Anthem STR or Lyngdorf TDAI 2170?

@mofojo  I emailed Lyngdorf and asked whether the system is diminished, especially Room Perfect, if I used an external amp.

Me: "I am interested in the 3400 integrated. I would like to clarify if ROOM PERFECT processing can be outputted via the analogue XLR outputs into an external amp. I know that non-ROOM PERFECT output can be sent to an external amp. My confusion arises from comment I heard that said that the 3400's amplification is essential for ROOM PERFECT to work. That is an external amp cannot do ROOM PERFECT."

Lyngdorf:

Hallo
RoomPerfect will function no matter how you output the signal - it just requires full-range stereo setup to work

so - no problem to use external amplifier(s) !

Best regards
Flemming Smith
LYNGDORF AUDIO

Thanks for the idea of keeping the unit on. I will definitively ask them to do so before the demo. I would love it, for the short term, if I could just use the 3400 and my analogue sources without an external amp. The Yamaha may also play better with the Lyngdorf amp versus the Persona 5F (which sounded great with the config and big demo room I described above). 

BTW - I am looking forward to try the EtherREGEN if I get the 3400 for streaming vs getting a USB D-2-D streaming solution.

@yyzsantabarbara : You asked about XLR cables. I use cables made for me by a pro audio shop (Pro Audio LA) from Neutrik XLR connectors and Mogami W2549 cabling. In a single-blind test, they sounded considerably more neutral to me and to 4 experienced listeners than a boutique brand costing about $2200.

Power amp is the Bryston 4B3, which I have owned for a little while. If starting fresh, I would give the matching STR power amp a try, to see if there was any special synergy when pairing Anthem equipment.

P.S. I don't know if using the pre section of the STR integrated will give you results equivalent to the STR Preamp itself. I would hope that, given the small cost delta, the STR Pre is better.

@caphill : I agree about making the room as good as possible and doing without DSP if possible. Unfortunately, not every room can give good results without it. The space may be too lossy, not lossy enough,  too small, too poorly proportioned, and so on. In such cases, DSP can improve overall realism considerably, in my experience.

I was speaking with an experienced audiophile who has been playing with the Anthem STR preamp for the last few months. I asked if he had an opinion on the Lyngdorf 3400, Anthem STR pre, and the Linn Selekt DSM with respect to room correction. His answer surprised me in that he told me to have a look at the Dirac system found in miniDSP SHD.

Don’t forget to include the miniDSP SHD preamp. It does essentially everything the STR does with Dirac Live (which I use) instead of ARC.

I am going to take some time to check this out since in a perfect world I would buy a preamp to match the amp I want to get. The following product seems to fit that purpose,

https://www.minidsp.com/products/dirac-series/product-line-summary

Another DSP system that came to my attention as I was looking into the miniDSP is some software from Europe called Acourate, https://www.audiovero.de/en/acourate.php

Supposed to be extremely powerful but maybe difficult to use.

@mike_in_nc Thanks for the XLR info. I am definitely going to go with something like you use and have a very long interconnect to hide my components far from the speakers.

@keoliphant I did not have a good demo with the Yamaha because the room was a nightmare. However, I heard enough to make it the speaker I will get. I wrote something about the demo experience on the NS5000 thread I started in 2017.