New year, new system edition
>Helpful links
How to pick your speakers - digitaltrends.com
Where to place your speakers - arqen.com
Reviews - stereophile.com
Have a question? Include
>budget
>room size
>intended purpose e.g. music, movies, gaming, as well as the type e.g. rock or jazz, action movies or games with a lot of explosions
>country
>new or used?
>do you have any equipment? e.g. amp, speakers
Other urls found in this thread:
nadelectronics.com
nadelectronics.com
crutchfield.com
crutchfield.com
crutchfield.com
stereophile.com
monoprice.com
dl.dropboxusercontent.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.co.uk
monoprice.com
harbeth.co.uk
amazon.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
twitter.com
I want to get a new receiver, since mine is getting a bit old, but idk if I should get a dedicated 2.1 system, or spend a bit more/sacrifice audio quality and get a 7.1 system. I don't watch movies that often, but I might if I had a better sound system for it.
>budget
probably $500, give or take. i'm just trying to get a feel for the price first
>room size
13'x18'
>intended purpose e.g. music, movies, gaming
primarily music, but I'm considering surround sound, primarily in the future
>country
Canada
>new or used?
I'd prefer used, but once I know what to look for, I'm sure I can decide
>do you have any equipment? e.g. amp, speakers
yeah I have a ton of equipment already
i have a question, i own the behringer uac202 dac (pic related) and use it for my 2.0 speakers trough the rca outs, if i wanted to add a subwoofer should i use a rca splitter or would it be better to use a 3.5 to rca cable and use the headphone output to cennect the sub?
I'm looking for an integrated amplifier that can power speakers that have low impedance and also be used for 2.1 with a powered sub. The speaker's and the sub will be upgraded later down the line. I was actually thinking of making a servo sub later and upgrading to a pair of kef ls50s.
So far the amps I have narrowed it down to are a used parasound hint, a nuprime Ida 16 and a Peachtree nova 150 (I'm starting to not want this though based solely on the lack of reviews though).
I do need an integrated amplifier though due to space concerns.
>budget
$2,100
>Room size
15x20ft
>Intended usage
Music, games and movies in that order. Music is mostly made up of jazz, folk and classical and if I am in a bad mood industrial.
>Country
USA
>Condition
Doesn't matter but I have been looking at new stuff overall.
>Other kit
I have a turntable that I am not planning on using but I have a pair of kef q100s right now and a svs pb-1000.
>$2,100
gotta be honest, I've never owned an amp over $600, so my opinion is gonna be pretty shit, but at that price range, I'm gonna say that a preamp+poweramp is your best option. I'd guess that most amps in your price range (barring tube) can handle low impedance
I love NAD, and with $2100 you should easily be able to get a really nice preamp and poweramp. their looks aren't for everyone, but their performance is superb for their price
something like a M12 Preamp and M22 Poweramp would be pretty good
nadelectronics.com
nadelectronics.com
again, I have no experience with your price range, so this is the best I can do. I suggest you go to a dedicated audio forum, or maybe even Leddit
good luck bro
subwoofers use a single RCA input, so you'd probably need to get a Y splitter and have that go to your sub in addition to what you've said
I'm not sure if it'd be ideal, but I'm sure what you've suggested would work
>new speakers are too heavy for old stands
>stare at the speakers while waiting for the new stands to be shipped
>mfw
after researching the stuff posted (since it wasn't in the product page itself), I've learned that the poweramp alone is $3000, and the preamp is $3500
these are a bit closer to your price range (even then, together they're over though, so I'm sorry)
crutchfield.com
crutchfield.com
this one is $1600, which fits your budget nicely, with tax and whatnot
Well I have some space constraints to think of right now owning to school. Hence my wanting an all in one unit instead of separates. Truthfully because of the space issues in my apartment I haven't even looked at separates.
The upside is that I don't have a roommate to worry about while the downside is that my apartment is over all very small.
I would go to a dedicated audio forum but even if I tell them my budget is hard capped at $2,100 they will always say just a few percentage more added to your budget will solve your issues.
Ideally I would have a Hegel or a devialet but my budget is already nearly too high to justify.
I know that feel. I replaced my big bookshelf speakers with small tower speakers. however, the tower speakers were still only about 31" high, so for optimal height I need to lift them up a bit. I ended up using folding tv dinner trays. they worked, but they were ugly
since then I got proper tower speakers. no need for stands now!
do you have any chairs you don't need? surely a shitty stand is better than having your brand new shiny speakers locked in a box
did you see my reply to my comment? that last link is an integrated amp and comes in a bit under your budget. I always recommend NAD, since their shit is top notch and has great headroom. but I think people generally want a bit better appearance when they're spending that much. are there any dedicated audio stores nearby? that's the best advice I can give. go in, listen, and if you like it, buy it
I was looking at the NAD integrated amp you linked at the bottom there earlier actually and while it is certainly in my price range and it sounds fairly good I have never personally liked the look of NAD products and they sound strange to me. I guess there is no accounting for taste.
On a slightly random note, is 32bit music really all that better compared to 24bit?
There are some "near" where I live at an hour and a half away, which when you consider the amount of money I am looking to spend is a small price to pay to actually experience these things before I put money towards one.
The issue though with in store auditions is that the nearest store to me only carries Peachtree from the above list, but it's better than nothing.
At some point I guess I should just road trip around the state to listen to as much as I can.
24 bit is 145dB dynamic range, way more than any speaker, preamp, microphone or anything in the analog audio world could handle, so for audio reproduction it's incredibly oversized
the 100ish dB of 16 bit are already way more than enough to perfectly reproduce any recording, that's why it's the redbook cd standard
24bit is needed for (massive) headroom in recording purposes only and 32bit is used in conjunction with floating point processing for lazy fucks who can't be bothered to normalize (or some special DSP trickery where gain staging needs to be avoided) - also purely a thing on the recording side
>chairs
I was actually thinking about stacking some empty beer cases to put them on in the meantime, since chairs won't get these 36kilos the 1.1m up where I want them
>At some point I guess I should just road trip around the state to listen to as much as I can.
honestly, that's your best option, especially you're spending that much money (especially as a student. I'm a student myself and my whole setup, including amp,TT, and vinyl collection I got used and for under $500 total)
the Nova150 you originally listed, after doing some looking around, seems to fit your needs pretty well, and it looks nice as well. but yeah, reviews are tough to find. here's a review for the older model. I have no idea if "delivering a plum" is good or bad
stereophile.com
hey man, whatever works right? the speakers can't sound worse than they do right now
if i connect a subwoofer (psw10) using the speaker level inputs the can i use the amp to control the sub volume?
yes
So for normal plebs like myself who just want to listen to music and not make music it is uneeded is what the take home message is? If so that works well for me.
I guess when my Christmas break is over I will try to drive around and do that. Oh I already have a degree and money saved up, I'm just going back to school for a different subject because my old career choice is slightly less rosey than it seemed to me in the past.
The issue with the old reviews is that the company acknowledged that their old products were crap and that they wanted to try to make better ones with this new relaunch of their brand. So comparing them is hard to do and maybe not possible at all. Another mark against the nova 150 is that I have noticed more than a few go up for sale used on audiogon recently but during that same time none of the other two amps I listed despite both being older than the Peachtree (which is from this past March).
This is pretty much my first unassisted foray into the audio world and the answers you have given me have been very helpful, thank you.
thanks!
>Oh I already have a degree and money saved up
oh alright, that makes a bit more sense
yeah like I said, I'm not the most experienced when it comes to real hifi, but it's still my main hobby
the LS50s, though, are amazing. they need a good amp to really shine, but they're great. 15'x20' is a decent space, but honestly you probably won't need a sub unless you're watching explosions or whatever
I don't have any questions, but thanks for making these threads. It's nice to have general audio rather than just headphones.
thanks, I appreciate the appreciation :)
I was kinda worried everyone hates the threads, and that's why they're hard to keep going. as you can see, the thread has maybe 5 unique posters in the ~3 hours it's been up, but I hope it'll inspire more hi-fi
it's a dying hobby, which is odd, since everyone seems "love" music. people will spend $800 on a fucking iPhone every 2 years, but can't even spend $200 on speakers that would literally last them 20+ years
What about these?
I have micca mb42x speakers with the little lepai amp that i bought like 2 years ago. That was an insane upgrade for me at the time since i'd only ever rocked "computer speakers" before then. I'm wondering if i can push better quality out of these guys with a different amp or if it'd be worth it to upgrade from them entirely. any suggestions?
Sometimes I forget that when u say student people think I'm just out of highschool. I'm one of the younger ones in my program and I'm 28 myself, the oldest is 61.
My dad inspired me to get into this after he showed me a new HT he built using just Ls50s and two subs, I'm very jealous.
I'll probably end up with a sub because it needs to also do low ends in classical music and video game sounds well. I plan on hooking it up to my computer in my living room.
Have you ever built your own speaker stands? I was thinking of using 1/4in thick steel square tubing with a OD of 3in and having two per stand, one for sand and one for wires along with a base and a mount for the speaker in top.
>u
Thank you telephone for making me seem uncultured.
I've used the Lepai extensively, but never the Miccas. the Lepai is great, but its biggest drawback is its low output (I think some tests on it showed that clipping began at barely 7W/channel)
if you feel like you need more power, then yeah, I can suggest some amps/receivers. if you want a larger soundstage or deeper, richer sound, you'll need to get better speakers. the Miccas have a low sensitivity and a max of 75W, so I'm betting you're running into power issues, rather than sound issues. maybe look for a Topping or Dayton amp
Also lurking, I'm relatively new to audio (~2 years since I properly got into it), but I'm loving the fuck out of my speakers now that I finally got some proper ones.
>memepai
>low ends in classical music
>mfw I heard my favorite (organ-heavy) classical song for the first time with my new sub
You won't regret it.
sorry, went to eat. yeah I built my own stands, but they did not turn out well, lol. I'd post a picture, but I'd lose any credibility you gave me
those stands would be very heavy, and I don't know how ideal hollow metal would be as far as reflections go, but I guess if you fill them with sand, and maybe rubber coat (no idea if this would even help), it'd work decently
all my speakers have been 2 way, but after hearing the LS50s not too long ago, I want my next pair to have that tweeter-inside-woofer design. it just seems so cool and unique. it's amazing what good speakers can do. I bought a fairly good amp a few years ago, and it's always been better than my speakers, but the new pair of speakers I got I think are starting to outpace the amp (the amp isn't good enough anymore), so I'd be worried about that happening with any highend speaker
mind posting a song? I'd love to hear that
Please help /AG/, you're my only hope
i mean i just use them for normal volume bedroom sized listening. I think the audio quality is fine for that purpose, but wondered if the quality of the sound might be better with a different type of amp. There's nothing really wrong with how they're operating right now but desu the lepai looks ugly as fuck on my desk.
I'm really looking forward to it. As I have grown older I have come to appreciate classical music more and more.
Pretty much the plan would be to have the base and the top be fairly thick pieces of metal and have the main support pillar be the larger of the two to hold the sand or mix of sand and shot. The second tube would be smaller in overall size and used just to run the wires through as cable management. I was going to put some blue tack on the top to help decouple the speakers and also drill and tap the bottom for carpet spikes.
I got the idea from Etsy so I'm not really sure how well it would work from a sonic perspective but it is something I am capable of doing myself.
dl.dropboxusercontent.com
Zarathustra starts with a very low tone (on YT people complain about 20 seconds of silence, lol), ends with glorious organ blast.
The other is my favorite classical piece, lots of organ work, I feel like it tells a story about love and war (listened to it while on lsd a few times, an incredible experience too).
Please, let me know what you think of it, and do share your favorite(s) or if you know any similar!
>if the quality of the sound might be better with a different type of amp
yeah, it definitely would sound better with a better amp, but honestly the difference PROBABLY isn't worth the money. like I said before, Topping and Dayton both make similar form factor amps, but that output a true 20W/channel and look nice. I can't load google, for some reason, but yeah, look up Topping. they're very nice but expensive compared to the Lepai
yeah I can picture your design pretty well, seems like a relatively common (read: tried and true) design
if you ever end up doing it, I'd love to see how it turns out. hopefully /AG/ will be a thing by then
I'm a bit confused. so you want to have 3 inputs, mix the pc and laptop, then output the laptop+pc as one, and then your mic as another. is there a reason you can't just mix the laptop and pc together, then have your mic to straight to your line in? maybe I'm confused
I'll give it a listen, thanks!
>is there a reason you can't just mix the laptop and pc together, then have your mic to straight to your line in? maybe I'm confused
You're right, I could do that. But only if the mic uses 3,5mm. I intend on buying a XLR mic soon so I would either need another interface/amp for that or just buy a device that can do everything I outlined.
post pictures when you get them set up
Well I have it all sketched out, the steel priced and the drills and taps already. All I need to do is machine some spikes and get a friend to weld it all together after vacation is done. The price of the steel is about 110, maybe a little less and the cost of the rest is low enough to not bother thinking about. I was also thinking of making a knock off salamander designs audio rack with all thread but in having a hard time finding good wood for that.
I wonder if this will download to my phone.
What made you choose these over the competition like 8260 APM?
>budget
200$
>room size
7x4 meters
>country
Sweden
>new or used?
New
>do you have any equipment e.g. amp, speakers
If needed I could use my o2 to power speakers.
Also
>intended purpose
Listen to a lot of jazz and rock. No gaming.
you can get an XLR-to-3.5mm and some phantom power. I understand a bit better now: you don't need to have everything going into one unit, but you want it for simplicity. I was just confused why you'd have the mic going through the mixer if you weren't doing anything to it
do you have access to any machining equipment, or are you just gonna get the steel cut when you buy it? I used to work in a CNC shop, and I kick myself pretty often for not using the machines for personal projects (I talked to my supervisor, who's the owner's nephew, and he said you can use the machines for small personal things, as long as you pay for the material and tooling). obviously there's not much machining required to endface some steel tube, but for things like the base and the platform, it'd allow you to get pretty creative
I think it'd be pretty cool to make a salamander-type stand, except with handles on the threads, almost like a standing desk design, so you can adjust the heights easily
I'm glad people are posting, but there's so many euros and I have no clue what sites they buy off of. I'm gonna go with UK amazon (if not, I'm sure the german one has the same shit)
these look pretty solid, and for the price you can't really beat them ($160 USD ish)
amazon.co.uk
these too are similar, but I believe they're a bit more than your budget
amazon.co.uk
Thanks for the recommendations, definitely liking the look of the second pair you linked, willing to stretch my budget just for the looks to be honest.
However, is there a way i could compare the different speakers you linked objectively, something like a headphone frequency response, but for speakers? Or are reviews the only way?
I am in school learning to be a gunsmith so I only have access to manual machines but I have a friend who works in a CNC shop. What do you think one could do with the base and the top? All I can really think of is neat engraving.
The audio rack, assuming I just do a salamander clone, should be fairly adjustable when not loaded down with gear. I'm just struggling to find walnut for it.
yeah definitely. headphones are just small speakers. speakers have frequency response, sensitivity, etc. you might have to search the manfuacturer's website for detailed info, since Amazon can be pretty sloppy about it. I don't think there's a site that can compare them for you, but you can definitely do it yourself
honestly, I can't think of anything too neat off the top of my head. maybe a neat shape with an intricate chamfer or fuller around it?
I googled "cool speaker stands" and found pic related. fuck those are so cool. I might get Pinterest just to see these stands
Those stands look amazing but the stock alone is probably very expensive much less how many hours you put into it.
Yeah I really don't know what I could do with them either, aside from practice engraving on them. I may just make them black and leave it at that.
I'd love to try and make stands again, but I have towers so, so there's really no point (unless I make risers, but again, no point)
have you considered making the speakers height adjustable? I'm not sure how easy it'd be, but like I mentioned for the salamander stand, you could use worm gear and maybe have the stands range from 24" to maybe 36"
No, I honestly haven't considered that as I lack the time to do that on the machines. It would be cool though.
I'm gonna load up solidworks and see if I can find any of my designs
I compared lots of different midfields over the last 2ish years and I actually like the 8260 a lot, also considered the 8351 because the new glm is really neat. The other 'final' competitors were geithain 901k I worked with a lot and PMC ib1a
but then I got a really good deal on the neumanns and since I own and like the 120s already and they're really well matched throughout the range in terms of future surround setups and whatnot it was the most logical thing to go with
hard as fuck decision, though. This price range is packed with amazing speakers
Neat, what sort of things did you have designed?
not very much if I'm being honest. i've done some designs for my university classes (4th year, mech. eng), but not as much as I would've thought I'd have done. the only files I can find are a gear reducer I made, but not much else
I tried looking through my files and can't find any speaker designs, but to be fair, most of the designs I had were fairly simple, as I was planning on making them myself
>amp has a hiss
fuck. oh well, I'm off to university soon (I have my home setup and my university setup: my home one is the better one), so I won't bother fixing the amp now, but I guess I gotta start thinking about either fixing it or replacing it
With that Accuphase rig those stands must be stupid expensive. Cool though.
...
Anyone listened to these eye openers? Made hifi up to $3k kinda dead to me.
Don't see anything they would do that their best competition, especially if you consider prices up to 3k a pair, wouldn't.
the pic is from some Polish site that sells high-end stands. I believe the ones I posted were around 2000 euros for a pair
I've never personally heard the LSi line, but according to Crutchfield, they're very good and very expensive (a single m705 is $1500 on Crutchfield)
>Made hifi up to $3k kinda dead to me.
what do he mean by this? aren't they $300 each? or are they really better than $3k+ speakers? I find it hard to believe they're better than LS50s
Beating the LS50 in on axis response and directivity isn't exactly an achievement. I won't say anything how LS50 compares to those as I don't know how the Tannoys perform and some user's listening impressions of them are as good as nothing but you can find designs that retail for much less and perform better than LS50.
well, my point was that $3k is a pretty high pricepoint, and I don't believe that those $600/pair speakers are THAT good that he could confidently say that anything $3k or less is worse
Well I like Revel f208s more
that's fair, I've never heard them so I'm not sure how good they are
how big is your room?
That I agree with and commented on it
3.5x5m
Admittedly, I've never heard any KEFs. When I checked out the Tannoys (along with plenty other monitors) I thought that a pair Focal Chorus 807Vs and a NAD amp that I got for a friend (amazing imaging on those focals) would be my main comparison. That's an ~1500USD setup. I'll admit the Focals image a bit better, but that's about it. Soundstage, bass, even the mids that I loved on the Focals, the highs, dynamics, Tannoy owns. In my opinion.
Checked out plenty hifi in my life, pro audio is where it's at. Really made me understand that everything about speakers that isn't their sound or how they're setup is marketing wank.
The Revels are holy shit for their, what, 5.5-6k price tag? These would be holy shit even if they cost twice, maybe even thrice their price. For the first time in my life I've heard "bookshelf" speakers that legitimately sound like floorstanders.
Hate B&W, 600 series, CM series, 800 series, just not my kind of sound. On the other hand, I loved the Dali Ikon 7 mk2s.
I mean, I planned to get a Denon pma720ae with a pair of Klipsch rp280f speakers, the Tannoys definitely changed that.
Is any of the [PLEBSPOTTERS] still around?
Any of the hornloaded posters?
those autists are what influenced me to research audio more, but I think they all left
threw something together just to set them up, can't fit them vertically like I intended though, so they're a bit ridiculously high
selling my subwoofer right now
just googled the speakers. are they really $10k/pair? jesus fuck
yeah, I got a deal I couldn't refuse
well, how do they sound? how's the bass?
>Monitors blocking speakers
why
I am listening to JVC SP-UXT55 loudspeakers, driven by a pam8403.
Not music: spoken word.
harbeth.co.uk
because the stands are still on their way
I need to adjust my room a little and their parametric eq will have to do some work, but overall yeah adam sub10 is for sale, these -3dB at 26Hz are real
high end monitors are expensive. at least this is hifi and not some boutique "high end" with dinosaur tech in fancy looking cabinets.
Sad to hear. I still miss the old audio generals.
>that """curve"""
mirin hard
do you only use them for computer listening? for me, I like having a larger listening space, and having the speakers ~4 ft apart seems like it'd be a bit overwhelming
it will be a bit cramped like that for a couple of months until I can set up a real workspace with the appropriate room size but these days I'm doing a lot of editing and preparation for tracking and mixing sessions at home already and proper speakers wouldn't hurt I figured
sound panels, how big of a difference can they make for a layperson? I'm into audio, but I'm not that uhh well learned? either way, I'd like to improve my acoustics, since I feel it's the next logical step (I finally got good speakers for my setup), but I don't know if they're worth it. can you DIY them? or bass traps?
also I know I can google it, but I wanna bump the thread too
budget
1000$
>room
5mx6m
>music
>canada
>either
>nothing yet, looking into that lepai amp from the sticky because its cheap
Build all the treatment your room needs yourself, rockwool and wood is cheap and there's lots of smart DIY tutorials on the web
someone post painful headphones gif/webm
so between my post and what I'm writing now, I did some research and found DIY guides. apparently bass traps should be the first thing you do? but how do you DIY those? I understand the panels tho
im gonna look into it either way, it seems easy enough
>$1000 budget
>looking at $30 chink amp
I'd suggest getting the lepai and these
amazon.ca
the sound quality won't be amazing, and the Lepai might struggle to fill your room at high volumes, but it'll cost $100 total and it'll whet your audio appetite. $1000 is a pretty decent budget, especially if you can buy used, but there's no point if you're not really sure if you even want hi-fi
what's your local Kijiji? I can try and find a nice speaker+amp setup for you
Hey guys, I have a set of HD-650s and love them to death. I've had them for 7 year for 7 years now but never got around to buying an amp for it.
What is a good (not best or super expensive) DAC/Amp for the 650s?
Any help would be great.
I have a question, I have a USB DAC connected to a pair of craptastic Z333 2.1 speakers.
Should I have the Windows volume set at 100% and then control the volume using the little dial on the speaker pod, or should I set the speaker pod to, say, 50% and then manage the volume in Windows?
looking to get the AKG K553s from massdrop, can anyone recommend a good DAC/AMP for me to use with it? budget is around 200 for DAC/AMP
did /HPG/ die or something? if not, I'm sure they know a lot more about headphone dacs/amps than we do, or at least myself
it's fine to have your Windows volume at max, since it's just a digital output. but avoid having your speakers at full, as you'll get clipping
I usually run my amp at around 30%, and then control volume with Windows, just so I never run into clipping issues
Are "MP3 players" outdated? Even new ones that play lossless formats and whatever else?
It seems like a nice thing to have, but is it a silly idea to buy one now when smartphones exist?
Might get something cheap like you suggested but ill go through kijiji incase I can find some good deals.
Im looking through the Toronto-Oshawa area
>Toronto-Oshawa area
damn, I'm actually selling a bunch of audio equipment since I'm trying to liquidate my surplus equipment so I can upgrade, but I'm in Oakville (plus I don't really want to give my info out on Sup Forums anyway)
I'll have a look for you
I guess it depends, most phones don't have SD slots, but if you have one, you can throw in a high capacity card and have a lot of music. there's also the option of Spotify and other similar services, but those, in my opinion, are stupid (unless you have unlimited spotify as part of your phone plan)
if you want FLAC quality music and you don't want to use data for it, then yeah, maybe a really high capacity mp3 player is worthwhile, but yeah, they've been replaced by smartphones
general question: what exactly is a "near field" monitor, and how is it different to regular speakers? will I be able to fill a small sized room with them, as with regular shelf speakers, or do I need to be close to them? i keep seeing those active speakers in desktop threads and I'm curious
>what exactly is a "near field" monitor
it's a speaker designed for closer listening. generally, they have smaller drivers which react a lot faster, and thus are more "accurate". they're better for sound mixing because they have less reflections (since there's a smaller distance between you and them), but they can be worse, as they can show the flaws in the music you're listening to
you don't need to be close to them, but if you want to fill a room, you'll be better off with mid-field/normal bookshelves
thank you. I'm actually considering them for the opposite reason, since I don't want to piss the neighbors off but want good quality. the lsr305 seem like an amazing deal for the price
speakers
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
amps
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
kijiji.ca
everything I posted is fairly big, so let me know if you want smaller. the Paradigm Atoms are smaller, but might lack bass. also theyre all in Toronto, but there's some stuff in Oshawa, just not a ton
they're good speakers, and should work well for you if you're in a small space
With each motherboard manufacturer having their own vague audio system branding, how do I know what's what without looking each individual one up?
I don't suppose one of you anons have a handy-dandy resource for telling each of the major ones apart?
they're all pretty much the same I'd wager. anyone who cares about audio enough to care about what their motherboard is outputting would just get a dedicated soundcard
but no sorry, I don't think there's a resource for that
thanks. Are those older amps better and more powerful than that small lepai?
yeah definitely. they also have more inputs and balance and tonal controls, which can be handy (lepai has tone, but no balance)