New XMC-1 V2 Owner XLR/ Arc ?s

[mopowah]

Howdy, I stumbled onto a good deal for an XMC-1 ($750) and 2 (yes two) XPR-5s for $800 all in. My previous setup was a Marantz SR7012 with 3 XPA-1s and an XPA-5. I upgraded to see if there was any improvement with balanced outs from a dedicated processor, as the Marantz is a receiver, and I wasn't using any of the amp channels.

My speakers are B&W 804s up front, an HTMI1 center, 805s for rears, and SCM1 surrounds. I have 2 Rel Storm IIIs for the subs. I also have a pair of Magnepan MMGs that I like for certain genres. My TV is an 86" Samsung Q60 4k.

My first question is XLR splitters. Is it reasonable to split the balanced outs to biwire/ vertically bi-amp the rears and surrounds? That will use up 8/10 of the XPR. Then I was thinking the remaining 2 amp channels could go to the analog outs and Magnepans. Keeping the Monoblock XPAs as they are- vertically bi-wired to the 2 fronts and center. Or is using both XPR-5s too crazy? Would you do things differently? Amp the subs? The Rels seem crazy good as they are.

Second question is toslink vs earc? Is there any benefit to arc? The toslink sounds great. I have a turntable, Xbox, and Marantz UD/ Blu Ray that are never used. Is there any benefit to connecting the XMC to the TV either arc or HDMI? I don't have a cable box. I use the native Netflix etc apps on the TV and I use a 4k Fire TV into the TV. Before I upgraded the firmware to 4.1 the TV wasn't picking up the XMC. I haven't played with it since the upgrade. Should I just stick with toslink?

Last question is streaming... With the Marantz I used Heos which was acceptable but barely. It only used the dac in the Marantz
I use Qobuz and Deezer HD to stream. Though Roon seems interesting. I have a Wiim Mini, Paradigm PW Link, and Sonos Connect (I have Sonos throughout my home). What streamers are you loving? Is a $3k Naim streamer going to be that different from playing HiRes Qobuz on the TV app toslinked to the XMC? Does the end result change if there's 3 dacs involved vs one? What is the way to stream the highest resolution sounds? The dac-less iFi Zen Stream? It seems unnecessarily complicated. Thanks in advance!

[creimes]

For your first question I wouldn't at all bother with bi-amping channels on an XPR-5.

Second question Toslink would be fine going from TV as those streaming apps have lossy compressed audio anyhow, unlike a uncompressed blu-ray audio track which needs the bandwidth of HDMI

Third question I;m not sure if I can answer as I have not owned any fancy expensive streamers, I use a Mac Mini with either the Tidal App or jriver(which is new to me) and I have Audirvana software as well, my other source is a Nvidia Shield Pro which I really enjoy

[mopowah]

Thanks for the reply. So you would only use one of the XPR-5s? Maybe I should sell one...

Both of the streaming services I use are supposed to be lossless and many of the albums on Qobuz are hi-res (24 bit 192hz) meaning better than CD quality (16 bit 44.1hz). And for sure more data than an un compressed cd file. Deezer HD is CD quality. The real question is can anyone tell the difference?

I should have added that I'm an Android/ PC user. The Nvidia Shield looks interesting. I have 8 terabytes of flac files on a couple of hard drives that I haven't listened to in years. I really should do some a/b testing.

[creimes]

Two XPR-5's for $800 is unheard of haha, could sell one and get your money back for both of them haha, and sorry I meant for video service like netflix and such the Audio and such, I myself can tell the difference between most of my CD quality music to lossy music from streaming services.

Cheers,
Chad

[AudioHTIT]

I count you’ve described 9 speakers (7 B&W + 2 Magnepan) don’t you still need both XPR’s? Agree with Chad, no reason to consider bi-amping.

[mopowah]

Aug 28, 2022 0:59:22 GMT -5 creimes said:

Two XPR-5's for $800 is unheard of haha, could sell one and get your money back for both of them haha, and sorry I meant for video service like netflix and such the Audio and such, I myself can tell the difference between most of my CD quality music to lossy music from streaming services.

Cheers,
Chad

Got lucky with the amps for sure! I sold my XPA-5 for more than I paid for the 2 XPRs! Ideally I'd sell one of the XPR-5s and all the monoblocks for 2 or 3 XPR-1s or an XPR-2. However, I can't find any of either for sale. And I'm not sure how much better any XPR can sound over the XPA monoblocks. I was doing a little research and it seems that I need the bandwidth of the hdmi to use DTS. So, I'll play with the arc a bit. Hopefully the firmware upgrade fixed the issues I was having. Thanks again for your response.

[mopowah]

Aug 28, 2022 1:06:03 GMT -5 AudioHTIT said:

I count you’ve described 9 speakers (7 B&W + 2 Magnepan) don’t you still need both XPR’s? Agree with Chad, no reason to consider bi-amping.

Correct! I've been using a Tivoli speaker selector that works with banana plugs. I was thinking of splitting the front outputs and running all 4 speakers up front for a wall of sound. I just think the XPRs are too sexy to not use them both! I think I need to try the set up without the monoblocks and only the XPRs.

[creimes]

Aug 28, 2022 1:44:30 GMT -5 mopowah said:

Aug 28, 2022 0:59:22 GMT -5 creimes said:

Two XPR-5's for $800 is unheard of haha, could sell one and get your money back for both of them haha, and sorry I meant for video service like netflix and such the Audio and such, I myself can tell the difference between most of my CD quality music to lossy music from streaming services.

Cheers,
Chad

Got lucky with the amps for sure! I sold my XPA-5 for more than I paid for the 2 XPRs! Ideally I'd sell one of the XPR-5s and all the monoblocks for 2 or 3 XPR-1s or an XPR-2. However, I can't find any of either for sale. And I'm not sure how much better any XPR can sound over the XPA monoblocks. I was doing a little research and it seems that I need the bandwidth of the hdmi to use DTS. So, I'll play with the arc a bit. Hopefully the firmware upgrade fixed the issues I was having. Thanks again for your response.

Emotiva has the DR series of XPA amps in a DR-1, DR-2 or DR-3, fully differential balanced amps, just an FYI

[garbulky]

The xpr-5 are not fully balanced though they have balanced inputs. The xpa 1 gen 1 and gen 2 are fully balanced input to output. So is the xmc in certain configurations. Both the xpr5 and xpa 1 are top notch amps. My personal preference is the xpa 1 gen 2.