Need advice on media player and or dacs

Im building a home theater system and value music quality as much or more than theater quality.

One of the first things you need to do to improve 2-channel performance is to get that AVR outta the stereo signal path altogether. Get a good stereo preamp with a HT bypass and connect the front L/R preouts from the AVR into the HT bypass input on the stereo pre. This way when you play 2-channel music the AVR is completely out of the signal path, which is definitely what you want because a preamp is critical and the pre in your AVR sucks. Trust me here, it just does.

Not sure if i need a dac as the marantz allegedly has a good one built in.

No, it doesn’t. A good separate DAC will give you much more and very good ones can be had for only around $800.

As far as media players, can they really improve quality? Wheres a good place to start?

Not sure exactly what you mean by a “media player,” but I’d highly suggest you get a good streamer and subscribe to a good online music source like Qobuz, and rather than having to “compile” a library of music you’ll have worlds of music at CD and hi-res quality at your fingertips. Decent streamers can be had for around as little as $200 - $400 or so.

If you get a stereo preamp along with a good streamer and DAC your 2-channel performance will be at a higher level entirely. I know this is a little daunting at first, especially the streaming part, but it’s SO worth doing — just keep asking whatever questions you have here and you’ll get there. The good thing is you don’t have to do it all at once and can just do it in individual pieces over time, and each piece you add will give you a meaningful performance bump. Hope this helps at least somewhat.

Keep your HT and your 2 channel rig separate except where you can employ HT bypass. Buy a dedicated streamer and a good DAC for music. The better they are the happier you’ll be.

Thanks so much!!

@sandrodg73 ,

- Receivers have terrible power amp sections

- Receivers combine the multiple power amp sections in the same chassis as the dac/preamp sections, etc (terrible idea).

The path to high fidelity in multichannel music is going with a no compromise separate preamp processor such as the Marantz AV10 (lot more expensive than your receiver) and separate power amps (Marantz amp 10). The poweramp should be separate. Ever wonder why this preamp processor+ power amp combo retails for 14k and the receiver is less than 2k? The above mentioned should give you a hint. HT is no big deal since the ear is not scrutinizing as it is with movies like it is for music. A receiver should be fine for movies.

You shouldn’t worry yourself with 2 channel DACs or streamers. If you use any of the Marantz’s features such as bass management, peq, etc, a purist DAC’s analog output will go through a ADC conversion inside your Marantz unit. Besides, your unit with all its features can beat the crap out of most of them in execution, if you can set it up right.

For now, you could use your receiver’s pre-outs to separate power amps and not use the receivers internal amps. You may be able to turn it into just a preamp processor by turning on a "preamp mode". Newer Denon models permit this...think your Marantz may as well since all these brands are "Sound United" these days. This would be the intermediary step to higher fidelity before you can get to true separates.