In a recent forum
discussion seeking advice about a new streamer one responder observed money
would be wasted if the digital signal was being fed to a home theatre receiver because
“[I]ts highly inadequate preamp
section will suck most of the goodness out of any good DAC.” Also “[F]eeding that nice, high-end signal
into an AVR is like putting crappy tires on a Porsche — it largely
defeats/undermines the purpose (and expense) [of upgrading the
streamer/DAC components]”.
If the sound quality is being undermined by the preamp
section of the AVR I would upgrade to a separate preamp but am unclear about
the proper connections.
Currently I input the signal of a Bluesound Node 2i and Topping
D90 into a Denon AVR. I use a coax cable from the Bluesound to the DAC (bypassing
the internal DAC of the Bluesound) and RCA interconnects
from the DAC to a selected input on the AVR.
In the chain referred to above it was stated “Since
your Denon has preouts, all you’d need to do is connect the front L/R preouts
from the Denon to an input of your choice (or HT Bypass if it has one) on the
stereo preamp and that’s pretty much it. Choose that input on the stereo pre
when you’re doing HT and another input when listening to streamer, CD player,
etc. That’s really all there is to it, and the AVR will be completely out of
the signal path when listening in 2-channel."
The preamp I have chosen does have a bypass so that part it
clear—L & R front preouts from the AVR to the bypass RCA inputs of the
preamp. But then what? The latter quote above suggests to me the DAC
outputs must be connected to the preamp and not remain connected directly to
the AVR. Rather than make that assumption any guidance would be appreciated.