Anthem AVM/20 upgrade to Integra or Marantz??

Let me ask a question about performance and DACs. If I'm looking at the specs of the preamps of the Marantz, Integra 80.3, Anthem 50v, and Carey Cinema 12, then the Integra and Carey should blow the others away because it has a Burr Brown 192/32 and the Anthem 50v appears to still have the older Burr Brown of the AVM30. So in theory, the Anthem should sonically come in *last* of all of them. And, in theory, the Integra should sound as good as the Carey, which is 4x the price of the Integra.

Now, I'm purposely hyperbolizing, but I don't understand why, in theory, a processor with a better DAC would not sound as good as a processor with a lesser DAC. Is there something at play here that I'm missing.

Can someone help educate me?

If we were looking at the Marantz 7005, Integra 80.3, Anthem AVM50v, and Carey Cinema 12, how would they rank in terms of their 2-channel and multi-channel performance?

be carefull what you wish for, I went from a b&k ref 50 to a maranz av 7500 and was not happy at all with the sound quality, I feel that todays mas market prepro's are built to a price point where as the older prepro's were built for sound quality, I sold the marantz and went back to the b&k I hook all my video sources directly to my tv and avoid all the hdmi 1.1,1.2,1.3,1.4 ,ect. issues, just my opinion, good luck

"Now, I'm purposely hyperbolizing, but I don't understand why, in theory, a processor with a better DAC would not sound as good as a processor with a lesser DAC. Is there something at play here that I'm missing. " Because there's more to it than the chip. There is the supporting circuitry and the implementation.

Kal, bingo, thanks. That's what I was missing in the equation. So that's where, I would assume, the Carey and Anthem would be justified in both their higher price tags and perhaps better supporting circuitry and implementation?

Seems to me that it's always the sum of the parts... a great set of converters in and of themselves won't make a piece sound great. It's the whole build - both the analog and digital stages, power supply, and even board layout that ultimately contribute to the sound. I think everyone's right about the number of both interior and exterior variables as well - it's really tedious to make sure you're doing accurate apples-to-apples listening comparisons, particularly if you're including any kind of DSP. For me it's been a matter of "trust your ears and take your time." At the end of the day, thank goodness for real audio dealers that will let you audition a piece in your home system so you have some kind of valid reference!

I bought the Marantz AV 7005 pre/pro a couple of months ago and have been pretty happy with it so far. It sounds good - very clean and quiet - and operates flawlessly. It's definitely no match for a comparably priced stereo preamp in terms of sound quality but given all of the I/O and audio/video signal processing built in, I think it's a fair value.

I did have to install a small exhaust fan in my rack, though, as it runs pretty warm. That's been the only concern so far, and successfully resolved. I can't speak to the Integra vs. the Marantz in terms of sound quality because I never had a chance to A/B them through the same system, but given the reliability issues with the Integra I think I made the right choice. Hope this helps.