Anthem STR or Lyngdorf TDAI 2170?

@jwh2

You should invest in acoustical treatments and make effort in getting speaker placements right and spot on.
I have the Naim Uniti Nova in my bedroom with satisfying results and I know this is not my main reference setup it’s only my bedroom setup. I’m pretty sure your living room is more spacious than my bedroom. I always go with standmount (bookshelf) speakers for my bedroom and I invested in acoustical treatments.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Lyngdorf products especially with its Room Perfect room correction. I myself have a Lyngdorf MP-50 surround processor in my dedicated theater room, but this is a dedicated home theater surround setup (7.2.6) and used strictly strictly for home theater (surrounds). For surrounds or home theater setup IMO room correction is a must and especially effective in equing your subs and other magic tricks. I found the Room Perfect built in my Lyngdorf MP-50 ht processor very effective and works very well.

However. for stereo setup for 2ch music playbacks I’m not a fan of room correction. I have two separate main reference stereo setups/systems in my main dedicated two-channel listening rooms, which are in separate rooms from my dedicated theater room, that are completely analog setups. I’m using all analog linestage preamps with turntables + phonostage pre as well as external digital front end source components. My Naim Statement NAC S1 linestage preamp that I have in one of my main reference stereo setup is a pure analog linestage preamp (no digital circuitry or room correction). It has only analog audio circuitry and this is a cost-no-object or price-no-object design preamp. I have a pair of big Magico M6 speakers in this setup or room driven by a pair of Naim Statement NAP S1 monoblock amps and the performance, musicality are all top notch. I invested heavily in room treatments and actually all my main dedicated listening rooms were designed from the ground up and specifically built for dedicated listening room. Eventhough I have to admit that my main reference listening rooms are very huge, that’s why I can afford to have those big Magico M6 speakers in it. And speaker placements are paramount and I made special efforts in getting the speaker placements right and so that the interaction between speakers and my listening room is spot on. I achieved outstanding results without room correction and is easily one of the best sounding setup I’ve ever heard.

In my other main reference setup, which is in a separate different dedicated listening room, I also have all analog setup, no room correction correction. This is also another large dedicated well treated listening room and I have a pair of big Sonus Faber Aida ll speakers in this room and I am able to achieve perfect excellent result without room correction. But again this is also a very very large or I should say huge dedicated listening room and is very well treated. I invested heavily in using room treatments. My Audio Research Reference 10 linestage preamp that I have in this setup is also a pure analog preamp. I also made great deal amount of efforts in getting the speaker placements right and spot on in this listening room.

OP we sell many high end integrated amplifiers some with room correction and others which do not.
We have been designing high end systems for over 30 years.
Room correction is not a panacea, yes it can help improve a room, but a boring, or strident sounding system that doesn’t sound right is not going to magically transform just because you have DSP room correction.
The first part is to find a match between the electronics and the loudspeakers.
As an aside, most of the best sounding systems at Axpona, did not use any room correction and some rooms did not have any room treatment as all.

Step One: get the match between the components correct

Step Two: tune the room via proper loudspeaker positioning, and if room tuning panels aren’t possible a judicious use of natural acoustical tunning devices, furniture, books, rugs, pillows etc.

Step Three: Then if DSP is available then use it to then maximize the systems response.
The Anthem STR is a good sounding integrated the Naim is much more magical sounding.

We have heard the Lyngdorf and they use a digital amplifier which is very similar to to the Digital amplifier stage in the NAD M32 which means a clean but dry sound.
Our favorite integrated amplifier with Room correction is the Micromega M100 or M150 which use a pure class A/B amplfier, a state of the art Dac, phono stage, a headphone amp and it looks stunning.
https://micromega.com/en/category/news/
The Micromega sounds like the Naim, warm, punchy, and is totally involving so you can have your cake and eat it too if you know where to look.

Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ Micromega, Naim, Nad dealers

Caphill,  we heard the Naim Statement amps and preamp at Axpona with the Focal Grande Utopia EVO III and the sound was freaking amazing.
OP we just found this review on the Micromega:

This review sums up the product perfectly:

It wasn’t just the richness and depth of the bass, but the incredible level of detail—such as hearing the sound of the pick hitting the strings just before I heard the note of the string itself, not to mention the lovely high-frequency response: sweet, airy, extended… and more gorgeous than I’ve ever heard it sound on CD. After seriously surprising myself that I was so happy with the M-100’s performance with black vinyl, I then slowly worked through listening to all its digital inputs, a process which necessarily including evaluating everything from various streaming services right up to the latest high-res formats, and found that the longer I listened to the M-100, and the more inputs I evaluated, the more impressed I became by its performance: This is one seriously cool component! (Well not totally cool, the case could become warm despite the fan… which I could hear up close when no music was playing, but not from my listening position, and never when the music was playing.) And speaking of streaming, that process seemed to continue even when I switched to listen to a different input, so make sure you stop it when you’re not listening if you don’t want to consume bandwidth.

Listening to Takatukas’ ‘Red Blood’, which seemed appropriate given the M-100’s heritage, the M-100 delivered the wild roller-coaster-ride of sound for which the band is famous, from the trademark machine-gun drumming of Bruno Mellier to the screaming, almost ear-piercing lead guitar shredding of Gerald Ozga. It kicks in from the opener Paranoiaque/hypochondriaque and keeps the excitement through all 15 tracks to Ras Kouyon. The slam and tone of Nicolas Vitry’s bass is a constant delight as well.

I was able to confirm that the M-100’s performance was totally consistent across all the inputs using my library of cuts that are identical except for format, many of which are sourced from Soundkeeper Recordings. The M-100 delivered consistently silent backgrounds, extraordinary dynamics and excelled at maintaining ruthlessly accurate tonality irrespective of music genre.

Conclusion

As ‘all in one’ components become increasingly common, manufacturers are pulling out all the stops to make sure their products stand out. Micromega has pulled out so many stops building the M-100 that you have to peer upwards to see it (literally, if you wall-mount it). Brilliantly designed, lovely-sounding, able to be optioned-up and/or upgraded and, thanks to the MCF customisation on offer, it can be as beautiful as your heart’s desire. Magnifique! # Jules Larkin

https://www.avhub.com.au/product-reviews/hi-fi/micromega-m-100-amplifier-review-test-512349
Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ Micromega, Naim, NAD dealers

@audiotroy

Yes the Naim Statement preamp & monoblock amps are extraordinary, the absolute best I’ve heard and owned period. Well, the Naim Statement preamp & monoblock amps are cost-no-object or price-no-object design products and took 10 years in the making and therefore are expected to perform extraordinary. I paired them with the big Magico M6 speakers and achieved absolutely excellent result.

But for my digital front end source components I’m not using the Naim 500 series NDX digital streamer/DAC + 500 series external PSU though. I’m using a fully loaded MSB Select ll DAC with its Femto 33 clock and two mono powerbases or two mono separate power supply units, one feeding power to its digital side of it and the other one feeding power for its analog output stage. The MSB Select ll DAC comes with a music renderer or streamer. And recently I just added the matching MSB Select transport with its separate Reference power supply unit. The fully loaded MSB Select ll DAC w/ Femto 33 clock & 2 mono separate power supply units is by far the best sounding digital front end components I’ve ever heard and owned. The sound was highly musical very smooth very refined resolved fluid and the most musically engaging and involving and this is literally the most analog sounding digital front end source components. It rivals the best of the best turntables and reel-to-reel master audio tape machines. It did not sound like anything being digitally reproduced at all. Lot of times I completely forgot that I was actually listening to digital music or digital front end source components. The music did not sound reproduced at all. the music had a level of absolute fluidity that I’ve never heard coming from digital front end source components. If you get a chance you should have a listen to it.

But of course I prefer my Clearaudio Statement v2 turntable with its Statement TT tonearm & Statement Goldfinger cartridge paired with D’Agostino Momentum phonostage pre that I have in the same setup. Musically not a single uber high end digital front end source components or other high end turntable setups can match this Clearaudio Statement v2 turntable setup. And by far the D’Agostino Momentum phonostage pre is my best favorite phonostage pre.

I had a chance to listen to the same Naim Statement preamp and amps paired with those giant Focal Utopia Grande before and was amazing but I preferred my Naim Statement/Magico M6 pairing better.
The Naim Statement/Focal Utopia Grande setup that I listened to had a Naim 500 series NDX digital streamer/DAC + 500 series external PSU served as digital front end components, which is Naim’s flagship digital streamer/DAC to date.
I wonder why Naim doesn’t make Statement digital streamer/DAC or digital front end to match its Statement NAC S1 linestage analog preamp and Statement NAP S1 monoblock amps.

Audiotroy, just curious, how would the Micromega M-100 compare to Naim Uniti Nova sonically and overall musicality?
Which one is better especially for the OP’s B&W 805 D3 speakers?

I don’t understand why some people heavily rely or depend on room correction for a simple stereo (two-channel) setup for listening to music. For home theater surround setups & systems YES room correction is a MUST. Can’t live without it.

Caphill,  we would agree with you before, but the new Grande Utopia EVO III are far better than the older versions, and in our opinion far more magical and more musical than the the M6.
We have a digital front end that we think is on par with yours which is the Light Harmonic Davinci, running DSD 512 as good as any vinyl front end we have heard.
The setup at Axpona was all Naim Statement with the new NDS II with the new Focal Grande Utopia Evo III.
A few years ago, in Brooklyn NY, there was a showing of the older Focal Grande Utopia but these were not the newer EVO series, were also setup wit the Naim Statement gear, and the sound was good but not anywhere in the same realm not even close. So there must be some real magic in the new EVO III which for the first time really disappeared and the tonality was stunning. You should really check out a set.
Also you can get far better sound much more like analog by adding an Innous Statement to your MSB stack. We have done numerous tests on running a server to a streamer vs the streamer running direct, in every demo the server even streaming the very same signal  does not come close to what happens when you have a server providing a greater cleaned up pristine data packet to the dac.

Love to talk with you further about your setup, we have tested many power conditioners, and vibration isolation devices.

The OP should get the Micromega M150 which offers much of the superb sound quality of the Naim and includes Room Correction as well.
Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ