Analog vs digital for home stereo 8361a, w371a, 7380a - Forum

I wen't down that road a bit but still went digital.

For my work setups at least, beacause of ease of use and the speakers have a much much lower noise floor in digital mode.

If you're after high end sound and wanna experiment with DACs i suggest you try older pure analog 1037, 1038, 1034. 

They also have much warmer class A/B amplifieres.

Big ones are a a lot better than 8351 etc if you have >2m listening distance from the speaker.

For streamer, I recommend a Mac Mini with Roon. It’s stable and works great with an ihpone or ipad as a remote controller. Or you could go for a Roon Nucleus, which is simpler and more expensive. I would stay away from expensive hifi streamers, with or without a DAC. It’s a waste of money, and nobody beats Roon when it comes to user interface. I would also stay away from going the analog route. You don’t need a dac with Genelec gear. What you need, is a digital converter that outputs AES-EBU. Examples:

https://www.mutec-net.com/product_mc-3-plus-usb.php

https://www.lake-people.de/product-page/dat-rs-05 (not bit perfect due to its volume control feature which transforms all data streams into 24 bit).

https://www.yellowtec.com/puc2.html#c1042

 

Your 8361a+W371 setup sounds like a dream setup. Possibly the best setup one can get these days. I have the 8351a myself, plus a set of S360s and the 7382. All are excellent speakers, where the sound material is the limit, not the speakers.

 

Are you sure the 8361a+W371a setup can handle a subwoofer using just GLM? Having said that, the 7382a subwoofer is a nobrainer for those who have the space in their room; it measures extremely well in my (small) room and works excellently with films as well. So if you have the space, the 7382 is probably a better choice than the 7380, especially if you intend to use the setup for films or special effects like EDM sound etc. If you use the 7382 as a base for say a book shelf etc. it blends into a domestic environment very well. I use my 7382 as a TV stand, soundbar ;)

 

I wish you good luck in implementing your dream system and look forward to hearing what you think of the setup you’re going to buy!

Thank you both for the suggestions! svart - yes you're right the 7382a would be epic! Unfortunately aesthetically there are too many windows around and not enough walls space, so placement-wise I could not compromise and find 5 feet of wall space even built-in as a book shelf like you say. The only possible space for it is occupied by our piano. Believe me I tried! It could be that one day I'll be able to justify either upgrading or getting a second 7380 if we need more distributed bass.

On the topic of the digital vs analog, as an experiment, I bought a simple coax spidf to aes/ebu. I connected my Sonos Connect to it, and then it into the 8351a's. I compared that to my current setup, which is the same Sonos Connect wired to a DacMagic Plus, and then into the analog in on the 8351a's. Both my wife and I independently found the "Sonos to coax-to-aes/ebu to 8351a's" to be quite muddy for some reason. It could be any number of factors, but in the end, the addition of the $350 DacMagic Plus was a big improvement. I borrowed a friend's Mytek Brooklyn Bridge DAC/streamer and found that to be an improvement over the DacMagic Plus too. So I'm not sure if it's a good experiment or not, but it suggests that I need to work on my source. I admit I'm "chasing the dragon" on this but I'm going for the most amazing setup that I can (except sadly without the 7382!)

With the 7380 your system will work like a dream. The 7382 is just an icing on the cake for those who have the space. Maybe you could add 2 times 7382 instead of one to build your «crazy» system? ;)

When it comes to Sonos, I would avoid it for a highly transparent setup. Sonos is a good consumer choice, but you simply don’t know what they do in terms of filtering, up and downsampling etc. For you uber transparent system, I would avoid consumer boxes where you don’t know what happens in terrms of signal processing.

But please listen to some big systems also.

I had 1031, 1038 and currently have  8330, 8351, 1037 and 1237 .

Bigger speaker = bigger sound. is just plain physics.

100 kilos in subwoofers don't get you better midtones on 20 kilo tops.
​​​​​​​50 kilo tops on 50 kilo subs is more balanced imho.