be aimed at from three main spread apart areas on the circle of other speakers, which sounded like a royal garden party (or as I later found out when an Electrician for a staged music touring group, as the "front-of-house" technicians assistant, being as I was by then a registered NZ Electrican, but away back in 1965 I was only just entered into High School, so at 12 years of age, I hadn't even become a teenager.
Yet I had something, which - over the past 60+ years, I have tried "in vain" to destroy, yet it's circuit is as robust as the sounds were that I heard, from any (and yes I do mean any) 2ch Left & Right stereo sound recording, with their two very similar speaker channels, yet there was mine, set up semi permanently, around that small paddock, with EVERY SPEAKER being supplied a completely different circuit feed, and thus a different current / voltage - which allowed all those speaker to do whatever they were best at, which was reproducing sound, as if I was "standing amongst the musicians who had performed the tunes and songs?

?

I didn't know then, and never knew fully, until I got onto the internet in 2006 to discover, that apparently, NO ONE ELSE had "dump-dived" for salvageable speakers, or had ring-fenced a yard in 195, or had hand-built all different values of Analogue surround sound "add-on" features that I sold by sound alone, as people demanded I install what they had "heard" into their own stereo based systems..

Thus I kept salvaging speakers, and buying any I couldn't find, until all my add-ons were bought speakers.

ALL though, used the same basic Deplexer-Decoder (DEMUX) Up Mixer that I had devised and designed in so many different ways using the same basic circuitry, for every single install I ever did, most had the decoders "hidden" in the wiring, in attics everywhere, although I did sell a couple into Australia and one into the USA (as built-0units, inside other stereo equipment, that people took home as "2nd hand "gifts" from friends and family, that Customs NZ were told when they flew home), thus I han built (with as many speakers as possible), up to and including the discovered THREE triplets of "different" audio channels that were not only different in phaings, but in planetary planes, when viewed as one shouldm from the point of view of a sphere, which when combined, created a solid (actual) spherical sound field, of) surrounding sound, much like being a small boy on a large musicians open concert-band performance stage, while they recorded their music.
The sound I could get and which "moved people" to insist I didn't LEAVE until I had at least started on THEIR install, that they insisted THEY had orchestrated, (even though I considered it my best" selling technique, to get THEM to bring out "their" favourite music to be "heard" which they couldn't ignore as being far better than with their own store bought 2ch stereo's, so it was a win/win for them and for me.

Being as THEIR music is what sold them on my 1965 inventive "music decoders", altering store bought flat 2ch stereo's into full 360 x 360 x360 "spherical sound effect" surround ANALOGUE systems of undeniable pleasure..

Such as THIS type of surround sound VERTICALLY created but which can be PLAYED at any angle from Vertical to absolute horizontal.
View: https://youtu.be/9yMwG22O0-s


So what brands do I prefer?
Those that play OUT in MORE than one channel, (as I can surround them).

Thus, even if I say so myself, with anything that has audible sound, or can record &/or broadcast / amplify, produce &/or reproduce sound, I didn't EVER care what it's "brand name" was, so long as it WORKED as I wanted it too, because then it was OK.

If I couldn't work with anything - or it wasn't OK - it would find itself tossed away by me, as it would go QUIX (as in a "quick fix") into my family's rubbish dump, (for anyone else to find & take away)?

I eventually made a 25.7 channel full frequency, per each of those 25 channels, and with enough sub bass speaker channels, to overflow the discrepencies of my miserably mishapen workshop / lounge area, that overcame all accoustical problems and just "sounded great".
Sadly YouTube refused to allow me to reuse the 2ch sound that was HEARD as a multiple channel output DEMONSTRATOR, and insisted that I either mute it, or take it down, so I redid it, (the video that is) with one of THEIR OWN FREE "YouTube National Anthems" (Dreamscape 009) - which was poignant really, as I had an old CDMA cellphone's single MONO microphone, trying to record all of the 25 channels as the Nokia classic 6120 did an amazing job of recording the visuals, and boy did I have a LOT of visuals, namely the many VU lights that I used & thus controlled most of the speaker loudness settings with, to balance all the outputs, (well as many as I could) - so the visuals had LIGHTS in the same colours of the seaker channels, as well as the TEN inside the "ten channel video" that I was "playing it from, on one of my other YouTube channels, to get the original sound track "running" - which was great as I'd just unploaded that and it hadn't been "unplugged" at the time (it died a YouTube death a few days later, but by then I had the video's visuals recorded), so when YouTube forced me to swap out the audio - I just used the best fitting YT National Anthem (being a copyright FREE music track THEY provided to me, or maybe I just found it somewhere else on YouTube) for the better stereo version that was "copyright free" - see?

THIS is a picture of what I wired it with?
Just a jumble of wires to most
(but SOME of you EE's out there, may see a method, in the apparent madness - of all those interconnects.?)
What you won't discover - is HOW I found the 3rd phased 3D (90 degree-phase-shifted) rear / 3rd channel - being "B for Back (&/or BLUE) - the rearmost audio channel.

Happy hunting and while you read, whet your musical appetite on this "search result":
 

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I will definitely stop using Spotify then and go all out on Apple Music for now. Cheers. 👍

Then see what I think to the sound, I sense a big listening session tonight. 🙂

Just deleted my Spotify account.
?
Well, keep in mind, that my website is JUST starting, to have an alternative format of audio "playable" which - if you need anything changed for you, just crack me a comment there or send an email care/of my Domain Name itself
ie: your
Telling me "which songs YOU would like reformatted" and I will try to accommodte those, into uploads there for you (& others) to listen too.
They'd go onto the PUBLICLY SEEN and playable thereon, audio tab
(there are many "other MENU tabs", both seen and hidden - although I am having trouble unhiding some that seem to never get published correctly?)

ie:
 
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?
Well, keep in mind, that my website is JUST starting, to have an alternative format of audio "playable" which - if you need anything changed for you, just crack me a comment there or send an email care/of my Domain Name itself
ie: your
Telling me "which songs YOU would like reformatted" and I will try to accommodte those, into uploads there for you (& others) to listen too.
They'd go onto the PUBLICLY SEEN and playable thereon, audio tab
(there are many "other MENU tabs", both seen and hidden - although I am having trouble unhiding some that seem to never get published correctly?)

ie:
Apologies, but you cannot use the site to steer traffic to your own website, please see forum rules. There is a PM facility should people want to communicate with you directly.
 
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Hi Jason, how good are the Monitor Audio Silver 200 7G? What’s a good price for them? Do they work well with Pioneer amps? Are they better than B&W 603 S3 speakers? Thanks.
 
Hi Jason, how good are the Monitor Audio Silver 200 7G? What’s a good price for them? Do they work well with Pioneer amps? Are they better than B&W 603 S3 speakers? Thanks.
They sound great to my ears. Nice crispy sound, not warm but not cynical either. Lots of detail and transparency. Not sure how these compare to B&W 603 S3s.
These work really well with my Dali F9 subwoofer 🙂

I can't comment on the pioneer amp but I do know these work well with the AV Denon receiver.

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/8KThge6phLc?si=nDJeoVCJ-sdzKlW_


View: https://youtu.be/pCSQl64Mv34?si=nPXBP7Y1r_JurvIq

View: https://youtu.be/t5uzh8Xd5l0?si=WXhJhV7ZgH2MVs81

Judging by the size of the B&W floor standers and the extra driver, you're going to get a lot more fuller bass with the B&Ws but I think, the latter has a tendency to sound bright with a lot of their models across the range, so I think and I may be wrong, the MA's will have a cleaner and smoother treble.

There is a direct comparison, .....erm, how's your German?
View: https://youtu.be/mpEJP5XBtWs?si=cMIPirA6xedl6JVw


Sevenoaks sell them, see link below - you might find cheaper, best to look around.


I got mine from Peter Tyson, open box for £800!! These normally retail about £1.5K new, check with them if they have open boxes, you'll save a lot of money!


1754055783903.png
1754055442315.png
View: https://youtu.be/jnNf5V1kh-Q?si=FrfNZ0Ai23GNWYCO
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaBeAs4kHu0
 

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